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

 Bassist and composer Iris Ornig is one of the most original female voices on today’s New York jazz scene. Since her arrival in 2003 from Germany, she has played with an impressive roster of some of the most influential contemporary jazz musicians in New York, including Ambrose Akinmusire, Joel Frahm, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Allison Miller and Gretchen Parlato, among others. For her new CD, “Storyteller,” she has assembled a quintet featuring drummer Allan Mednard, pianist Addison Frei, saxophonist Jeremy Powell and trumpeter Jonathan Powell.

     Montreal guitarist Sam Kirmayer started 2018 on a high note. A few weeks into the new year, he won the Julian Award for Excellence for Emerging Canadian Artists for his 2017 debut CD, “Opening Statement.” For an encore, Sam has climbed further still with his new album, “High and Low,” which finds the 28-year-old devotee of bop and swing assuredly leading an organ trio. He chose wisely when picking sidemen for this new project, keeping Montreal drummer Dave Laing from his debut disc and seeking out New York-based organist Ben Paterson, who has been working in the bands of Peter Bernstein and Bobby Broom.

 Also this week, acclaimed pianist and award-winning composer Lisa Hilton offers up an enticing collection pulsing with West Coast cool on “Oasis”; 

keyboardist Andrew Lawrence, who can be heard regularly on the Chicago jazz scene and who played the Iowa City Jazz Festival several years ago, unveils a new batch of original work on “Trialogue”;

     and an ensemble of players from the Posi-Tone Records stable, including drummer Rudy Royston, bassist Boris Kozlov, and pianist Art Hirahara, take the moniker Something Blue for their new CD, “Maximum Enjoyment.”

     “The Lion, Camel & Child” is the second release from Toronto saxophonist Johnny Griffith’s all-star quintet—a band made up of four of Toronto’s leading jazz lights, along with legendary New York trumpeter Jeremy Pelt. Griffith drew inspiration from the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche—specifically his book, “Three Metamorphoses.” As the reedman explains, “Metamorphoses is concerned with what propels each new phase of human growth, so it seemed fitting to frame this as a suite—each track individual unto itself, yet when listening to as a whole representing the arc of the personal struggle to know more and be more.”

Doug MacDonald’s career as a jazz guitarist and composer has taken him from Hawaii to Las Vegas, Los Angeles to Manhattan, and to Spain, Finland, Estonia and the U.K. Playing in clubs, concert halls and recording studios, Doug has been a featured soloist, as well as an accompanist for some of the greatest jazz luminaries of our time, including Joe Williams, Bill Holman, Ray Brown, Buddy Rich and Ray Charles. For his thirteenth release as a leader, “A View of the City,” he’s back in New York City working in a trio format with bassist Harvie S and drummer Steve Williams.

Also this week, the Toronto Jazz Orchestra celebrates its 20th anniversary by showcasing the composing and arranging work of artistic director Josh Grossman on “20”;

Throttle Elevator Music producer Gregory Howe returns with “Counterweight,” featuring the soaring lead trumpet work of Erik Jekabson;

and and pianist Adrean Farrugia and tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm explore the exciting and intimate world of duo performance with their new album, “Blued Dharma.”