Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Why would one of poetry’s most revered voices want to curate a jazz saxophonist’s album of gospel hymns and spirituals? “These songs are so important,” says Nikki Giovanni, one of Oprah Winfrey’s 25 Living Legends and a Maya Angelou Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2017. “They comforted people through the time of slavery, and during recent years we needed them to comfort us again.” Giovanni’s historic collaboration with saxophonist-composer and former Jazz Messenger Javon Jackson has yielded “The Gospel According to Nikki Giovanni.” Jackson brings his bold-toned, Trane-inspired tenor lines to bear on a series of hymns, spirituals and gospel numbers hand-picked by Ms. Giovanni.

     The Seattle-based soul-jazz groove machine Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio started from humble beginnings in 2015, founded by Lamarr’s wife and manager. It has since released two Billboard-charting albums and toured the world to sold out venues. Lamarr is a self-taught virtuosic musician who taught himself jazz and has effortlessly been able to play a multitude of instruments. Guitarist Jimmy James eases through Steve Cropper-style chanking guitar, volcanic acid-rock freak-out lead playing, and slinky Grant Green-style jazz. Their latest record, “Cold as Weiss,” is the first to feature new drummer Dan Weiss, also of the powerhouse soul and funk collective The Sextones.

 Also this week, pianist and composer Ethan Iverson makes his Blue Note Records debut, “Every Note is True,” with a masterful new trio with bassist Larry Grenadier and legendary drummer Jack DeJohnette;

pianist Michael Weiss, a valued member of New York’s jazz community since the 1980s, presents his fifth recording as a leader, “Persistence,” featuring sax great Eric Alexander;

    and “Overtones” is a new disc from guitarist Doug MacDonald and the L.A. All-Star Octet, which includes drummer Roy McCurdy, bassist Chuck Berghofer, pianist Bill Cunliffe, and saxophonists Ricky Woodard and Kim Richmond.

        Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Artists around the world responded to the forced isolation brought about by the 2020 pandemic in various ways. In Brazil, superstars such as Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil shared concerts from their homes, performing their hit songs for their fans. Among those fans were Anat Cohen and Marcello Goncalves, quarantined in Rio. As Marcello puts it: “I’ve been dreaming of Anat singing those words through her clarinet, imagining how her unique way of interpreting melodies would powerfully convey the message of the lyrics to anyone familiar with them, even when played instrumentally.” On their second album together, “Reconvexo,” the Brazilian 7-string guitarist and the New York-based clarinetist turn their attention to the deep well of music from the popular Brazilian songbook.

     It’s been 30 years since singer and songwriter Curtis Stigers released his eponymous debut album, which took the charts by storm and generated several international hits. “I don’t tend to look back much, musically speaking,” Stigers states. ”However, this time I set out to record songs from my previous 12 studio albums in a different way then I recorded them originally.” For “This Life,” a seasoned Stigers revisits these earlier successes and a couple of later ones, putting a distinctive jazz spin on them.

Also this week, Matt Gordy, who has become one the first-call jazz drummers in Los Angeles during a successful 40-year career, releases his second album as a leader, “Be With Me,” with his Jazz Tonite Sextet;

Atlanta native Joe Alterman is featured with his trio from two live shows recorded at Birdland on “The Upside of Down”;

     and award winning Brazilian guitarist and composer Sergio Pereira unveils his third release as a leader, “Finesse.”