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The chromatic harmonica may look like a simple toy or a novelty but it is actually one of the most difficult of all instruments to play. Stating a bebop melody with the ease of a saxophonist has only been achieved by a small handful of jazz harmonica players, most notably Toot Thielemans and Hendrik Meurkens. For his new project, “The Jazz Meurkengers,” Meurkens decided that a new swinging jazz album was long overdue. He contacted pianist Steve Ash, bassist Chris Berger and drummer Andy Watson to help him deliver the hard-bop groove of Wynton Kelly, Jimmy Cobb and Wes Montgomery. The album features four standards, five Meurkens originals, and special guests Ed Cherry and Nick Hempton.

Veteran reedman Ken Peplowski’s new album “Unheard Bird” is a collection of arrangements that Charlie Parker commissioned for strings but never got a chance to record. Parker did record one disc with strings in his career and expressed a desire to work more in the genre, but the economics of traveling with anything besides a quintet were prohibitive. Mr. Peplowski hopes the new recording serves as a ‘what if’ regarding the short-lived yet prolific career of one of the undisputed geniuses of modern music.

Also this week, Grammy Award-winning bassist Mark Egan teams up with the all-star rhythm section of Shawn Pelton on drums and Shane Theriot on guitars on “Cross Currents,” a powerful and elegant musical tapestry bridging contemporary jazz and R&B; pianist and composer Greg Murphy unveils his seventh release as a leader, “You Remind Me”; and guitarist and composer Albare offers up the fifteenth album of his recording career, “Beyond Belief.”