Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Whether moving from Japan to the United States or navigating between the influences of jazz, soul, hip-hop, Afrobeat and electronica, trumpeter and composer Takuya Kuroda has never followed a straight path. On his fifth album, “Zigzagger,” Kuroda darts between those wide-ranging interests with a funky swagger and an intensely swinging vigor. Kuroda’s vision is realized with the help of his regular working band, most of them friends and collaborators for more than a decade since attending New York’s New School together. They include trombonist Corey King, bassist Rashaan Carter, drummer Adam Jackson, and the band’s newest member, keyboardist Takeshi Ohbayashi.
When Woody Herma
n launched his new band in 1947, its centerpiece was a saxophone section featuring three tenors and a baritone. The unusual configuration was designed to showcase a new cooler, swinging sax sound pioneered by tenor great Lester Young. Though Herman’s sax-centric Second Herd lasted only until 1950, it would help start a West Coast jazz revolution—one that tenor sax great Harry Allen and his All-Star New York Saxophone Band explore brilliantly on the new CD, “The Candy Men.” Harry’s colleagues—tenor saxophonists Grant Stewart and Eric Alexander and baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan—share his passion for the seductive sound of a sax section. Harry is quick to point out that he wasn’t trying to mimic any particular arranging style. He merely wanted to make the charts fun to play and hear.
Also this week, Norah Jones returns to the piano-driven sound she fashioned on earlier releases in her career on her sixth studio release, “Day Breaks”.
Vibraphonist Behn Gillece offers up another batch of original tunes on his second release as a leader, “Dare to Be”.
Fourplay guitarist Chuck Loeb unveils hi
s latest outing as a leader, “Unspoken,” featuring special guests Jeff Lorber, Eric Marienthal, Till Bronner and Everette Harp.
ngishalfthebattle,” his third release for Smoke Sessions Records, pianist and composer Orrin Evans shares his lessons in life and music on a raw, electrifying session that teams him with a pair of renowned guitarists who are also, not coincidentally, native sons of Evans’ own hometown of Philadelphia: Kevin Eubanks and Kurt Rosenwinkel. He’s also joined by the latest in a long line of inspired rhythm sections, bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Mark Whitfield, Jr., along with up-and-coming saxophonist Caleb Wheeler Curtis. The CD shows Evans coming to terms with what he’s learned over his years on and off the bandstand—and more importantly, how to make use of that knowledge. In large part, that answer he’s come to involves letting go, forgetting what’s been learned and trusting the instincts that come along with it.
Also this week, Canadian baritone saxophonist Shirantha Beddage draws on a diverse range of influences, including New Orleans jazz, R&B, film music and folk songs, on his new album, “Momentum”.
Serbian-born guitar player Rale Micic re-imagines the work of Hungarian composer Bela Bartok on “Night Music”.