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

Akira Tana has been an elite drummer since the mid-1970s, working with jazz masters like Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Golson and others. He’s also been immersed in Brazil’s surging rhythms and sensuous melodies his entire career. His new album, “JAZZaNOVA,” was designed to showcase a superlative cast of singers and instrumentalists interpreting some of the Brazilian Songbook’s definitive standards and lesser known gems. Saxophonist Branford Marsalis or trumpeter Arturo Sandoval contribute vivid solos on almost every track, providing incisive commentary for the six extraordinary vocalists.

From jazz and soul to rock and country, the blues are the bedrock and a uniting feature for much of the popular music originating in the United States. Under the command of brilliant writers like the legendary Leadbelly, the blues maintains a unique place between high art and common expression. The discovery of the music of Leadbelly was transformative for a young Adam Nussbaum. It was the image of Huddie Ledbetter on the original Folkways 10-inch record covers that fascinated the five-year old. The celebrated blues and folk musician’s music seared itself into his ears, informing the drummer’s musical approach for years to come. It manifests itself most explicitly on Nussbaum’s new recording, “The Leadbelly Project,” featuring Steve Cardenas on guitar, Ohad Talmor on saxophone and Nate Radley on bass.

Also this week, jazz-fusion composer and drummer Bob Holz releases his third album, “Visions,” featuring bass legend Stanley Clarke. 

Bassist Gerald Veasley was captured in concert at Philadelphia’s South Jazz Parlor for “Live at South”.

“Primal Economics” is the debut disc from Brooklyn-based brass brigade Dingonek Street Band, incorporating elements of Afrobeat, Ethio-jazz, post-bop and Balkan brass.  

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

Originally from the Minneapolis area, flugelhornist John Raymond moved to New York City after spending some time studying music in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He was able to establish himself on the New York scene playing alongside well-known musicians like Billy Hart, Orrin Evans and Kurt Rosenwinkel. But Raymond was increasingly drawn to creating and leading a band of his own in a flugelhorn-led trio with guitar and drums a la Jim Hall and Art Farmer. By the time he moved to the City, he had already been drawn to guitarist Gilad Hekselman, whose lyrical style was perfect for Raymond’s musical direction. Drummer Colin Stranahan would cement himself as the bedrock of the trio, now known as Real Feels. The majority of the music on their new CD, “Joy Ride,” was written during a self-imposed summer retreat in which Raymond spent hours composing each day.

     Jemal Ramirez is a San Francisco-based drummer and bandleader who is called “Mr. Ramirez” by 200 public school music students daily, keeping him busy as a band director and percussion teacher in San Jose, California. His resume includes performances with Eric Reed, Joshua Redman, Marcus Shelby, Dayna Stephens and other notable jazz musicians. His own high-powered ensemble features the acclaimed vibraphonist Warren Wolf, saxophonist Howard Wiley and trumpeter Mike Olmos. Jemal’s new disc, “African Skies,” also includes one of the final performances of bassist and Iowa native John Shifflett, who passed away just a few months after the recording sessions.

Also this week, four-time Grammy Award winning producer and keyboardist Charlie Peacock unveils his fourth jazz album, “When Light Flashes Help is On the Way,” featuring bassist Felix Pastorius drummer Ben Perowsky and reedman Jeff Coffin, among others. 

Trumpeter Craig Fraedrich, now retired after 31 years with the elite U.S. Army Blues, is joined by current or former ‘Blues’ brothers in his Jazz Trumpet Ensemble on “Out of the Blues”.

Saxophonist Ken Fowser dishes up another batch of original compositions for his seventh release as a leader, “Don’t Look Down.”