You would hardly suspect that Hilary Gardner, one third of the smashing vocal jazz trio Duchess, grew up in the (comparative) wilds of Alaska, immersed in country music and Western swing. But on her newest record, On the Trail With the Lonesome Pines, she not only digs into this musically rich past but reveals how it informs her musically astute present.

Pianist/composer Sean Mason lives in New York City—he moved there in 2018 to attend Juilliard—but he remains deeply immersed in the rich cultural heritage of his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. He summons this birthright on The Southern Suite , one of the most impressive debuts of last year.

When Nora York died in 2016 at the age of 60, she left behind an distinguished body of creative works: theatrical performance pieces, commissioned concert compositions, soundtracks, several jazz albums (including one with bandleader Maria Schneider), and one TED talk. Her warmly colored voice, at once soothing and challenging, proved an apt vehicle for her boundlessly eclectic ideas. These ideas have only grown in relevance over the years—as evidenced by Rain (Good Mood Records), a 10-track collection of York’s later creations.

On her fourth album as a leader, Two Moons, singer/composer Michelle Lordi entertains a fascination with shape-shifting things:  dreams, celestial bodies, natural forces, supernatural beings. It would be easy to fall into the dystopian visions that she conjures with these tunes—except that Lordi’s voice itself telegraphs optimism and charm. The dissonance between this vocal presentation and the content of her tunes is mesmerizing.

Last October, singer Samara Joy posted a personal video on her social media. In it, her grandfather, Elder Goldwire McLendon, is singing “It Is Well With My Soul,” surrounded by relatives gathered in a diner to celebrate his 93rd birthday. At the chorus, the family begins to harmonize in an impromptu gospel concert. The snippet, not even a minute and a half long, received about 4 million views on TikTok. Joy had only joined the platform in January of 2022.

Last year, singer/songwriter Ann Hampton Callaway entered the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame for her many contributions to jazz and traditional pop music. Callaway started out in New York’s cabaret scene in the 1980s, accompanying herself on piano; her specialty was tunes that tear your heart into shreds.  

So many female histories are forgotten—if they were ever noted to begin with. On COIN COIN Chapter Five: in the garden (Constellation), composer and multi-instrumentalist Matana Roberts not only asserts this truth but seeks to remedy at least one such omission.

It’s hard to believe that Artemis is only six years old. Not just for the group’s rapid ascent into the jazz firmament, but for its players’ cool-headed resilience in the face of tectonic change.

Pent-up demand? Rampant escapism? A sudden groundswell of goodwill? For some reason, an unprecedented number of thematic vocal jazz performances and releases come to New York this holiday season.

The title cut of Night Birds (Robalo), the third duo album by vocalist Sara Serpa and guitarist André Matos, borrows its sounds from the evening darkness—rustling leaves, hooting calls, whispers.  Both Serpa and Matos excel at parsing lower amplitudes, so you expect the quiet. What comes as a surprise is the tune’s animation: For these two composers, the hidden world of nighttime is anything but asleep.

A year ago October, Leopoldo “Pucho” Escalante, a heralded trombonist from the golden age of Cuban jazz, passed away in New York City, two months shy of his 102nd birthday. Though largely overlooked today, Pucho and his older brother Luis made a lasting imprint on Latin jazz, not just for their ground-breaking musicianship, but for their mentorship of the next generation of influential players.

Fall in New York means spring in Brazil, where soft breezes carry even softer voices, engaged in song. Singer/composer Ivan Lins is responsible for a great number of these songs.

In 2010, when Darcy James Argue wrote “Dymaxion,” a masterstroke for large ensemble, he knew it was the beginning of something bigger—a series of musical portraits, each celebrating a forward-looking, 20th-century thinker.

Built in 1770, the Ear Inn has been in constant service to the drinking public for more than 250 years. This colonial-era space also serves the listening public, though this history is less readily available, which is why Live at the Ear Inn (Arbor Records) by trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso and his octet The EarRegulars deserves attention.

Vocalist Kurt Elling and guitarist Charlie Hunter first started working together in 1995—their respective inclinations toward blues and funk expression must have generated an instant artistic rapport. But it would be about 25 years before they documented this musical relationship in the studio.

During jaimie branch’s too-short life—she died in August 2022 at age 39—the forward-leaning trumpeter challenged many a status quo. You can hear her tearing down walls on Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)), her posthumous release for Chicago’s International Anthem label.

This month, several new albums defy the usual vocal jazz classifications.

Alice McLeod Coltrane Turiyasangitananda spent just four years of her life with tenor saxophonist John Coltrane. Momentous as those years were for them both, Alice’s influence as a musician extended beyond her towering relationship with John.

Drummer Srdjan Ivanovic has led a peripatetic musical life. Born in Bosnia, he spent part of his childhood in Greece before going on to earn two music degrees in the Netherlands and study on scholarship in New York—ultimately to land in Paris, his base of operation today. These diverse influences coalesce on Xénos (Rue des Balkans/Absilone/Socadisc), the debut album from his quintet by the same name. 

The Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, now in its 46th year, hosted 21 topline acts at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center the weekend of June 24-25.  From any of the SPAC’s many concert stages, one could readily absorb the festival’s many musical cross-currents.