John Pizzarelli is full of surprises: surprising influences, surprising insights, and surprising selections on his Richard Rodgers tribute disc, With A Song In My Heart, released on Telarc Jazz on August 19. Also surprising, given the seven-string guitarist’s long-standing relationship with the jazz canon and his penchant for thematic albums, is that he hadn’t done a Rodgers album before now. "Actually, it was my management’s idea," he said, speaking from his home in New York, awaiting …

Working with the same band for an extended period of time has some obvious advantages. Getting to know someone well means coming to know how they think musically, being able to predict what they are going to play under certain circumstances, how they are going to respond to certain musical cues. "We’re so attuned to each other and listen to each other so hard that that process is a really satisfying process," jazz vocalist Tierney Sutton said of making music with her bandmates, with whom she …

British jazz writer Digby Fairweather calls guitarist Howard Alden's Duets, with seven-string innovator George Van Eps "flawless". Alden's latest, another duet recording with another seven-string master, Bucky Pizzarelli, also deserves the description. The aptly named In A Mellow Tone (Concord Jazz, CCD-2207-2) has abiding warmth and intimacy, without sacrificing swing and inventiveness. At first glance, the two guitarists appear to come from separate worlds. Alden is 44 and grew u …

Counterclockwise, Bobby Previte and his working unit Bump's latest release on Palmetto Jazz, is said to be a "follow-up" to his 2001 Just Add Water. But in addition to a key personnel change, the new disc has a very different feel. Recorded more or less live at an unlikely studio on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, its energy is raw and less produced than Just Add Water. Previte rocks out on his kit, sometimes shouting out key changes and other instructions, like a …

There is no trumpeter on the jazz scene today that brings it home like Roy Hargrove. After winning his first Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Performance for Habana in 1997 with his Afro-Cuban band Crisol, and his second Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album in 2002, Directions in Music with Herbie Hancock and Michael Brecker, Hargrove expanded his musical directions to include other genres as with his RH Factor band, applying elements of hip-hop, soul and gospel in a jazzy mix. …