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

Saxophonist Dave McMurray has cemented his reputation for versatility by playing with a vast array of musicians including B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Herbie Hancock, Nancy Wilson, Geri Allen and Bob James. His Blue Note Records debut, “Music is Life,” is a reunion of sorts, given the long history he shares with the label’s president, and fellow Detroit native, Don Was. McMurray was a member of Was’ genre-defying unit Was (Not Was), first working on the band’s 1981 debut. He’s played on all of the band’s albums and many other Was projects in the years since. When Was signed McMurray, the reedman says that he gave him no imperatives as to which artist paths to take. “It was one of those situations where he just said ‘Do It,’’ McMurray explains.

For nearly three decades, the New England Jazz Ensemble has been at the forefront of contemporary jazz ensemble performance, collaboration and education in the northeastern U.S. With a book of original compositions and arrangements penned from within its ranks, the NEJE delivers on its mission to promote the jazz ensemble as a uniquely American art form. The ensemble commissions new works, does extensive concertizing collaborates with music educators in public schools and universities to perpetuate the jazz art form. Their new project is a reworking of Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf.”

Also this week, singer and songwriter Kat Edmonson delivers eleven original songs on “Old Fashioned Gal”.

Drummer Greg Burrows is joined by guitarist Bob DeVos and bassist Harvie S on “Tell Your Story”.

Pianist Lynne Arriale returns with a new trio and special guest vocalist Kate McGarry for “Give Us These Days.”