Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify 
Toronto has been known as a great jazz city for decades. When jazz fans all over the world hear bands like Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, they instantly recognize the swinging arrangements and immaculate playing as being emblematic of the Toronto sound. With “The Toronto Project,” The Composers Collective Big Band has put together its most ambitious project yet, commissioning Toronto’s top jazz composers to write about the neighborhoods and aspects of their city that inspire them the most. The 18-piece jazz ensemble, led by trombonist and composer Christian Overton, formed in 2005 to presents new works for large jazz ensemble by Canadian composers.

     “Live” is the newest release from the Towner Galaher Organ Trio. It was recorded during the Covid lockdown at a restaurant in Connecticut during a private event with a small number of family and friends. The organ trio has become a sub-genre of the jazz over the years, with a swingin’ funky, greasy, bluesy sound. This new disc serves as an homage to the great organ trios that were especially popular in the 1950s and ‘60s. The drummer is joined by Lonnie Gasperini on the Hammond B3 organ and Marvin Horne on guitar on a program of originals and some organ trio classics.

Also this week, Mike Melito celebrates 40 years as a professional drummer with his eighth self-released album, “To Swing is the Thing”;

 saxophonist Roy McGrath explores the folkloric rhythms bomba and plena of his native Puerto Rico on his latest disc, “Menjunje”;

     and pianist Chris Keefe enlisted bassist Harvie S and drummer Adam Nussbaum to join in on his debut release, “Opening.”  

    Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
For those unfamiliar with the title of the gorgeous new album from Buster Williams, “Unalome, or the lotus flower-topped symbol that graces its cover, is a Buddhist symbol representing individual transcendence and the path to enlightenment over the course of one’s life. The legendary bassist, a long-practicing Buddhist himself, celebrates 80 years (and counting) along a path to musical enlightenment, which has included work with Art Blakey, Chick Corea, Dexter Gordon, Count Basie and countless others. The stunning new disc features vocalist Jean Baylor, saxophonist Bruce Williams, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, pianist George Colligan, and drummer Lenny White.

     Pianist Elio Villafranca’s newest musical project, “Standing by the Crossroads,” focuses on the substantial role Congolese music and rituals have played in the development of Cuban music as well as figures in the vast diversity of spiritual practices on the island. For Elio, the “crossroads” not only represent four styles of music—Classical, Afro-Caribbean, modern Jazz and modern Latin—which he works in. “The Crossroads,” he writes, “ are a collection of moments in my life, captured in short stories or mosaics, depicting challenges I faced growing up in Cuba, and later as an immigrant in the United States.”

Also his week, percussionist Chembo Corniel has cooked up a colorful musical stew of explosive polyrhythms, inventive jazz solos and exciting ensembles for his latest release, “Artistas, Musicos y Poetas”;

perennial Downbeat Critic’s Poll winner trombonist Michael Dease teams with formidable composer Gregg Hill on “The Other Shoe: the Music of Gregg Hill”;

     and saxophonist and composer Walter Smith III enters a new era of his band-leading career with his Blue Note Records debut album, “Return to Casual,” featuring pianist Taylor Eigsti, guitarist Matt Stevens, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Kendrick Scott.