Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify

With his career at the highest levels of the music industry spanning a half-century, Grammy nominated composer/arranger John La Barbera doesn’t have much left to prove. Thanks to his early career in helping to define the sounds of the Buddy Rich Band, Woody Herman, Bill Watrous, and so many others, La Barbera’s works have become jazz big band standards. For his new album, “Grooveyard,” he gathered a band of equals in New York City and spent some time recording his latest and best hard swinging arrangements. Along with his equally storied brothers Pat on saxophone and Joe on drums, he was joined by jazz royalty including Steve Wilson, Renee Rosnes, Clay Jenkins, and the legendary bassist Rufus Reid.

Award-winning bassist, composer, and bandleader Rubim de Toledo continues to expand his fertile catalogue of music with the exciting new release, “The Drip.” De Toledo has secured a position as one of Western Canada’s most celebrated musical artists. He has shared the stage with a long list of international stars, including the likes of Mulgrew Miller, Dick Oatts, Wycliffe Gordon, Bob Mintzer, Terell Stafford, and Peter Bernstein. On his new record, his seventh in all, the Brazilian-Canadian musician delves deeper into his tropical roots, exploring sounds from Brazil, Cuba, the Caribbean, as well as Afrobeat, funk and jazz.

Also this week, keyboardist Chris Hazelton takes organ music back to its traditional “After Dark” setting alongside a quintet of Kansas City’s finest; Mexican-born, Detroit-based percussionist Alberto Nacif offers up latest disc from his band Aguanko, “Unidad”; and guitarist and producer Juan Carlos Quintero blends contemporary jazz with the musical styles of his native Colombia on “Desserts.”

                    

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify

For his first larger ensemble recording, New York vibraphonist Ted Piltzecker made a trip to Denver and rekindled relationships developed years ago during his tenure as director of the Aspen Music Festival. Originally a trumpet player, Piltzecker continually seeks the organic connection between breath and musical expression as it relates to the vibraphone. “Vibes on a Breath” allows him to phrase with the septet’s horn players, Brad Goode, Paul McKee John Gunther and Wil Swindler, and to provide counterpoint as the only harmonic instrument in the rhythm section with drummer Paul Romaine and bassist Gonzalo Teppa. The eight reimagined  jazz classics, along with three originals, unveil new twists and turns to a classic sound.

Grammy Award-winning vocalist Luciana Souza has been a fan of the outstanding, Grammy-winning Sao Paulo-based group Trio Corrente since their inception. She had initially met the trio’s drummer, Edu Ribeiro, while teaching but was reintroduced while they recorded an album with trumpeter Till Bronner. Pianist Fabio Torres was also on that date and was well known as a member of guitarist Chico Pinheiro’s different ensembles, while Paulo Paulelli was familiar for his work with the great Rosa Passos. It was Torres who invited Luciana to her native Brazil to collaborate and tour together last Fall. It struck her immediately that they should make a recording the unites their collective love of Brazil’s uplifting music and jazz. “Cometa” is the resulting album.

Also this week, Japanese pop singer-songwriter turned jazz pianist Senri Oe revisits his superstar past on his joyous new piano trio album, “Class of ‘88”; drummer, composer and bandleader Johnathan Blake and his band Pentad dedicate his new disc, “Passages,” to the memory of his father, the late jazz violinist John Blake, Jr.; and Huntertones, who wowed the crowd at this summer’s Iowa City Jazz Festival, drop their new disc, “Engine Co.”