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

Juno Award-winning saxophonist, composer and arranger Allison Au was born to a Chinese father and Jewish mother, and was raised in the multicultural metropolis of Toronto. Exposed to a wide array of musical styles growing up, Allison was captivated by the unhinged freedom of jazz, which became her lab of self-expression, exploration and musical experimentations. Her work weaves a mosaic of influences into a concoction steeped in the jazz tradition but skillfully laced with elements of classical, pop, R&B/hip hop, Latin and world music. Following on the heels of her 2016 Juno Award win for Best Jazz Album of the Year, the Allison Au Quintet releases its highly anticipated third studio album, “Wander Wonder.”

     Impulse! Records has brought together some of the great progressive jazz musicians of our time to pay tribute to the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” As label president Danny Bennet explains, “This recording showcases the most meaningful up-and-coming and established artists that are taking the new jazz scene by storm. Each was given the challenge to create a work that would push the musical envelope by presenting an impressionistic rendering of a favorite song from Pepper.” “A Day in the Life: Impressions of Pepper” includes performances by saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings from the UK jazz scene, Miles Mosley and Cameron Graves from L.A.’s West Coast Get Down, Onyx Collective from N.Y.C., Makaya McCraven and JuJu Exchange from Chicago, pianist Sullivan Fortner, percussionist Antonio Sanchez and guitarist Mary Halvorson.

 Dan Bonsanti’s The 14 Jazz Orchestra, comprised of alumni from the University of Miami who are all active in South Florida as jazz and studio musicians and/or important educators, releases “The Future Ain’t What it Used to Be”;

Also this week, veteran Seattle bassist Chuck Deardorf brings together longtime musical friends Dawn Clement on piano, saxophonist Hans Teuber, and drummer Matt Wilson for “Perception”;

and the Colorado-based David Caffey Jazz Orchestra offers up “All in One.”

    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.”