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

Calgary’s Prime Time Big Band is one of Canada’s premiere large jazz ensembles. Conceived of and led by former Canadian Armed Forces Band director and trumpeter Dave Jones, they are one of the busiest working big bands in the county featuring some of Alberta’s top jazz musicians. On top of playing numerous concerts, festivals and private events throughout the year, they’ve been performing a regular concert series at Calgary’s Ironwood Stage & Grill for the past fifteen years, maturing and developing into a very tight ensemble with a defined musical voice. Every second Saturday afternoon from September to June, they perform to sold-out crowds for their jazz brunch. They were tracked live over three days in November 2016 for their new disc, “Live at the Ironwood.”

A fiery and dedicated improviser and composer, saxophonist Idit Shner’s latest quartet recording, “9 Short Stories,” highlights her rich and ongoing relationship with pianist Josh Hanlon and drummer Stockton Helbing, which dates back to the early 2000s when she was working on her Doctorate at the University of North Texas. Along with bassist James Driscoll, the quartet tackles a program of Idit’s compositions, all based in the jazz tradition but with influences ranging from traditional melodies and rhythms from Zimbabwe, to classical Arabic music, to the Latin-tinged grooves of McCoy Tyner from his early ‘70s recordings.

Also this week, pianist Deanna Witkowski’s sixth recording, “Makes the Heart to Sing: Jazz Hymns,” is a luminously lyrical trio session interpreting a spiritually charged body of music rarely investigated by jazz artists. 

Veteran San Francisco-based organist Caesar Frazier offers up a dose of soul jazz on “Instinct”.

The United States Air Force band, the Airmen of Note, unveils “Veterans of Jazz,” paying tribute to jazz legends who have served in the Armed Forces, including Cedar Walton, Percy Heath, Wayne Shorter and John Coltrane.

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

Saxophonist Kamasi Washington’s new EP, “Harmony of Difference,” premiered as part of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2017 Biennial alongside a film by A.G Rojas and also featuring artwork by Kamasi’s sister, Amani Washington. It’s an original six-part suite that explores the philosophical possibilities of the musical technique known as ‘counterpoint,’ which Kamasi defines as “the art of balancing similarity and difference to create harmony between separate melodies.” Each of the first five movements is its own unique composition, while the sixth fuses all five compositions into one simultaneous performance. Echoing this fusion, Amani created five paintings focused on raw shapes and colors, each inspired by one of the first five movements of the suite. She then combined these paintings to create a sixth: an abstract depiction of a human face.

Steve Slagle’s follow-up to his much acclaimed “Alto Manhattan” is titled “Dedication,” which once again has a double meaning. Each of the nine songs are specifically dedicated to a person or thing directly related to this music. The disc most clearly represents where his music is heading and has as a special guest his long-time friend, guitarist Dave Stryker, on several tracks as well as Cuban conguero Roman Diaz. The saxophonist again has Bill Stewart on drums, Lawrence Fields on piano and a bassist he has worked with and known quite a while, the great Scott Colley, to form the core quartet.

Also this week, Triocity, the collective trio of drummer Rich Thompson, bassist Jeff Campbell and woodwind player Charles Pillow, all long-time faculty members of the acclaimed Eastman School of Music, unveils “I Believe in You”. 

Singer Jackie Allen offers up a collection of songs written by her bassist Hans Sturm on “Rose Fingered Dawn”.

Guitarist Tom Guarna is joined by bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade for “The Wishing Stones.”