Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Performing alongside a rhythm section cheekily dubbed the Italian Groovers, Lou Marini is as vibrant and swinging as ever at the age of 80, reminding us why he is one of the most revered figures on his instrument in the world. Across more than a half-century, Marini has established himself as a torchbearer of American music: serving in the original Saturday Night Live band and the Blue Brothers (dubbed Blue Lou by Dan Akroyd) and playing alongside some of the biggest names in pop music. In the jazz world, he’s beloved as a saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, with one of the deepest rolodexes around. His new CD, “Playtime,” grew out of Marini’s popular European tours of recent years.

American-born, UK-based singer and pianist Charlie Wood presents “Your Love is My Home,” a warm and deeply personal album shaped by a lifetime in music. Recorded between England and Copenhagen, the album reflects both Woods’ Memphis roots and his present-day life in Europe, blending jazz, soul, blues and Americana into a sound that feels both timeless and unmistakably his own. Featuring a carefully curated set of songs, Wood interprets material by Paul Simon, Sam Cooke, and John Lennon alongside standards and a few original compositions.

Also this week, “Feebles, Fables and Ferns” captures a rare one-time coming together of luminaries Mick Goodrick and Fred Hersch, both active in Boston at the time, recorded in Hersch’s studio in New York in 1988; pianist and composer Zen Zadravec, who’s performed and collaborated with a wide range of leading figures in the international jazz community, unveils a new quintet disc, “New Paradigm”; and flutist Ali Ryerson took advantage of the long stretches of time at home during the pandemic creating music for her new project, “The Ali Ryerson Quartet.”

Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
For more than three decades, trombonist Conrad Herwig has worked the sweet spot where modern jazz meets Afro-Caribbean fire, building his acclaimed “Latin Side of…” series into one of the most distinctive runs in contemporary jazz. Forged in the company of masters like Eddie Palmieri, Mario Bauza and Tito Puente, Herwig brings authority and imagination to the bandstand. Now he takes on “The Latin Side of Chick Corea,” drawing from the pianist’s catalog, from “Tones for Joan’s Bones” and “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs” to the electric energy of “Return to Forever,” and celebrating a composer whose music thrives on motion, color, and cross-cultural spark.

Bassist Chuck Bergeron has enjoyed working in a wide variety of settings over the course of his more than four-decade career, from hard-charging small groups to the boisterous big band swing of the South Florida Jazz Orchestra. Bergeron has long cherished his interactions with singers, including such illustrious voices as Kevin Mahogany, Sheila Jordan, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Janis Siegel and many others. His new disc, “Bass & Face,” features a stellar roster of voices including Ms. Siegel, Pete McGuiness, Roseanna Vitro, Deborah Silver, Kate Reid and Nicole Yarling, as well as two iconic singers who are no longer with us: Ms. Jordan, who passed away shortly after the recording, and Mr. Mahogany, whose contributions stem from a 2005 session undertaken during Bergeron’s seven-year stint in the singer’s band.

Also this week, “Sea Spell” captures the Jeff Rupert Quartet’s sound after nearly two decades of live performances together; trumpeter Gabriel Mark Hasselbach pays heartfelt homage to his core influences Freddie Hubbard and Blue Mitchell on “Mid Century Modern Vol. 4”; and Midwest-based pianist and composer Paul Hecht documents his originals on “Pyrography II.”