Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
 The dynamic young saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin presents “Pursuance: The Coltranes,” paying homage to two of the greatest musical innovators of the 20^th century, John and Alice Coltrane. Under the tutelage of jazz luminary and co-producer Reggie Workman, whose supple bass lines underscored countless of the Coltranes’ recordings, Benjamin assembled an astonishing cross-generational ensemble of over 40 jazz heavyweights for the project including Ron Carter, Gary Bartz, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Regina Carter, Jazzmeia Horn, Marc Cary, Steve Wilson, Keyon Harold and Marcus Gilmore.

 “Joy” documents the inspired collaborations saxophonist and composer Benjamin Boone experienced while living in Ghana for a year as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. He performed frequently with the Accra-based Ghana Jazz Collective, and the disc was recorded in his final week in country. Bathed in joy, exuberance and dance, the band tackles four Boone originals along with tunes by Herbie Hancock, Gerry Niewood, and Ethopia-based saxophonist Jonovan Cooper.

Also this week, saxophonist, composer and Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Northern Iowa Chris Merz offers up the second release of Christopher’s Very Happy Band, “While We Wait”;

the charismatic tenor saxophonist and composer Jan Harbeck, long a presence on the Denmark jazz scene, gathers his steady band of many years for “The Sound of Rhythm”;

 and singer Kandace Springs, who was mentored by Prince, pays tribute to the female vocalists who most impacted her music, stylings and journey with “The Women Who Raised Me.