Hargrove

Ray Brown did it again with the fourth installment in his Some of My Best Friends Are… series, spotlighting some of the hottest trumpet players around and producing one of the finest trumpet-fronted small group recordings to come down the jazz pike in a while. Featuring a six-pack of hornmen ranging from octogenarian Clark Terry to youngsters Roy Hargrove and Nicholas Payton, this CD alternately cooks and simmers, with the ballads especially standing out in their spaciousness and beauty.

Cyrille Aimée is a young French jazz singer living in New York. She has become a regular at Smalls jazz club (which routinely documents its gigs on CD and online, so her reputation might deservedly spread), often alongside pianist Spike Wilner and saxophonist Joel Frahm, who are joined here by trumpeter Roy Hargrove…

Andreas Varady's eponymous 2014 Verve debut artfully celebrates the Hungarian jazz guitarist's prodigious skill. A prodigy, Varady has been playing guitar since childhood. Only 17 at the time of this release, he has a fluid, technically proficient style that reveals a love of jazz tradition, both old and new. However, rather than simply delivering a collection of well-worn standards, a task Varady is clearly capable of, here he delves into a batch of modern pop hits and original songs in a contemporary jazz style. Executive produced by Varady's manager, the legendary Quincy Jones, along with David Paich and Jay Oliver, the album fits more into the instrumental smooth jazz vein of artists like George Benson and Lee Ritenour than it does the straight-ahead style of Wes Montgomery, although Varady dips his toe in that tradition here too.

Shirley Horn has made a remarkably strong and consistent series of records for Verve. On May the Music Never End, her 12th record for Verve, there are two big changes: the absence of Horn's longtime musical partner bassist Charles Ables, who passed away in 2001, and the addition of a pianist to take the place of Horn's quite capable playing. Ed Howard fills in admirably on bass and George Mesterhazy does the same on piano, except for on two tracks ("Maybe September" and "This is All I Ask") where Ahmad Jamal takes over.