Saxophonist Isaiah Collier and his band, The Chosen Few, will perform John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme this Saturday as part of a 60th anniversary concert to commemorate the album. A Celebration of Divine Inspiration, Joy, and Transformation will take place in Los Angeles at the Grand Performances from 6 to 10 PM. Collier has been praised by the jazz press as the new saxophone player to watch. His Cosmic Traditions, a five-part suite, was recorded on Coltrane’s September 23rd birthday back in 2020. Jimetta Rose & The Voices and Dwight Trible are also part of the lineup. The show is free and can be streamed on the Grand Performances YouTube Channel. For more information and to RSVP go to the Grand Performances site. 

Jazz harpist Brandee Younger uplifts the pursuit of joy on her current album, Gadabout Season, which is her third release for the storied Impulse! label. Younger saw the word Gadabout in an email and decided to make its definition the mission for the album. The musician has always melded different sounds into her music and GS is no different with its nod to jazz and dub. Her respect and admiration for Alice Coltrane, who also played the harp, takes on another level of passion because she recorded the album using the late artist’s instrument. Those who gadabout are forever seeking a good time but Younger’s album sounds more like music from a beautiful respite of meditation and spiritual renewal. She revealed in a press release that the recording process took place in a family member’s cabin in upstate New York, where “you get a lot of peace and quiet and birds chirping and you can see the stars at night.” Gadabout Season charms and soothes with soft, contemplative original compositions.

“Reckoning” is a whirlwind of harp notes and Makaya McCraven’s pattering cymbals that moves like a lullaby. Younger is lively on “BBL,” playing with a conviction that she calls a “musical confrontation.” The busy movement of that song is still in step with the tranquility of GS. The flow of it all begs for the album to be heard in its entirety in one sitting. Younger has successfully taken Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby’s harp work as a guide to her own creativity and GS reveals the growth of her voice and confidence as a composer and performer. 

Ella Fitzgerald’s version of “Mack The Knife” is from her highly acclaimed Ella in Berlin, released in 1960. Fitzgerald had long been established as one of the leading jazz performers since her debut in the 1930s with Chick Webb’s band. She had mastered bebop, perfected scatting, and had gone through a creative change in 1956 when she started recording songs by great American songwriters like Cole Porter. Those skills all came together on the night in Berlin when she improvised the lyrics to “Mack The Knife” because she had forgotten them. Fitzgerald’s swift and mellifluous scatting plus the show that night in Berlin was another path to hip-hop, as she clearly mimicked horns and made up words years before the human beat box and freestyling. The music industry recognized the importance of the song and album by granting Fitzgerald two Grammys for Best Vocal Performance Album, Female and Best Vocal Performance Single Record Or Track, Female in 1961. Ella in Berlin: Mack The Knife was reissued in 1993 with four bonus tracks. The Recording Academy entered the album into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 because of its historical significance. The Moment Of Truth: Ella At The Coliseum, which is a never-heard recording of her 1967 concert at the Oakland Coliseum, was released in February. 

Candice Hoyes pays homage to Duke Ellington’s “Far Away Star” with a contemporary arrangement by Ted Nash. Ellington originally recorded “Far Away Star with Swedish singer Alice Babs back in 1978. Hoyes’ rendition serves as a tribute to Ellington, freedom, and the Black experience—past, present, and future. Her compelling soprano carries the weight of Black memories and legacies that challenge the myth of a truly free world after the 13th amendment.

The band, characterized by rich and fluid horn arrangements, swings with a somber elegance, reminiscent of a dirge mourning the persistence of anti-Blackness. “Far Away Star” is featured on the tracklist of Hoyes’ forthcoming solo album. The singer, who also performs with the all-women jazz trio Nite Bjuti, recently received a 2025 DuBois Fellowship. Regarding her latest release, she states, “My single ‘Far Away Star’ is a tribute to Ellington, and it is a tribute to free expression and justice that is as eternal as the North Star.” Be sure to watch the visual for “Far Away Star” and stay tuned for more updates from Hoyes.