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

Jazz duo recordings can provide an exceedingly wide range of musical expression including, but not limited to, profundity, humor, tenderness, introspection and exuberance. This type of mercurial interplay is on full display on “Montreal Memories,” a previously unreleased live set from saxophonist Frank Morgan and pianist George Cables recorded at the Theatre Port-Royal in Montreal in 1989. The two played together frequently and their improvising was imbued with almost telepathic communication. Cables’ large piano tone was the perfect accompaniment to Morgan’s slightly dry, Bird-like sound.

     The Czech pianist and composer Emil Viklicky has made numerous visits over the years to Cedar Rapids and the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library. He was recorded in concert on one such visit in May of 2008 in a trio with Dennis McPartland and Steve Charlson, just a few weeks before the great flood inundated the Museum and the city. Emil returned to the Museum this past May, ten years to the day after the first recording, to once again perform in the now restored and relocated Museum, this time with his Grand Moravian Trio featuring Czech bassist Petr Dvorsky and veteran Chicago-based drummer Ernie Adams. The resulting disc,  “Humoresque,” includes a mix of originals, jazz standards and traditional Moravian pieces.

Also this week, saxophonist Jorge Nila is joined by guitarist Dave Stryker in paying tribute to some of jazz’s tenor masters on “Tenor Time”.   

Bassist and composer Gabriel Espinosa, who heads up the jazz program at Central College in Pella, is joined by singer Kim Nazarian of New York Voices on his latest project, “Nostalgias de Me Vida”.

Boston-based composer and band leader Ayn Inserto, a protégé of Bob Brookmeyer, releases her Jazz Orchestra’s first new album in a decade, “Down a Rabbit Hole.”

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

While it was captured over the course of a single night, there’s a rich lifetime’s worth of music packed into “The Iron Man—Live at Smoke.” If it’s a slight overstatement to say that the album represents an autobiography in song, that’s only because 82-year-old Harold Mabern tells his story in every note that he plays. The disc was recorded on the final night of a remarkable three-week residency, an annual holiday tradition at the renowned New York City club. Most of that 2017/2018 run was dedicated to the music of John Coltrane and featured a host of invited guests to the bandstand. For this magical final performance, however, Mabern and his longstanding quintet—tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, bassist John Webber and drummer Joe Farnsworth—went it alone, vigorously swinging through well-loved tunes from throughout Mabern’s storied career.

     Award-winning, multi-genre trumpeter and composer Charlie Porter is releasing his first album as a leader, the self-titled “Charlie Porter.” Featuring a lineup of eighteen of Portland’s finest musicians, the disc showcases Charlie’s virtuosity amidst nine different ensemble configurations. Hailed as “a winner in all respects” by Randy Brecker, and “very innovative and creative” by Arturo Sandoval, many highly esteemed trumpeters are taking note of Porter’s debut album. Though a recent transplant to the West Coast, Charlie first cut his teeth on the New York scene while simultaneously studying at Juilliard under tutelage of Wynton Marsalis, who described Charlie’s playing as “fiery and intelligent.” The many New York musicians and bands Porter played with, including Paquito D’Rivera, Charli Persip, Joe Zawinul, David Burger’s Sultans of Swing and the Mingus Big Band as well as his own quartet and septet, laid a solid foundation for Porter’s musical growth.

Also this week, organist Pat Bianchi is joined by friends and colleagues Pat Martino, Joe Locke, the late, lamented Kevin Mahogany and others for “In the Moment”;

 saxophonist and composer Greg Yasinitsky has put together a big band of fantastic musicians based mainly in the Pacific Northwest for “Yazz Band”;

and Chicagoland drummer Jack Mouse unveils his fourth recording as a leader, “Intimate Adversary.”