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

The Big Band Holidays concerts have been a New York City holiday tradition among jazz lovers and families for more than two decades. Every December, the critically acclaimed Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and an all-star roster of guest vocalists explore the canon of holiday standards and perform both new and traditional arrangements of Yuletide favorites. “Big Band Holidays II” features some of today’s commanding new voices in jazz including Catherine Russell and Veronica Swift.

     Fresh of the success of “Eight Track III,” guitarist Dave Stryker and his Eight Track Band with Stefon Harris, Jared Gold and McClenty Hunter decided to make a Christmas album. “It’s crazy to be arranging and recording Christmas music in the middle of summer,” Stryker says,” but I think I was able to put my stamp on this batch of holiday favorites and make a pretty hip record…” The band puts a new jazz spin on Christmas classics like “What Child is This,” “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” “Sleigh Ride” and “Christmas Time is Here” along with Stryker’s mash-up of Young-Holt Unlimited’s classic “Soulful Strut” and “Frosty the Snowman.”

Also this week, sax great Richie Cole presents his tribute to the most wondrous of holidays with “Have Yourself an Alto Madness Christmas”;

the Bill Cunliffe Trio is joined by saxophonist Ralph Moore on “Christmas in the Dog House”;

     and the vocal group Accent works with Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band, Arturo Sandoval and others for “Christmas All the Way.”

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

Inspired by classic live albums such as Ahmad Jamal’s “At the Pershing,” jazz iconoclast Nicholas Payton’s new recording “Relaxin’ With Nick” brings the experience of witnessing Payton’s unparalleled live performances directly to the listener. Payton has evolved a singular approach to live performance, wedding his breathtaking voice on the trumpet to his own accompaniment on piano and Fender Rhodes. On this double album, he is joined by the renowned rhythm section of bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington for a stellar set captured at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club.  It features Payton’s original compositions and a few well-chosen standards.

          The Karrin Allyson Sextet releases “Shoulder to Shoulder: Centennial Tribute to Women’s Suffrage,” a very special and timely album to celebrate the centennial of women’s voting rights taking place next August. In addition to the five-time Grammy nominee, the sextet also features trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, alto saxophonist Mindi Abair, pianist Helen Sung, bassist Endea Owens and drummer Allison Miller. An incredible array of featured artists includes singers Madeleine Peyroux, Kurt Elling, Denise Donatelli and Veronica Swift and violinist Regina Carter. There are also several spoken word performances that re-create the debate over women’s suffrage from Harry Belafonte, Rosanne Cash, Lalah Hathaway and Peter Eldridge.

Also this week, Baritone Madness, featuring Canadians Keith O’Rourke, Pat Belliveau and Gareth Bane, brings the magic of the baritone saxophone to the fore on their self-title debut disc;

 Toronto saxophonist Andy Ballantyne pays tribute to many of the great jazz saxophonists of the past, both as a composer and a performer, with “Play on Words”;

and Spyro Gyra takes on classic pop and rock songs of the ‘70s and ‘80s on “Vinyl Tap.”