Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.     

Singer-songwriter Rachael Price and composer, singer, and guitarist Vilray first met in 2003 as students at the New England Conservatory of Music. Vilray formed a couple of bands with Price’s soon-to-be bandmates in Lake Street Dive. Even then, Price remembers, he had a nimble mind and quick wit when it came to lyrics. It was more than a decade later that the two began to collaborate. She had been on the road much of each year with Lake Street Dive and he had been developing his own solo act, just voice and guitar. She caught a show he was doing at a club in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, and was swept up in the ‘30s and ‘40s style jazz he was playing. They began performing together in 2015, and now unveil their debut release together, “Rachael & Vilray.”

     “Brecker Plays Rovatti: Sacred Bond” came to fruition emanating from the marriage of two musicians who not only have been sharing the stage for the last decade, but also share their personal lives and a daughter. Legendary trumpeter Randy Brecker co-leads with saxophonist and composer/arranger Ada Rovatti featuring compositions and arrangement by Ada herself. The pair’s playing and interpretation almost incur a sixth sense due to their closeness and compatibility, delivering a fresh, unconventional and unique sound, harmonically and rhythmically challenging but still very approachable. The organic collection of compositions range from straight-ahead jazz to contemporary sounds and Brazilian beats.

Trombonist Michael Dease has put together an all-star band featuring Lewis Nash, Steve Wilson and Renee Rosnes for “Never More Here”.

Also this week, Eastern Iowa’s own James Dreier and Ritmocano deliver their second recording, “Iowa Friends Cuban Music”.

and drummer and composer Jerome Jennings addresses concerns about political and social justice on his second release, “Solidarity.”