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

 “Jazz Bata 2” marks a new peak for composer, pianist and bandleader Chucho Valdes, even as it revisits the small-group concept of his 1972 Cuban album “Jazz Bata.” The new disc is both rhythmic and lyrical at once. The six-hand complexity of the bata repertoire—the deep classical music of West Africa—permeates Valdes’ piano solos throughout the album. “I applied to my solos the different rhythms of the bata,” he says. “The piano is of course a harmonic instrument, but it’s percussive too, and you can play percussion with it.” The new CD also marks the centenary of Valdes’ father and teacher, Ramon “Bebo” Valdes. Between the two of them, they have exercised a massive musical influence since the 1940s.

     “The Time is Now,” the new album from David Hazeltine, finds one of the top pianists of his generation forging an impeccably swinging partnership with two other masters: bassist Ron Carter and drummer Al Foster. These men all come directly from the straight-ahead jazz tradition. Though Hazeltine is a half a generation younger than his two bandmates, he spent many years working with such giants as Sonny Stitt, Chet Baker, Eddie Harris and Buddy Montgomery. He’s since become one of the leading torchbearers for that estimable standard, both on his own and through his work with the swinging super-group One For All.

Also this week, guitarist Jack Jezzro presents instrumental jazz for the holidays with “Christmas Jazz Guitar”; 

Eastern Iowa’s own Roots of Rhythm trio, featuring Lynne Hart, Pat Smith and Rich Wagor, unveil their new holiday release, “Winter Jazz”;

      and Grammy-winning pianist and arranger Randy Waldman remakes his favorite superhero themes, transforming them into fun and exciting jazz compositions on “Superheroes.”  

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

    As a pianist, composer, and a fearless explorer of worldwide musical landscapes, Roger Davidson is uncategorizable, yet distinctive. Whether the music is classical, Latin, Brazilian, klezmer, sacred or jazz, he finds the common threads. Roger was born in Paris to a French mother and an American father. The family moved to New York where his curiosity about the world at large took wing. In time, he developed a special passion for Brazil. Roger has performed and recorded there and written volumes of Brazilian-flavored songs. The latest batch are featured on his new CD, “Music From the Heart,” his second recorded collaboration with fellow Brazilophile Hendrik Meurkens, a wizard on jazz vibraphone and harmonica.

     Reedman Jacques Schwarz-Bart’s new release, “Hazzan,” is a jazz creation embracing Jewish liturgical music, improvisational sequences and infectious rhythms. The name Hazzan means cantor in the Jewish tradition. It came to Jacques from a rabbi who was commenting on one of his performances. He said, “When you played, your notes sounded like a prayer. You are a hazzan on your saxophone.” This was three years after Jacques’ father passed away, and he decided to honor his father’s memory by creating a project revolving around jazz music and hazzanout (the art of chanting Jewish prayers). “…It became clear that these powerful ancient melodies lent themselves to impressionistic harmonization and could be enhanced with infectious rhythms from the African diaspora (USA, Afro Caribbean, Gnawa). Armed with these founding elements, I researched Jewish traditions from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, selecting songs of contrasting colors to paint a mystical, uplifting fresco.”

Also this week, trumpeter Joe Magnarelli showcases the compositions of Tadd Dameron on “If You Could See Me Now”;          

reedmen Larry McKenna and Bootsie Barnes honor Philadelphia’s jazz legacy with “The More I See You”;

 and trombonist John Fedchock and his quartet are captured live at Havana Nights in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on “Reminiscence.”