Hey, Jazz fans!!!

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

The reversal of the flow of the Chicago River is one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, and greatly improved the city of Chicago’s sanitation and public health while also having less positive consequences on the natural environment and cultural landscape for other parts of the region. It’s the inspiration for trumpeter Orbert Davis’ “The Chicago River,” a five-movement suite, written for his Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, which Davis considers quintessential ‘Third Stream,’ the blending of classical and jazz. Davis was captured by the notion that the river’s geography didn’t change, but everything around it did. “When you look at the river, you see the water and the river itself, but even more so, l we see the reflections in the river that change over time,” Davis says. “I make musical connections to the aspect of reflecting.”

     Saxophonist Jeff Coffin’s latest release, “Music in Our Dreams,” with his new band Dream Shanti, is a collaboration between some of the finest musicians to hail from the eastern and western hemispheres. The innovative compositions flow freely between the Indian classical and jazz traditions in a way that honors the richness of both while creating a unique sound of its own. The confluence of these two traditions is expertly delivered by Coffin on reeds, Subrata Bhattacharya on tabla, Indrajit Banerjee on sitar, fellow Dave Matthews Band-mates Carter Beauford and Stefan Lessard on drums and bass and percussionist Roy “Futureman” Wooten of Bela Fleck’s Flecktones.

Also this week, saxophonist and arranger Michael O’Neill and Grammy Award-winning vocalist Tony Lindsay give a fresh new vibe to great American standards on “Pacific Standard Time”;

Puerto Rican marimba ace Juan Alamo offers up “Ruta Panoramica,” his fourth release and his first in the category of Latin jazz;

Trombonist and composer Paul Lichty, a product of the University of Northern Iowa jazz program who will be featured for First Friday Jazz on August 1, unveils his “Social Media Suite.”