Ken Peplowski, Enrapture (Capri) Despite a playlist that seems to represent a grab bag of music, there is nothing scattershot about Ken Peplowski’s eclecticism. The clarinetist and tenor saxophonist with the capacious tone and imagination brings together Duke Ellington’s early-1940s “The … [Read more...]

Shirley Horn Live at the 4 Queens (Resonance) The Resonance label continues its parade of previously unissued recordings with this jewel by Shirley Horn, a supremely gifted pianist and singer (1934-2005). By the time of the 1988 performance in the music room of her favorite Las Vegas hotel, Ms. … [Read more...]

Monday Recommendation: Kathrine Windfeld, Aircraft (Century Music) The rich history of jazz in Scandinavia began more than a century ago. During the swing and bebop eras Sweden, Denmark and Norway produced major soloists, composers and arrangers. The emergence of Kathrine Windfeld’s big band … [Read more...]

Fred Hersch Trio, Sunday Night at the Vanguard (Palmetto) After all their years together, take it for granted that pianist Hersch, bassist John Hébert and drummer Eric McPherson listen intently to one another and mesh with elegance on every level. However, taking for granted anything about the … [Read more...]

Toots Thielemans, Yesterday & Today (Out Of The Blue) The loss today of the harmonica virtuoso makes this survey of his career poignant and rewarding. Two CDs with thirty-eight tracks, most previously unreleased, follow Thielemans from 1946, when he was a 23-year-old guitarist with a Belgian … [Read more...]

Bill Charlap Trio: Notes From New York (Impulse!) In Thad Jones’s “Little Rascal On A Rock,” pianist Charlap, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington summon up the dynamics of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis big band’s 1976 debut recording of the piece. Their twenty years together … [Read more...]

Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane, Matthew Garrison, In Movement (ECM) Drummer DeJohnette leads John Coltrane’s saxophonist son Ravi and Jimmy Garrison’s bassist son Matthew in an album that has majesty, reflection, calm and flashes of fire. The senior Coltrane and the senior Garrison were … [Read more...]

Peggy Stern, Z Octet (Estrella Productions) It has been 16 years since Peggy Stern last applied her piano, composing and arranging talents to a mid-sized ensemble. Z Octet was worth waiting for. The sonic textures, harmonic subtleties, rhythmic variety and instrumentation draw upon classical … [Read more...]

John Hollenbeck Claudia Quintet, Super Petite (Cuneiform) Hollenbeck’s little band has unity of thought, purpose and execution more often found in long-lived classical ensembles than in jazz. The difference, of course, is improvisation. Yet, Hollenbeck’s skills as composer-arranger, leader … [Read more...]

Charlie Parker, Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes (Verve) Charlie Parker has never disappeared from the consciousness of serious jazz listeners. This two-CD collection, due out on Friday, could go a long way toward helping new generations discover the stunning purity and power of Parker’s … [Read more...]

Chris Ziemba, Manhattan Lullaby (Outside in Music) His abilities honed by studies at the Eastman School of Music and Juilliard, 29-year-old pianist Chris Ziemba is in demand on the New York scene. His debut recording as a leader discloses a varied compositional sense and a canny choice of … [Read more...]

Ted Gioa, How To Listen To Jazz (Basic Books) Opposite the contents page of this concise book is a quote from Duke Ellington: “Listening is the most important thing in music.” It seems an obvious truth, yet the idea eludes many people who claim that they wish they understood jazz. Gioia … [Read more...]

JD Allen, Americana: Musings on Jazz and Blues (Savant) The wisdom of Allen’s choice of material is borne out in nine performances that illustrate an article of faith he expresses in his notes, “…the blues is the gateway to the past and future of American music; the well from which gospel, … [Read more...]

Kirk MacDonald, Symmetry (Addo) Oleg Kireyev & Keith Javors, The Meeting (Inarhyme) The unprecedented double recommendation this week is because both albums have the brilliant Tom Harrell on trumpet and flugelhorn as a sideman, a rare role for him these days— and because they are among the … [Read more...]

Frank R. Hayde, Stan Levey: Jazz Heavyweight (Santa Monica Press) Taken under Dizzy Gillespie’s wing when he was sixteen, Stan Levey (1926-2005) developed into a bebop drummer the equal of his early hero Max Roach. During the final five decades of his life, Levey left behind his rough east … [Read more...]

Jeff Lederer’s, Brooklyn Blowhards, (Little (i) Music) Lederer conglomerates music by the free jazz avatar Albert Ayler with sea shanties that survive from the whaling ship era when Herman Melville had Ahab pursuing Moby Dick. Influenced by Ayler’s haunting, raucous saxophone style, Lederer … [Read more...]

Steven Brower & Mercedes Ellington: Duke Ellington: An American Composer and Icon (Rizzoli). 224 pages. $35.48 The scores of photos, illustrations and reproductions of documents make this book a valuable supplement to the growing stack of Ellington biographies: Bennett’s watercolor painting of … [Read more...]

Mack Avenue Superband 2015 (Mack Avenue) Beginning in 2012, the Detroit Jazz Festival has teamed players of varied backgrounds in all-star bands. At the 2015 festival, thorough preparation resulted not in a typical festival jam session, but a program of new music by participants who played with … [Read more...]