Eugenie Jones: Players (Open Mic Records, 2-CD set). Vocalist/composer Eugenie Jones’ 3rd CD, is a double album recorded in NYC, Dallas, Chicago and her home base of Seattle, with stellar musicians, 
including Reggie Workman, Julian Priester, Bernard Purdie, Bobby Sanabria, Marquis Hill and many more. The diversity of Players extends to its tunes as well. Its Dallas session includes the Gershwins’ “I Got Rhythm” and two Jones originals: “There Are Thorns,” an anthem of determination, and the darkly soulful “One More Night to Burn.” Chicago’s output includes two Irving Berlin’s “You Can Have Him” and “Blue Skies” highlighted in a Fender Rhodes solo by Kevin O’Connell. In Seattle, Jones explores Billy Strayhorn’s moody ballad “Multicolored Blue,” Nina Simone’s “Do I Move You” and four of her own tunes, using three completely different lineups across the tracks. The New York session focuses on Jones’s originals, ranging from a hard-edged Latin groover, “Ultimo Baile En Casa,” featuring Sanabria, to a mellow ballad “As Long As” with trumpeter Marquis Hill in a beautiful solo.
Sheila Jordan: Live at Mezzrow (Cellar Music Group and SmallsLIVE Foundation) is the first live recording by jazz luminary Sheila Jordan in nearly a decade. Live At Mezzrow captures Jordan’s nuance and soulful swing that continues to attract audiences seven decades into a lifetime of jazz. 
The famed vocalist performs alongside her long-time rhythm section, which includes two-time GRAMMY winning pianist Alan Broadbent and bassist Harvie S. Among the Jordan treasures are the Abbey Lincoln classic “Bird Alone,” and standards such as “The Touch of Your Lips,” “Look For The Silver Lining” and “Falling in Love With Love,” among others. Jordan prides herself on her association with Charlie Parker, who often introduced her as “the singer with the million dollar ears.” The singer reflects on her hero in her composition “The Bird” as well as a vocal rendition of Parker’s classic “Confirmation.” Jordan also delivers a Jon Hendricks-inspired vocalise and shades of “Take the A Train” from Broadbent.
The Rainbow Lullaby, produced by Ryan Bauer-Walsh, Fred Sauter and 
Yasuhiko Fukoka, with audio engineering, mixing and mastering by Fukuoka, is a compilations album of songs by writers who all identify as LGBTQIA+, including Tony, Oscar and Grammy Award winner Marc Shaiman, Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Award winner Debra Barsha, Bobby Cronin, Mark Hartman and many more. Performances are by Klea Blackhurst, Tony Award nominee and Drama Desk winner Jenn Collela, Matt Doyle, Jay Armstrong Johnson, Michael Longoria, Susie Mosher, Jelani Remy, The First Presbyterian Church of New York City Choir and a host of others. Proceeds from The Rainbow Lullaby support the Ali Forney Center, whose mission is to protect LGBTQ+ youths from the harms of homelessness and empower them with the tools needed to live independently.
Debbie Wileman: I’m Still Here, conducted and produced by Grammy Award Winner Steve Orich, 
celebrates Judy Garland’s 100th birthday and features many of Judy’s classics as well as other contemporary hits that Wileman believes Judy would be singing today. The track list contains tunes such “When You Wish Upon a Star,” “It’s Today,” “Fifty Percent,” “Defying Gravity” and “Over the Rainbow,” (recorded live at the Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage at Sony Pictures Studios) among others. The CD has been released in conjunction with a national tour introducing the British vocal impressionist to American audiences.
Ada Bird Wolfe: Odd Bird, has been produced in collaboration with pianist/arranger/composer Jamieson Trotter. During
the pandemic lockdown, Wolfe wrote music, treating the writing like a job she had to go to every day; by the end of 2020, she had written 45 songs. Twelve of those songs appear on Odd Bird, her third CD with Trotter. Although Wolfe wrote many songs of a political nature during that turbulent year, she decided to save those for another project, instead including here her love songs and songs about nature, written in a variety of styles that each invites you in with a conversational, intimate approach. Odd Bird is an album of subtlety with musical and emotional depth. Also appearing on the album are bassist Dan Lutz, drummer Peter Buck and Scott Mayo on saxophones, bass clarinet, flute.
Elizabeth Ward Land: Still Within the Sound of My Voice—The Songs of Linda Ronstadt (LML Music) touches on genres including rock, country, folk, big band and mariachi. Saluting Linda Ronstadt, Land 
explores songs from phases of Ronstadt’s long career, from pop (“Heat Wave”) and driving rock (“You’re No Good”) to sophisticated standards (“Falling in Love Again”) and Latin classics (“Frenesí”). Tracing her own life through the songs from Ronstadt’s vast catalogue, the album lets Land interpret works from songwriting legends, including Dolly Parton (“Pain of Loving You”), Jimmy Webb (“Still Within the Sound of My Voice”), and Anna McGarrigle (“Heart Like a Wheel”). The album features Andrew David Sotomayor on piano, Kevin Kuhn on guitar, Jordan Jancz on bass and cello, Arei Sekiguchi on drums and percussion, Joel Waggoner on violin and vocals, and Catherine Porter on vocals.
Jason Palmer: Live from Summit Rock in Seneca Village and Burton/McPherson Trio featuring Dezron Douglas: The Summit Rock Session at Seneca Village from Giant Step Arts are two live albums captured at a historic site in Central Park in the midst of the Covid pandemic. Throughout the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021, some of New York City’s finest and most acclaimed jazz musicians performed outdoor performances in 
Central Park as part of the “Walk With the Wind” concert series. Seneca Village was founded in 1825 along what is now the park’s perimeter from West 82nd to West 89th Street. It was a community primarily comprised of free African-American property owners along with Irish and German immigrants, all living apart from the racism and xenophobia they faced elsewhere in the city. The community thrived until the mid-1850s, when the land was seized by eminent domain for the creation of Central Park. Among the musicians playing on these CDs are trumpeter Jason Palmer, saxophonist Mark Turner and Abraham Burton, drummer Eric McPherson and bassist Dezron Douglas.
lockdown rendered him gigless, like so many performers who found themselves isolated for most of 2020 and into 2021. Stryker wrote and with arranger John Patitucci, created As We Are. With bass-drum partners Patitucci and Brian Blade and pianist Julian Shore, the album features violin solos by Sara Caswell, plus a second violin, viola and cello. The suite of new originals has nine tracks, including “Lanes,” “Saudade,” “Dreams Are Real” and one cover, Julian Shores’ “One Thing At A Time.
Hollywood, and Sterling’s Upstairs at Vitello’s in Studio City, California, the pair also have more extensive stage and nightclub credits. Their shows highlight their harmonies, special arrangements, and a chemistry punctuated by spontaneous outbreaks of humor. The common thread uniting all of their shows, is a celebration of life, love and romance. Tracks include “Old Devil Moon,” “Do I Love You,” All of Me,” “Change in Me” and more. Personnel are Shelly Markhan–arranger/pianist, Kevin Axt–bass, Jon Stuart–drums, percussion, Matt Hornbeck–guitar, banjo, Phil Feather–sax, flute and clarinet and Linda Taylo –guitar, dobro.
