Kosovo born vocalist and songwriter Maja Jaku has made exquisitely intimate and charmingly swinging jazzy waves in her native Europe for years, touring with her trio, performing with the Austrian fusion band Attack, performing in musicals and releasing four acclaimed albums. On her intriguingly titled debut American collection Blessed and Bewitched , she shares those magnificent, deeply lived vocal passions and cool soulful strutting with U.S. audience for the first time, art

In addition to establishing himself as one of Southern California’s most versatile and prolific jazz composers and guitarists, Doug MacDonald uses his multi-faceted discography to serve as something of a regional tour guide over the past decade. While his 2021 album Live in Hawaii was the Philly native’s nod to growing up in the Aloha State, he’s otherwise been strumming, swinging, bopping and booming in locales familiar to SoCal jazz fans – including The Coachella Valley Tr

Fans of the dynamic, jazz/soul driven vocal interpreter Michael Moody’s unique phrasing, arrangements and tender intimacy have been waiting seven years – which seems much longer, due to the pandemic – for The Ecstasy of Love , his brilliant, emotionally compelling follow-up to his second standards album It Never Entered My Mind . While his first two projects had traditional jazz lineups featuring piano and drums, the key to the even more intense, vulnerably intimate romance a

Since unleashing his pent up musical passion on his brilliant Brazilian samba/Afro-Cuban jazz debut album Latin Jazz Sessions in 2024, there’s been no stopping composer, arranger and producer Ron Reider, a successful physical scientist who made music on the side whenever he had the chance, waiting for the right opportunity to record with the perfect dream teams of jazz musicians to help him realize his unique, stylistically varied visions. One his third album Compositions in

With their masterful first dual ambient-tribal trance album Activation , veteran instrumental artists, visionary sonic imagineers and innovators Byron Metcalf and Billy Denk invite us to experience something deeply personal and visceral yet transcendent and soul-transformative, creating expansive, richly immersive musical landscapes to facilitate foundational, enduring connections to our authentic inner selves, sparking dreams and imagination that help us explore our inner wo

It’s the best-case scenario every artist dreams of – the opportunity to dedicate themselves to a long-term creative project without a strict deadline, navigating melodic, rhythmic and harmonic challenges and emerging, as the Darren Litzie does with a transcendent album like On My Own Time . With a set of stylish, hipster originals and uniquely haunting, atmospheric, expansively arranged re-imaginings of “Moonlight in Vermont” and “Time of the Season,” the brilliant multi-tale

The opening line of Grammy nominated composer/arranger Dave Slonaker’s liner notes for Shifty Paradigms , his melodically and harmonically imaginative, rhythmically intense and stylistically diverse third album, says it all about his lifelong devotion to the realm: “Since my middle school days, the sound of big band has intrigued me." One of Hollywood’s most in demand arrangers and orchestrators for more than 30 years, his diversity is rooted in complementary passions for Jaz

Effervescent, ever-witty and stylish L.A. jazz blues and soul icon Betty Bryant is perhaps the only singer alive of which we can say, at age 96, it feels like she’s just getting warmed up. Quickly following up her critically acclaimed 2024 album Lotta Livin’, she joins forces with longtime collaborator and saxophonist/producer Robert Kyle for Nothin’ Better To Do , a lively, soulfully lived in, stylistically eclectic and beautifully loving set of engaging originals and offb

That elementary school teacher who taught Ricky Alexander the Original Dixieland Jazz Band’s “Tiger Rag” and other ragtime classics would fall in love quickly with the innovative, wildly versatile clarinet master’s third Turtle Bay Records recording Ragology. In addition to showcasing Alexander’s effervescent passion for seminal century-plus old romps like “Buffalo Rag,” “Ragtime Oriole,” “Nola” and the Jelly Roll Morton classics “Shreveport Stomp” and “Sweetheart O Mine,”

Fully embracing and embodying the title of his full-length debut Songs of My Dreams , James Judson reveals himself not only as a graceful, deeply soulful balladeer and charming crooner with an impeccable sense of swing, but also as an effortlessly talented vocalist who never gave up on his lifelong dream to sing - and literally gains inspiration from his subconscious dreams. After pursuing music into his 30s, he reached a crossroads to raise his large family (six kids) and bu

The title and overriding theme of The Dave Wilson Quartet’s When Even Goes East  gives his fans a glimpse of his life before he was an in-demand jazz cat to the tune of 120 annual dates with big bands and small ensembles and headlining festivals, jazz clubs and private engagements while also owning and operating a woodwind based musical instrument company. The buoyant, percussive and coolly strutting title track feels like an adventurous ride with him years ago during his bri

During his whirlwind 20+ year tenure as touring and recording keyboardist for contemporary jazz supergroup The Rippingtons, Bill Heller counts two enduring blessings above all others – the opportunity to vibe with some of the genre’s most creative and esteemed saxophonists (Eric Marienthal, Jeff Kashiwa, Paul Taylor) and learning from group founder and sonic architect Russ Freeman the value and excitement of creating instrumental albums around a specific theme that drives an