Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Vocalist Mark Winkler, an acclaimed artist on the Los Angeles jazz scene, is a prolific recording artists and lyricist. His original songs have been sung and recorded by a cadre of top singers like Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Randy Crawford. He now releases his 22nd album, “Hold On,” a collection of mostly original tunes with a few tasty standards for good measure.
There have been scores of tribute albums to pianist Bill Evans over the years in various formats—solo piano, small group, and even orchestral versions. And on almost all these recordings the piano was the featured instrument. Guitarist Jim Witzel wanted to try a different slant to Evans’ music, so on his new CD, “Very Early: Remembering Bill Evans,” he teamed up with his musical compatriot, Emmy-winning pianist Phil Aaron, to conceive and engaging approach featuring a guitar-led quartet of nine compositions associated Evans.
Also this week, 20-year-old singer Anais Reno tackles a repertoire of standards with a rare confidence and fluidity on “Lady of the Lavender Mist”; trombonist Conrad Herwig teams up with the late pianist Eddie Palmieri, a true icon of the Latin jazz genre, and bassist Luques Curtis on an intimate trio recording, “Reflections—Facing South”; the U.S. Air Force’s Airmen of Note give a nod to the importance of Latin jazz on our great, uniquely American art form with “Around the Horn.”
Jazz Corner of the World (Encore)
Jazz Night in America
Hey, Jazz fans! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of singer/pianist Jimmy Rushing, saxophonists Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Med Flory, Jerry Dodgion and Brandford Marsalis, composer Leonard Bernstein, singer Dinah Washington, guitarist Pat Martino and more. We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of The Clifford Brown Memorial Album (1953), Jimmy Smith’s “The Sermon” (1957), Dexter Gordon’s “A Swingin’ Affair” (1962), Wayne Shorter’s “Odyssey of Iska” (1970), Mal Waldron Quartet’s “The Super Quartet Live at Sweet Basil” (1987), Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen Trio’s “Friends Forever” (1995), The H2 Big Band’s “It Could Happen” (2013) and many others Mondays thru Fridays and at noon on JAZZ MASTERS on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.
Jazz Night In America 
Hey, Jazz fans! Be sure to tune in this week as we celebrate the birthdays of pianist/bandleader/composer Count Basie, trombonists Jack Teagarden and Jiggs Whigham, trumpeters Art Farmer and Oscar Brashear, drummers Ginger Baker and Steve Smith, pianists Jimmy Rowles and Shelly Berg, bassists Addison Farmer and John Clayton and more. We’ll also mark the recording anniversaries of Dave Brubeck Quartet’s “Time Out” (1959), Herbie Mann’s “Memphis Underground” (1969), Joe Henderson’s “Relaxin’ at Camarillo” (1979), Illinois Jacquet & His Big Band’s “Jacquet’s Got It!” (1987), “Ernestine Anderson Live at the 1990 Concord Jazz Festival” (3rd Set) (1990), “Joey DeFrancesco with Jimmy Smith: Legacy” (2004) and many others, Monday thru Friday, and at noon on JAZZ MASTERS on Jazz 88.3 KCCK.