Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify 

“Tippin’” is drummer Carl Allen’s first album as a leader in more than 20 years. With over 200 recordings to his credit, the gifted Milwaukee-born, New York-based drummer, sideman, bandleader, entrepreneur, and educator’s profound and propulsive percolations have provided soulful support for nearly three decades, including work with Benny Golson, Christian McBride’s Inside Straight and others. In honor of this auspicious occasion, Allen has brought together his dream team with Mr. McBride playing bass and the phenomenal Christ Potter on horns.

Many jazz aficionados boast encyclopedic knowledge of players, recordings, and moments of instrumental prowess. This geeking, while impressive, can potentially have a downside when fans overlook the role of many jazz artists as talented composers. With limited exceptions, the songwriting contributions of many celebrated musicians are often ignored. In the hope of addressing this situation, Posi-Tone Records has been curating its Blue Moods series of releases to highlight the songwriting genius of these under-appreciated composers. “Force and Grace” is the third and newest installment, focusing on the music of Freddie Hubbard.

Also this week, guitarist Dave Stryker and arranger and conductor Brant Wallarab explore their mutual love of the cinema by recording eleven classic film themes with a 30-piece studio orchestra on “Stryker with Strings Goes to the Movies”; 70-year-old American reedman Scott Hamilton is joined by his Scandinavian quartet and draws inspiration from several musicians he’s collaborated with over the years for “Looking Back”; and the U.S. Air Force Band’s Airmen of Note are joined by arranger Gordon Goodwin, bassist Rodney Whitaker, and trumpeter Jon Faddis for “The 2024 Jazz Heritage Series.”

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify 

Grammy nominated trombonist, composer and arranger Papo Vazquez has been a key player on New York City’s Latin jazz scene since the late 1970s, performing with top names such as Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Jerry Gonzalez, Hilton Ruiz and Dave Valentin. His appreciation and knowledge of the indigenous music of the Caribbean provides him with a unique ability to fuse Afro-Caribbean rhythms, specifically those from Puerto Rico, with freer melodic and harmonic elements of progressive jazz. For his 11^th release as a leader, “Songs del Yucayeke,” Vazquez is joined by his Mighty Pirates Troubadours for a program of original compositions and arrangements running the full gamut of the ensemble’s fusion of jazz, Puerto Rican folkloric music, and other Afro Caribbean rhythms.

“My Foolish Heart” is the gorgeous new recording from one of the world’s greatest trumpet players presented on his most sentimental and heartwarming release to date. Arturo Sandoval follows up his Grammy nominated 2023 disc with a program of classic standards from the great American songbook which find new life in his warm and inviting tone. He’s accompanied by pianist Jeremy Siskind, bassist Brian Bromberg and drummer Charles Ruggiero along with 40 string players from the Budapest Scoring Orchestra.

Also this week, embark on a whimsical journey with Clay Wulbrecht’s “The Clockmaster,” a collection of tunes transporting the listener through multiple dimensions and realities; pianist and composer Lisa Hilton is brimming with ideas, hope and beauty, bursting with rhythm at times and creating impressionistic moods throughout her new disc, “Lucky All Along”; and the co-op quartet of saxophonist Matt Steckler, bassist Lonnie Plaxico, drummer Tony Lewis and pianist Yayoi Ikawa bring a soulful post-bop feel to “Old Friends Beckoned, New Sounds Reckoned.”