Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
“Words From My Horn” is the debut album by trumpeter and composer Anthony Hervey, who was recently chosen as one of Grammy.com’s 10 Emerging Jazz Artists to Know in 2023. He’s been a first-call sideman for luminaries such as Christian McBride, Wynton Marsalis, Jon Batiste and Michael Buble. Thematically, the album meditates on the impact Hervey’s mother and grandmother had on his upbringing, his birthplace of Terre Haute, Indiana, and the concept that hope can prevail in the face of harsh realities.

Cecile McLorin Salvant’s new album, “Melusine,” features a mix of five originals and interpretations of nine songs, dating back as far as the twelfth century, mostly sung in French along with Occitan, English, and Haitian Kreyol. The songs tell the story of the European folkloric legend of Melusine, who turns into half-snake each Saturday as a result of a childhood curse by her mother.

Also this week, pianist-composer Richard X. Bennett and saxophonist Matt Parker unite their diverse musical visions to create the exhilarating “Parker Plays X,” a collection of Bennett’s jazz compositions written with Parker in mind;

 pianist Jeb Patton, whose deep understanding of the jazz tradition has earned him frequent company in the bands of Jimmy Heath and Charles McPherson, presents a fine recording of his original “Preludes”;

and the young saxophonist Tim Lin unveils his second release as a leader, “Empathy.”