April is our season. Jazz Appreciation Month. Record Store Day. International Jazz Day. And this year, America at 250. Right here in New York and New Jersey — the jazz capital of the world — we feel every note of it. Our cover celebrates Sistering — Lenora Zenzalai Helm, Nnenna Freelon, Lois Deloatch, and Kate McGarry — four extraordinary voices whose artistry and sisterhood embody the grace, depth, and brilliance of this music. Our flip cover honors Tony Waag, who joins Mercedes Ellington to bring Such Sweet Thunder — Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's magnificent Shakespearean jazz suite — to the world with a special YouTube Premiere on Sunday, April 19 at 2pm. A gift from the stage to your screen. Inside, we celebrate the artists, the venues, the records, and the culture that make this region the heartbeat of jazz worldwide. This music was born of genius, shaped by struggle, and offered to the world as a gesture of profound beauty. We remain honored to be its messenger. Enjoy the issue. ~Chrys R
Table of Contents
Features
6 Katie Bull
10 Kendrick Scott
14 Monty Alexander
16 Sistering: Lenora Zenzalai Helm, Nnenna Freelon, Lois Deloatch, Kate McGarry
26 Benny Green *Premium Edition
Winning Spins
19 Selected Recordings
Topics
20 Record Store Day
36 International Jazz Day
InFocus
22 Downtown NYC Jazz Festival
24 Carnegie Hall: United in Sound *Premium Edition
From the Vault
27 Bill Evans *Premium Edition
Spotlights
28 Regional Highlights - Spotlights
Hot House International
32 Elza Soares *Premium Edition
CD Reviews
33 Michel Petrucciani Premium Edition
34 Roy Hargrove *Premium Edition
In Memoriam
39 Ken Peplowski *Premium Edition
40 Willie Colón
Calendar of Events
42 April Listings
Verba
52 Tony Waag — Such Sweet Thunder
54 VerbaBuzz
Boundary-Pushers
This week’s edge lives where composition, improvisation, and intent meet. From Vijay Iyer sharing space with Bill Frisell and Ron Carter at the Jazz Gallery, to the structural interplay of Caroline Davis and Matt Mitchell at Roulette, these sets move beyond form into real-time architecture. Kendrick Scott brings a compositional drummer’s lens to Smoke, while Gregory Hutchinson reframes lineage through concept and ensemble. Leo Genovese and Manuel Valera extend the language outward, drawing from multiple traditions without settling into any one of them. And with New Jazz Underground at Birdland Theater, the next wave is already testing the boundaries—less concerned with category than with possibility.
Ron Carter / Bill Frisell / Vijay Iyer – Jazz Gallery – Apr 10
Caroline Davis / Matt Mitchell – Roulette – Apr
Gregory Hutchinson “Kind of Now” – Jazz Cultural – Apr 9–10
Leo Genovese Quartet – Bar Bayeux – Apr 8
Manuel Valera: New Cuban Express – LunÀtico – Apr 10
New Jazz Underground – Birdland Theater – Apr 3–5
Kendrick Scott Quintet – Smoke – Apr 8–10
Keepers of the Flame
The throughline is unmistakable: sound shaped by lineage, carried forward without compromise. At the Village Vanguard, Sullivan Fortner brings clarity, swing, and modern command to a historic bandstand, while Monty Alexander returns to the Blue Note with a lifetime of rhythm, blues, and Caribbean pulse intact. Bobby Watson and Wayne Escoffery anchor the music in hard-bop language—direct, expressive, and unbroken—while Pasquale Grasso and Ehud Asherie refine the tradition through touch, time, and detail. From Gary Smulyan to Helen Sung, these artists don’t revisit the past—they extend it, keeping the language alive by playing it forward.
Sullivan Fortner – Village Vanguard – Apr 7–10
Monty Alexander – Blue Note – Apr 3–5
Bobby Watson Quartet – Jazz Cultural – Apr 3–5
Wayne Escoffery w/ ELEW Trio – Smoke – Apr 3–5
Pasquale Grasso Trio – Mezzrow – Apr 6
Ehud Asherie Trio – Birdland – Apr 5
Gary Smulyan @ 70! – Jazz Forum – Apr 3–4
Helen Sung’s Oracles Quartet – Jazz Forum – Apr 10
Mark Soskin Trio – Mezzrow – Apr 3–4
Voices of Resistance
This music has always carried more than sound—it carries memory, identity, and insistence. The Randy Weston centennial at Dizzy’s centers African roots not as reference, but as foundation, while Craig Harris and the Harlem Nightsongs Big Band continue a lineage where history and present-day urgency meet. At City Winery, the Billie Holiday celebration returns to a voice that transformed pain into art and truth into permanence. Michel Camilo and Pedrito Martinez bring Afro-Caribbean traditions into full conversation with jazz, affirming the music’s diasporic core, while Kazemde George represents a generation shaping new language from inherited struggle. These are not retrospectives—they are living expressions of resistance, continuity, and cultural clarity.
RANDY WESTON
Randy Weston Centennial: African Rhythms Alumni Band – Dizzy’s – Apr 3–5
Craig Harris & Harlem Nightsongs Big Band – Harlem Jazz Series – Apr 3, 9–10
Michel Camilo w/ Pedrito Martinez – Blue Note – Apr 7–10
Billie Holiday Birthday Celebration (JC Hopkins’ Biggish Band) – City Winery – Apr 3
Kazemde George Quartet – Ruth on Flatbush – Apr 6
FESTIVALS
MUST SEE NEXT WEEK
Kendrick Scott Quintet – Smoke – Apr 8–10
Sullivan Fortner – Village Vanguard – Apr 7–10
Yellowjackets – Birdland – Apr 7–10
Michel Camilo w/ Pedrito Martinez – Blue Note – Apr 7–10
Gregory Hutchinson “Kind of Now” – Jazz Cultural – Apr 9–10
Ron Carter / Bill Frisell / Vijay Iyer – Jazz Gallery – Apr 10
Miki Yamanaka Trio – Mezzrow – Apr 10
David Kikoski Trio – Five Spot – Apr 10
Thomas Gooding Collective – Room 623 – Apr 8
Leo Genovese Quartet – Bar Bayeux – Apr 8
PODCAST
