The appeal of José James’ music derives from his naturally resonant voice, so finely suited for soulful expressiveness. On his latest record, On & On: José James Sings Badu, the award-winning jazz singer uses this refined instrument to re-contextualize seven titles from singer/songwriter Erykah Badu’s impressive oeuvre.

Indian classical music has survived for millennia as a largely oral tradition passed on through musical family lines. Tabla player Zakir Hussein and bansuri player Rakesh Chaurasia both come from such lineages; throughout the world they are honored as keepers of this sacred, ancient art form. At the core of the musicians’ artistry lies an improvisational ability so virtuosic as to make Westerners’ ears spin—so it takes a unique musician to collaborate on equal footing with these two. On As We Speak (Thirty Tigers), banjoist Béla Fleck meets this challenge, with ready assist from double bassist Edgar Meyer.

On the second evening of this year’s American Pianists Association (APA) jazz competition in Indianapolis, contender Isaiah J. Thompson announced his final piece from the stage—it wasn’t listed in the program. “I’ll play one more, if that’s alright,” the 25-year-old said, as he introduced “Thank You, Betsy”, from his latest album, The Power of the Spirit (Blue Engine Records).

The cover of Arturo O’Farrill’s new trio album, Legacies (Blue Note), shows a 12-year-old O’Farrill sitting on his father’s knee. His legendary father, bandleader Chico O’Farrill, liked to spend hours listening to music of all sorts, often with his son by his side. This is how the younger O’Farrill absorbed his cultural inheritance—one vinyl spin at a time.

Bandleader/drummer Bobby Sanabria usually uses vocals on his recordings with Multiverse, his Grammy-nominated Afro-Cuban big band. He’ll sing himself, and the band will provide backup, and sometimes he’ll invite a dynamic singer like Charaneè Wade to front the group. On Vox Humana (Jazzheads), Sanabria continues to build on his interest in arranging for voices.

This arresting collection of solo pieces for acoustic piano—entirely improvised—reveals the powerful musical mind that feeds all of Rachel Eckroth’s ensemble projects.

A pair of mountains along the Ipanema coastline serves as inspiration for Two Brothers, the latest offering from Brazilian guitarists Chico Pinheiro and Romero Lubambo. The 12 duets on this Sunnyside release give expression to the breadth of the instrumentalists’ musical passions, from classic sambas to jazz standards to contemporary pop.

In the liner notes of the April release, Blue Room: The 1979 Vara Studio Sessions In Holland, Dutch journalist and Chet Baker biographer Jeroen de Valk challenges a myth about the last years of the trumpeter’s life. The myth—that Baker wandered aimlessly around Europe, idle and washed up—is easily disabused with one listen to this 2-disc set.

Hundreds of chrysanthemums filled the dim-lit room at Apparatus, a midtown Manhattan design studio where the Baylor Project performed for three nights last May. On a whim, the husband-wife duo decided to record the event. The pursuant album, The Evening: Live at Apparatus, would earn them their fifth and sixth Grammy nominations.   

Each track on singer Kurt Elling’s newest release with guitarist Charlie Hunter, Superblue: Guilty Pleasures, opens with a rhythmic signal: a rap on the rim, a kick against the skin, a thwack on a string. These salvos ignite the momentum of each tune—no question that what comes next is going to be decisive, powerful, and groove-heavy.

Forty years ago guitarist/singer John Pizzarelli released his debut album, I'm Hip (Please Don't Tell My Father). The father in this scenario is famed guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, who passed in 2020—just one of the jazz world’s many profound losses to Covid. John, like his other siblings, follows in his father’s outsized footsteps; to date, he’s recorded more than 20 solo albums and contributed to scores more as a guest. This month he adds another title to this impressive body of work: Stage & Screen, a carefully parsed collection of 12 songs from mainstream musicals and films.

On Rosa Passos’ new live recording, Samba Sem Você (Storyville), the celebrated Brazilian singer/guitarist maneuvers the rhythmic currents and fast-paced melodies artfully, her longtime trio synchronized to her pace. By the time she recorded this album—the second set from a gig at Copenhagen Jazzhouse in the summer of 2001—the Bahian artist was two decades out from her debut, Recriação, the record that launched her reputation as one of the foremost interpreters of the Bossa Songbook.

In 2021, saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin was in a car accident that left her with multiple fractures, including a broken jaw. In working through an extensive recovery, Benjamin found the source material for her newest release, Phoenix (Whirlwind). On the album, Benjamin successfully pits resilience against adversity.

A tenured professor at Austria’s KUG, DeRose continues to head the University’s vocal jazz program almost 17 years on, and Graz is her permanent home. From this perch at the center of European culture, she’s crafted eight albums and solidified her global reputation as a top-tier jazz musician.

As its title suggests, Marcus Strickland’s latest release, The Universe’s Wildest Dream, shoulders some weighty themes. The album’s eight compositions, all by the award-winning woodwinds player, take on, in turn, climate change, racism, Earthly existence, other-worldly existence, enlightenment, and the power of music to heal. The medium for these pertinent messages is Black world music—the galvanizing beats and sounds gifted by the African diaspora.

In the mid-1940s, musical polymath Billy Eckstine starred in Rhythm in a Riff, an on-screen musical about a determined, up-and-coming bandleader. Astor Pictures distributed the film, produced for a Black audience, with an all-Black cast. Films like this—important documentation of early jazz—are out there, but they’re hard to find. Most of them have been lost.

In 2018 pianist Fred Hersch invited bassist/singer esperanza spalding to perform with him at the Village Vanguard as part of his annual birthday gig there. Hersch had the foresight to record these stunning sets, and on Jan. 9, Palmetto Records releases Alive at the Village Vanguard, eight tracks that capture the peak moments of the duo’s improvisations during that run.

Much has changed since Harmony, Bill Frisell’s long-awaited debut as a leader on Blue Note in 2019. Not just in the world at large, but in the celebrated guitarist/composer’s interior space. With Four, the third Blue Note release under his own name, Frisell honors several close friends who recently passed. From this place of loss springs a serene work inspired by these deep, lasting bonds.

Despite their resolute popularity, holiday songs—nearly always vocals—don’t fit neatly into any genre. Such stubborn resistance to niche makes tracking the commercial success of any one holiday release tricky and subject to the limitations of the metrics used: Just how do you measure popularity?

Christian McBride never strays too far from his bass, not even when he’s offstage.  Not when he’s producing an international jazz festival, or running an intensive workshop, or broadcasting a radio show. His bass informs just about every aspect of his professional life.