Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
 A staple of New York City’s jazz and Afro-Cuban scenes over the last five decades, acclaimed flutist Andrea Brachfeld celebrates the sounds of Brazil with a spirited tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim, “Brazilian Whispers.” Along with arrangements of Jobim classics, Brachfeld offers a look into her writing partnership with pianist and frequent collaborator Bill O’Connell through some of their Brazil-inspired compositions. With bandmates O’Connell, guitarist Ronnie Ben-Hur, bassists Harvie S and Lincoln Goines, and drummer/percussionists Jason Tiemann, T. Portinho, and Chembo Corniel, Andrea creates an inspired, deeply grooving collection of Brazilian gems.

     Over a twenty-eight-year span, the high energy Canadian band Shuffle Demons have released eight CDs, two hit videos, won several music awards, done numerous TV and radio appearances and toured nationally and internationally. They broke onto the Canadian music scene in 1984 with an electrifying musical fusion that drew in equal measure from Sun Ra, Charles Mingus, Run DMC and the Beastie Boys. A hit at festivals all over the world, the Shuffle Demons are a crowd pleasing, full on musical group that backs up wild stage antics and eye-catching costumes with phenomenal playing by some of Canada’s most talented musicians. We’ll introduce their fun new album, “Crazy Time.”

London-based Wild Card features a blend of hard-bop, Afro/Samba and funk grooves on “Beast from the East”;

Also this week, pianist Bill Cunliffe is joined by a Hawaii-based rhythm section for “Sunrise Over Molokai”;

   and Kurt Elling is joined by Australian trumpeter James Morrison “Live in New York” at Birdland.

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

With inspiration provided by myriad jazz masters and the Los Angeles musicians she surrounds herself with, vibraphonist Lolly Allen creates a warm, swinging, and jubilant set of music on “Coming Home,” celebrating the L.A. jazz scene that developed out of the flourishing Central Avenue clubs of the 1950s. With revered veterans of the scene, such as drummer Paul Kreibich and pianist Tom Owens, and young, vital members of the next generation, including pianist Josh Nelson and saxophonist Danny Janklow, Lolly delivers invigorated perspectives of the quintet group dynamic. Classics from the likes of Horace Silver, Mario Bauza and Dizzy Gillespie are paired with Allen’s originals in a seamless blend of supple ideas and renewed approaches to traditional repertoire.

     Trumpeter Joshua Jern jumps onto the Chicago jazz scene with his brand new jazz orchestra on their debut CD, “Midnight Stroll.”  Jern studied his instrument with such world renowned big band trumpeters as Rob Parton and Roger Ingram, and studied composition with big band legend Tom Garling. When not running the Joshua Jern Jazz Orchestra, he keeps busy with theatre work, occasional rock tours, and various Chicago-based big band projects. The collection of all original material on the disc is eclectic in style maintaining a classic, almost vintage sound while weaving in such modern elements of cutting edge big band and fusion as to make for an album that feels familiar yet sounds fresh and energetic

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Also this week, Posi-Tone Records debuts their latest musical collective under the apt title of Works for Me and the CD, “Reach Within,” featuring the talents of saxophonist Alexa Tarantino, pianist Caili O’Doherty, guitarist Tony Davis, bassist Adi Meyerson and drummer Joe Strasser;

Award-winning pianist and acclaimed composer Lisa Hilton is joined by jazz luminaries JD Allen on tenor sax, Rudy Royston on drums and Luques Curtis on bass for “Chalkboard Destiny”;

 and Chicago-based trumpeter and composer Markus Rutz offers up an engaging two-volume album, “Blueprints Figure One: Frameworks.”