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Now entering its third decade as an ensemble, Hagiga’s founder, saxophonist Alon Ferber looked to Eddie Harris’s “Freedom Jazz Dance” as inspiration and a theme for their fourth recording, “Reflecting on Freedom.”  With an exciting three horn frontline—reminiscent of some Dave Douglas or Booker Little ensembles—they draw liberally from swing, Moroccan, funk and Brazilian music in creating their wide-ranging, highly personal sound. Farber’s bold compositions reflect his years at the forefront of Israel’s jazz scene, including co-founding the Israeli Jazz Orchestra and receiving the Prime Minister’s Award for Jazz Composers.

     2020 was a year in which dark clouds gathered early and threatened never to dispel. Silver linings were hard to come by but Hiromi was determined to find one. She found it onstage at the Blue Note Tokyo, which she helped bring back to life after it was silenced by the pandemic. Dreaming of a quintet with piano and strings, she composed “Silver Lining Suite,” pairing Hiromi’s virtuosic and emotive piano with a string quartet assembled by violinist Tatsuo Nishie, concertmaster of the New Japan Philharmonic. The results blur the lines between classical music and jazz, crafting a vibrant hybrid possessed of the fervent, rock-inspired energy and cinematic beauty that Hiromi has always instilled in her music.  

 Also this week, drummer Nate Smith unveils “Kinfolk 2: See the Birds,” the highly anticipated follow up to his 2017 Grammy nominee “Kinfolk”;

after 20 years of paying dues as a regional musician in multiple locations around the U.S., guitarist Lee Heerspink releases his debut album, “Monsters’ Impromptu”;

and the Toronto-based, New Orleans-inspired brass institution The Heavyweights Brass Band offers up its four album, “Stir Crazy.”