ORACLE'S DESSTINY

LONGING

LIFE OF A TRIO SUNDAY

MICHEL PETRUCCIANI

NATURAL AFFINITIES

OCEANS IN THE SKY

FLY AWAY LITTLE BIRD

PARTNER

AFTER HOURS

TOOT SWEET

SHADOW THEATER

GRECO CHANTE BREL

Originally having met in 1972 at a Tangiers music festival, pianist Randy Weston and saxophonist Billy Harper have collaborated on and off for over four decades, the most notable being their recording made at Montreux Jazz Festival in 1974, Carnival. The pair's 2013 recording, the Roots of the Blues, brings these two giants of Jazz together to create moving renditions of 10 compositions from Weston's incredible anthology along with three standards and a Harper original. The underlying elements intertwining Weston and Harper are a deep understanding of and heartfelt connections to the blues.

Pianist Kenny Barron and Brazilian Music - the two go well together. Kenny's love for Latin Music was fueled by working with Dizzy Gillespie (on, among others, Jambo Caribe in 1964 and the Melody Lingers on from 1966 on which they recorded "Mas Que Nada" from Jorge Ben). with his participation on Bossas & Ballads (released by Stan Getz in 1989), the pianist got a chance to venture further into Brazilian jazz. Under his own name, Kenny Barron released Samb�o in 1993 (with star participations by guitarist Toninho Horta and the late Nico Assump��o on bass) and in 2002 there was Canta Brasil, recorded with the Trio da Paz. Now Mr. Barron treats US with a fantastic Kenny Barron & the Brazilian Knights.

Pianist Jacky Treason's album Gouache is an eclectic, playful, and often beautiful album that showcases the pianist's lithe, technically adept Jazz skills alongside a handful of guest artists. Jazz pianists reworking modern pop songs has become de rigueur in 21st century Jazz circles, and so Treason's choice to cover Lennon, as well as such radio hits as Justin Bieber's "Baby" and Amy Winehouse's "Rehab," isn't in-and-of-itself unique. However, with his painterly, impressionistic style that often brings to mind a mix of such influences as Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea, Treason is an interesting match for this kind of pop repurposing, and his reinventions never sound anything but clever and inspired. To these ends, he turns "Baby" into a jaunty sleigh ride of song, with a euphoric '70 's R&B ballad midsection. He also gives "Rehab" a slow, Horace Silver-sounding Jazz-Funk treatment that finds him moving from piano to Fender Rhodes.