Jawanza Kobie’s Weekly Wednesday Jazz Playlist May 25, 2022

Troy Andrews, also known by the stage name Trombone Shorty, is an American musician, producer, actor and philanthropist from New Orleans, Louisiana. Born January 2 1986, He is best known as a trombone and trumpet player but also plays drums, organ, and tuba. He has worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry U2, Lenny Kravitz, Green Day, The Foo Fighters, Eric Clapton. Andrews began playing trombone at age four, and since 2009 has toured with his own band, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. This is a new track of his ‘Lifted’ released in March 2022.

Josiah Alexander Sila, known professionally as Joey Alexander, is an Indonesian jazz pianist. He became the first Indonesian musician to chart on Billboard 200 when his album My Favorite Things debuted at number 174 and then peaked at 59. Born June 25 2003.  Joey Alexander has been performing professionally since 2013 when he was invited by Wynton Marsalis to perform at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala. Over the course of his astonishing career, Alexander has performed with Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding at the Obama White House, for President Bill Clinton at the Arthur Ashe Learning Center Gala, at the Grand Ole Opry, the Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall and at major jazz festivals and night clubs around the world. This is ‘Promise of Spring’ from his soon to be released album Origin.

Melody Gardot is an American jazz singer. Born February 2 1985 in New Jersey, Gardot started music lessons at the age of nine and began playing piano in Philadelphia bars at the age of 16 on Fridays and Saturdays for four hours a night. French-born, composer and pianist, Phillippe Powell and Gardot have joined forces to create an album where many of the songs sound as if they came straight out of the Great American Songbook. The only twist of lime is that at times, these “new standards” offer a Gershwinian nod to what could be otherwise dubbed the “Great French Songbook”, since several titles are in the language of the city where they were conceived (France). This is their track ‘This Foolish Heart Could Love You’ from Entre eux Deux.

Brandon Coleman is a keyboardist, vocalist, composer, producer, arranger. A regular fixture in the saxophone great Kamasi Washington band, on the keys or wielding his keytar, he is introduced onstage at gigs as “Professor Boogie” by his longtime friend and collaborator. Coleman’s epiphany came aged 16 when he’d only really just taken up piano. “My brother gave me a Herbie Hancock record - ‘Sunlight’,” he says. “I put it on and just kept listening to it on repeat ‘cos I couldn’t fathom how he was singing like that… it sounded electric.

The list of artists with whom Coleman has collaborated is simultaneously inspiring and exhausting. From Ciara to Mulatu Astatke and Childish Gambino to Shuggie Otis… but one of his most consistent studio partners during the last decade has been R&B icon Babyface. “I’ve learned a lot from him. This is from his most recent release May 10 2022 ‘Be With Me’

Shabaka Hutchings is a British jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and band leader. He leads the bands Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors. He is also a member of The Comet Is Coming, performing under the stage name King Shabaka. Over the last half decade, Shabaka Hutchings has established himself as a central figure in the London jazz scene, which is enjoying its greatest creative renaissance since the breakthroughs of Joe Harriott and Evan Parker. He has studied classical clarinet at college at London’s prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama. In his teens he was obsessed with reggae and hip-hop, especially Tupac, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, and E-40 (“he’s the Eric Dolphy of hip-hop,” Hutchings says of the West Coast rapper, “where he’s going is just completely out there”), and still practices by playing his saxophone along to rap albums like the Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready To Die. This is new track from his new release on May 2022 ‘Ital Is Vital’

Tank and the Bangas is an American musical group based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The band won the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk Contest and in November 2019, they were nominated in the Best New Artist category for the 2020 Grammy Awards. They have released three studio albums, Thinktank and Green Balloon, and Red Balloon. From their new release May 12, 2022 this is ‘Mr Bluebell’

Peter Erskine has played the drums since the age of four and is known for his versatility and love of working in different musical contexts. He appears on 700 albums and film scores, and has won two Grammy Awards, plus an Honorary Doctorate from the Berklee School of Music (1992). Fifty albums have been released under his own name or as co-leader. He has played with the Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson Big Bands, Weather Report, Steps Ahead, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Diana Krall, Kenny Wheeler, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Brecker Brothers, The Yellowjackets, Pat Metheny and Gary Burton, John Scofield, et al, and has appeared as a soloist with the London, Los Angeles, Chicago, Frankfurt Radio, Scottish Chamber, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Royal Opera House, BBC Symphony, Oslo and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. Peter is Professor of Practice and Director of Drumset Studies at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California. From his most recent release April 2022 with his trio this is ‘The Honeymoon’

Trombonist Steve Davis was born April 14, 1967 in Worcester MA. He studied jazz under Jackie Mclean at the Hartt School of the University of Hartford in Connecticut. Davis has played with Chick Corea, Art Blakey, Larry Willis, Jackie McLean. This ‘Bluesthetic’ from his release April 16, 2022

Guitar great John Scofield, sometimes referred to as "Sco", is an American guitarist and composer whose music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. Born in Dayton OH 1951thsi composer guitarist has been wowing audiences for decades with his virtuosity. John Scofield’s guitar work has influenced jazz since the late 70’s and is going strong today. Possessor of a very distinctive sound and stylistic diversity, Scofield is a masterful jazz improviser whose music generally falls somewhere between post-bop, funk edged jazz, and R & B. Since that time he has prominently led his own groups in the international Jazz scene, recorded over 30 albums as a leader (many already classics) including collaborations with contemporary favorites like Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, Eddie Harris, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Bill Frisell, Brad Mehldau, Mavis Staples, Government Mule, Jack DeJohnette, Joe Lovano and Phil Lesh. He’s played and recorded with Tony Williams, Jim Hall, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson, Dave Holland, Terumasa Hino among many jazz legends. Throughout his career Scofield has punctuated his traditional jazz offerings with funk-oriented electric music. All along, the guitarist has kept an open musical mind. From his soon to be released album this is the track ‘Honest I Do’

‘Carnival de la Samba’ from my Feels Better Than It Sounds CD.

I hope you enjoy

JK