Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify     
As fans of Ranky Tanky well know, drummer-producer-composer Quentin Baxter thrives on having one foot in tradition and the other in the future. The Grammy-winning ensemble, which he co-founded in South Carolina in 2016, takes an exuberant approach to Gullah, the music created by descendants of the South Carolina Low Country’s storied enslaved African community. On “Art Moves Jazz,” Baxter’s long-awaited first recording under his own name, he applies Gullah rhythms to jazz classics, two by Thelonious Monk and three by the great Jimmy Heath. And on the four-part title suite, his improvisations, as suggested by the title, were inspired by visual art—specifically the abstract landscapes of local artist John Duckworth.

     Veteran drummer Mike Clark and stalwart bassist Leon Lee Dorsey continue their fruitful collaboration with the release of “Blues on Top.” It’s their fifth recording together, with each collaboration finding the superb rhythm section augmented by a star third guest. Past guests included Manual Valera, Harold Mabern, Michael Wolff and Greg Skaff. This time around they’re in the company of renowned pianist, Mike LeDonne, who is a leader in his own right and has been a first-call sideman for jazz icons such as Milt Jackson and Benny Golson. The new recording marks the first time the three musicians have ever played together.

 Also this week, trombonist Michael Dease gathers together an assemblage of exceptional musicians to help him interactively explore the essence of the blues and reframe the abstract truths of jazz with “Best Next Thing”;

The Jazz Professors from the University of Central Florida offer up their fourth album, “Blues and Cubes,” which marks drummer Marty Morell’s final recording with the group as he retires from his teaching position;

    and North Carolina-born pianist Thomas Linger is joined by an all-star cast on his debut disc, “Out In It.”

      Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
“Between Dreaming and Joy” is the latest release from saxophonist and composer Jeff Coffin, a culmination of over two years in the studio. Calling upon its enigmatic, pandemic-induced origins, the collection gathers unusual new sounds for the reedman by a diverse, all-star group of musicians for his 21^st release as a leader. The record is sustained by a variety of instrumentation including 8 bassists, 6 drummers, 5 guitar players, 4 keyboardists, a set of Middle Eastern frame drums, Brazilian percussion, Moroccan vocals, a turntable artist, multiple horns, an ice cream truck, a Hungarian tarogato and an African ngoni. 

     “Playdate” is the 23^rd album as a leader by renowned pianist, composer and arranger Geoffrey Keezer. He upholds his old friend Christian McBride’s observation that “he never repeats himself” as the Grammy-nominated musician continues to augment and refine his distinctive style. The album’s lighthearted namesake is an homage to the concept of planning a playdate for a group of kids. Rallying a group of distinguished collaborators, Keezer calls this virtuosic cast ‘Geoffrey Keezer and Friends,’ displaying an idiomatic mastery of funk, hard bop, gospel, heavenly strings and the blues.

Also this week, drummer Billy Drummond, who has been leading various aggregations of his Freedom of Ideas ensemble for well over a decade, takes the opportunity to document this vision on “Valse Sinistre”;

 the WJ3 All Stars, featuring Jeremy Pelt, Wayne Escoffery, Steve Davis and Willie Jones III, unveil their sophomore release, “My Ship”;

     and Joy Lapps pays tribute to the many women who have helped facilitate her mastery of the steelpan and supported her success in the steel band movement with “Girl in the Yard.”