Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
Legendary alto saxophonist Charles McPherson makes his Smoke Sessions Records debut with an inspired new album, “Reverence.” It’s dedicated to Mr. McPherson’s longtime mentor and teacher Barry Harris, captured in front of alive audience at Smoke Jazz Club, and featuring his quintet of Terell Stafford, Jeb Patton, David Wong, and Billy Drummond. McPherson didn’t set out to undertake an explicit tribute project—there are no Harris compositions in the repertoire, and only the final track was penned in homage to the great pianist and educator. But McPherson did set out with the high regard in which he holds Harris in mind and entered into the recording with a sense of reverence both for his mentor and collaborator, as well as for the younger musicians whom he enlisted for the session.

Guitarist Bill Frisell’s new two-disc set, “Orchestras,” documents two inspired concert-hall engagements arranged by Michael Gibbs for Frisell’s long-standing trio with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston. One disc features the nearly 60-piece Brussels Philharmonic, and the other with the 11-piece Umbria Jazz Orchestra. Sweeping orchestration evoking landmark film scores and Gil Evans alike move nimbly within and around the trio’s telepathic rapport, and Frisell’s shimmering trademark tone melds gorgeously with symphonic strings and brass.

Also this week, saxophonist Sharel Cassity and drummer Colleen Clark lead their hard-bop, all-female quartet “Alliance” on their debut release; pianist and composer Dave Bass enlists drummer Steve Helfand and bassist Tyler Miles in bringing his new compositions to life on “Trio Nuevo”; and “Latin Jazz Sessions” is the debut recording from composer/songwriter Ron Rieder, the realization of ten compositions performed by an all-star group of musicians.