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.

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.