Philadephia-based drummer and arranger Tom Cohen uses groups of various sizes from trio to octet recorded over a ten-year span to tailor an elegant musical “love letter” to Brazil and its iconic dance music, the bossa nova, on Embraceable Brazil, an album whose charming melodies and vibrant rhythms represent the best that picturesque South American country has to offer.
Of course, Antonio Carlos Jobim is here, as would be true on any survey of Brazilian music, with “Brigas Nunca Mais,” “Look to the Sky” and the ageless “Girl from Ipanema,” the last sung by Barbara Mendes with support from one of Philadelphia’s jazz legends, tenor saxophonist Larry McKenna. Mendes also sings (quite well) on “Brigas Nunca Mais” and the album’s…
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Stefano Tanzi is an up-and-coming Italian guitarist with a knack for smooth playing. His debut as leader, Wrong Together, is essentially a tribute to jazz legend Steve Swallow, but it also communicates so much more. With the assistance of Emanuele di Teodoro on bass and Fabio Colella on drums, the trio works with sleek skill. The music is gentle, the tunes are delicate, and yet the sound does not slip away unnoticed. Tanzi moves with grace but remembers to give his audience something interesting to chew on, too.
On his latest album, The Eternal, LA bassist and composer 
In an era when athleticism, blatant egotism, and cacophony are all too common elements of jazz performance, it is refreshing to hear a record populated by players who exhibit give-and-take, musicality, and a willingness to listen and share sonic space.
Music for Roads is a cross-cultural collaboration between Nordic jazz and indie folk/americana players, including Finnish trumpet player Verneri Pohjola, Finnish americana/folk band 
The British collective 
At a time when violently distorted, nearly atonal rage rap can scratch the mainstream while avant-garde jazz artists fuse traditional band arrangements with the unearthly sound design of club music’s vanguard, it’s no small feat that 
The penultimate track on 
A pleasant and inoffensive hard bop record, Keith Oxman’s Home shows the saxophonist in fine form. But with a 70 minute plus run time, it’s also a record that overstays its welcome. It’s a good record where a little pruning and spacing out would have pushed it to a higher level.
How do you define a weird record? For most listeners, it usually means a set of sounds arranged as songs or compositions that go beyond the usual set of boundaries or musical formulas, reaching the ears as something out of the usual.
These unreleased 1970s sessions from legendary pianist/composer Michael Garrick, see him lead two groups of top Brit jazzers, who perform eight original compositions by Garrick that display his flair for combining emotive writing with modal jazz grooves.
…includes two bonus tracks “Sittin’ Here (Karizma DJs Dub) and “Sittin’ Here (Peacey Remix).
On her third album as a leader, tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover partners terrifically with bassist Tyrone Allen II and drummer Kayvon Gordon, who can turn on a dime and provide elastic and responsive support.