Dutch-American vocalist, songwriter and cancer research scientist Louise Alexandra explores love, memory, hope and heartbreak from multiple fascinating angles on Crazy World of Love, an engaging collection that balances thoughtful, soulful originals with fresh takes on standards and wildly inventive vocalese. Working with Dutch piano master Rob van Bavel and an excellent ensemble featuring bassist Frans van Geest, guitarist Vincent Koning, drummer Marcel Serierse and saxophon

In an era where “global music” is often reduced to trendy rhythmic fusions and superficial stylistic blends, Norwegian soprano/songwriter Kristin Amarie and Greek-Cypriot superstar Konstantinos Christoforou create something far more meaningful, impactful and emotionally immersive on “Maybe (Mipos)”—a soaring, deeply impassioned English/Greek duet that transforms longing, uncertainty and romantic hope into a sweeping cross-cultural musical journey. Opening with graceful acoust

The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra’s Ellington Masterworks is much more than a repertory project. Drawn from Duke Ellington compositions spanning 1940-1968 and rooted in the Smithsonian’s vast Ellington archives, the recording reflects the mission that has defined the orchestra since its founding in 1990: preserving jazz history while keeping it vibrantly alive in performance. Under the direction of conductor and artistic director Charlie Young and informed by the dee

With Best Laid Plans, composer, arranger and bandleader Jon Schapiro delivers the third recording by Schapiro17, the large ensemble he founded more than a decade ago after participating in the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop. Since its earliest performances in 2014, the band has developed a distinctive identity built on sophisticated writing, adventurous improvisation and a willingness to blur stylistic boundaries. On this latest release, Schapiro combines three compelling origin

Solo piano albums often tempt artists toward technical exhibitionism, but on Both Sides Now, Cuban-born pianist Kemuel Roig takes the opposite path. Throughout this thoughtful collection of pop, jazz and Latin standards, he favors emotional depth, spacious reflection and lyrical storytelling, inviting listeners to linger inside melodies they thought they already knew. Roig opens with a hypnotic waltz interpretation of Paul McCartney’s “Junk” before reimagining The Young Rasca

Trumpeter, composer and educator Rich Willey sets an inviting tone from the very title of Laid Back Vol. 1, but the album is far more than a collection of easygoing grooves. Featuring seven original compositions, inventive arrangements by Wally Minko and the remarkable electronic valve instrument (EVI) artistry of John Swana, the recording balances relaxed accessibility with adventurous improvisation, creating a colorful blend of funk, reggae, samba, soul-jazz and contemporar

One of the enduring pleasures of jazz is hearing a multi-talented artist take a familiar standard and reveal unexpected emotional colors and improvisational possibilities. Veteran vocalist, trumpeter and scat artist extraordinaire mines this kind of sonic magic throughout It Could Happen To You, a high spirited and often exhilarating collection that showcases both her expressive vocal artistry and bold, adventurous trumpet work – with well-placed touches of surreal scat that

There’s a certain electricity that only exists at the Whisky a Go Go—a sense that decades of Sunset Strip mythology are still hanging in the air somewhere between the Marshall stacks, the dim red lights and the ghosts of every band that ever walked onto that stage believing they were destined for something bigger. On this particular night, that energy belonged to Hellings. Not simply Brett Hellings the singer, but Hellings the band—the evolving, hard-charging rock vehicle the

While the worlds of jazz and mathematics rarely occupy the same creative space, Lawrence Udeigwe (known professionally as UDEiGWE) brings them together with remarkable elegance and insight on Four Lemmas: Toward a Proof of Identity in Music and Mathematics, an ambitious eight-part suite that transforms abstract concepts into soulful, groove-rich musical storytelling. Inviting the listener into an immersive world whose expressions mix singing, spoken word and subtle chanting b

After more than 50 years as a singer, songwriter and consummate jazz storyteller, Mark Winkler continues to prove that artistic longevity has less to do with reinvention than with finding fresh, clever and colorful ways to express an unmistakable personality. On Love Comes First, his 23rd album, the veteran vocalist -whom I’ve fondly dubbed “the L.A. jazz scene’s poet laureate” - moves effortlessly between romance, autobiography, social satire and Great American Songbook eleg

There’s something especially satisfying about the final chapter of a musical journey when the artist resists the temptation to go bigger and instead goes deeper. That’s precisely what pianist, historian and ragtime ambassador Terry Waldo accomplishes on Treasury Volume 3, the concluding installment of his remarkable trilogy for Turtle Bay Records. Rather than simply revisiting the most familiar cornerstones of early jazz and ragtime, Waldo and his Gotham City Band shine a lig

The farther we move from the dawn of jazz, the easier it becomes to regard the music of the 1920s as something preserved behind glass rather than the rambunctious popular entertainment it once was. On A Texas-Sized Band, Austin’s spirited 10-piece ensemble The Joymakers restores the sense of adventure, humor and communal excitement that made these songs staples of dance halls, theaters and radio broadcasts across the Southwest. Guided by multi-instrumentalist, arranger and no