May Music Mix: Jazz

This week, I wanted to share some more new releases with you, and it just so happens that all the music is jazz. We begin with Trombone Shorty (Troy Andrews) who is just as hot on trumpet as he is on trombone. I didn't even know he played trumpet, but heard this short cut and wondered, "Who is the trumpet player?" Waaaaay talented.

Next we hear pianist and jazz heavyweight Ahmad Jamal, a perennial favorite. (Miles Davis felt the same way.) This track stands out in that he works with a poet, Abd Al Malik, in a love song to the Southern French port city of Marseille.

Chris Potter is an amazing and edgy tenor player, even more so when he's working with Cuban pianist David Vireilles. With Joe Martin on bass and Marcus Gilmore playing drums, the group hits a home run.

Rachel Flowers, born blind and weighing just one and a half pounds, surmounted all odds to become an amazing musical polymath. She plays ALL the instruments on the cut we hear, called "Greg's Favorite." Flowers is the subject of a new documentary film as well, called Hearing is Believing.

Jazzmeia Horn sings Betty Carter classics on her new album A Social Call, and she gives us a nice rendition of the evergreen "East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)." Then bassist Charnett Moffett is back with a new album, the first in a while. He covers the Miles Davis classic "So What."

The next two new releases come from tenor saxophonists Roxy Coss and Berta Moreno. Nice to see women taking up the tenor rather than violins, piano, oboes, etc. It's unusual, and I love it. (Hope that doesn't sound sexist!)

We wrap it up with Christian Sands, a superb, elegant, and forceful pianist who is a regular member of bassist Christian McBride's super group.

Hope you enjoy this jazz set.

Rhythm Planet Playlist for 5/5/17

2. Trombone Shorty / "Laveau Dirge No. 1" /Parking Lot Symphony/ Blue Note

3. Ahmad Jamal / "Marseille (ft. Abd Al Malik, Spoken Word)" / Marseille/ Jazz Village

4. Chris Potter / "The Dreamer Is The Dream" / The Dreamer Is The Dream / ECM

5. Rachel Flowers / "Greg's Favorite" / Listen/ Rachel Flowers Music

6. Jazzmeia Horn / "East Of The Sun (And West of The Moon)" / A Social Call/ Prestige

7. Charnett Moffett / "So What" / Music From Our Soul/ Motema

8. Roxy Coss / " Never Enough" / Chasing The Unicorn / Positone

9. Berta Moreno / "Option A" / Little Steps / Berta Moreno

10. Christian Sands / "Use Me" / Reach/ Mack Avenue Records