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

“The subject tonight is love,” wrote the Persian poet and mystic Hafiz back in the 14^th century. Countless poets, philosophers, musicians, writers and dreamers have taken up that same subject since Hafiz’s day. On “The Subject Tonight is Love,” their first album as a trio, vocalist Kate McGarry, guitarist/bassist Keith Ganz and keyboardist/accordionist Gary Versace rise to that eternal challenge, investigating the concept from several different perspectives over the course of a dozen alluring songs, from timeless folk tunes to transformed jazz standards, celebratory pop songs to evocative originals. It’s the culmination of more than a decade of work and friendship. McGarry and Ganz are partners in life as well as in music, while Versace has been a close and frequent collaborator with both, dating back to 2007.

Robert Kennedy is a Hammond organist and pianist born and raised in the American South who is now proud to be a part of the Hammond organ’s resurgence in the San Francisco area. His first foray in to music in the bay area was in 1988, playing piano in the Stanford University Jazz Band. He was a founding member of the groups Hip Pocket Jazz Quintet and Double Funk Crunch, and has had the pleasure of playing venues such as Yoshi’s, the Boom Boom Room and the SFJazz Miner Auditorium. His new album, “Closer to Home,” features tunes by ten different composers flavored with hard bop, soul jazz, blues and gospel.

Also this week, the young Cuban pianist, composer and Grammy-nominee Alfredo Rodriguez offers up his fourth studio album, “The Little Dream”. 

Jazz quartet meets string quartet on “Departure” by the BC Double Quartet led by guitarist Bill Coon. 

Vibraphonist Behn Gillece, trumpeter Josh Lawrence and saxophonist Roxy Coss are among the New Faces on the new disc, “Straight Forward.”