Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify.
Hailing from the remote location of Perth, West Australia, saxophonist and composer Troy Roberts has received numerous awards, including three consecutive DownBeat Jazz Soloist Awards, and was theonly Australian semi-finalist in the 2008 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. He’s performed around Europe and the U.S. extensively with artists such as Christian McBride, Dave Douglas, Orrin Evans and Kurt Elling, and he’s a regular member of the Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts Quartet. He’s also the newest member of Joey DeFrancesco’s latest quartet. For his seventh record as a leader, “Tales & Tones,” he has Mr. Watts on drums, Robert Hurst on bass and Silvano Monasterios on piano.
Saxophonist Bruce Williams’ fourth recording as a leader, “Private Thoughts,” is his first featuring solely original music. The Bard College and Julliard Jazz professor has graced the horn sections of The World Saxophone Quartet, as well as groups led by Stanley Cowelll, Frank Foster, Curtis Fuller and Roy Hargrove. He’s been an honored recipient of awards from DownBeat magazine and the Charlie Parker Music and More Foundation. Williams calls upon eight musicians who are brothers on and off the bandstand, including trumpeters Freddie Hendrix and Josh Evans, pianists Brandon McCune and Alan Jay Palmer, drummers Vince Ector and Chris Beck, bassist Chris Berger and guitarist Brad Allen Williams.
Also this week, steel pan master Victor Provost funneled the nervous excitement while expecting his first child’s birth into composing and recording his new CD, “Bright Eyes”.
Throttle Elevat
or Music reunites with saxophonist Kamasi Washington and virtuoso trumpeter Erik Jekabson for their fourth album.
Award-winning Toronto-based guitarist Eric St-Laurent, who has recorded and toured with Till Bronner, Dave Douglas and Dave Liebman, offers up a new quartet recording, “Planet.”
Latin America has long been some of the world’s most beloved, whether Brazilian bossa nova, Argentinean tango, Cuban bolero or irresistible songs from Chile, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. Pianist Edward Simon— a native of Venezuela who has made a name for himself in America as a jazz pianist, bandleader and composer/arranger, along with being a Guggenheim Fellow and a member of the SFJazz Collective—has created fresh, supple interpretations of melodies from all these countries for his new CD, “Latin American Songbook.” The San Francisco Bay Area-based pianist leads his working trio with bassist Joe Martin and drummer Adam Cruz.
The music of composer Anthony Branker stands firmly on jazz traditions while simultaneously pushing the boundaries in bold and beautiful new directions. In describing his music, Jazz Times magazine says, “Honing a hybrid of freewheeling postbop and social commentary, abetted by judicious dollops of funk, fusion, spoken word, clave and polyrhythmic percussion, Branker incorporates these elements in broad, bold strokes, like a muralist. He has yet to make a bad record.” For his newest disc, “Beauty Within,” Branker presents brilliant new works as performed by his newest ensemble, Imagine, with longtime collaborator-saxophonist Ralph Bowen, guitarist Pete McCann, pianist Fabian Almazan, bassist Linda Oh and drummer Rudy Royston.
Also this week, saxophonist and flutist Steve Slagle is joined by special guest Joe Lovano on “Alto Manhattan”.
Saxophonist Shawn Maxell, one of the preeminent performers on the Chicago jazz scene, adds the singular trumpet voices of three of Chicago’s finest—Victor Garcia, Chad McCullough and Cory Wilkes—to his working quartet on “Shawn Maxwell’s New Tomorrow”.