Crossing Boundaries.
World of Jazz Overflow Show 4
Another selection in my semi-regular series of new jazz albums with vocals to the forefront. This time we find genre boundaries crossed with the involvement of rock, soul, opera, and reggae in the mix presenting an eclectic take on the World of Jazz.
AUDIO
THE ALBUMS
UDEiGWE - Four Lemmas (LU Records)
14th April 2026
Featured Tracks : Lemma 1 : Orthogonality/Corollary 1 : I Don’t Care
Four Lemmas is an eight‑part concept suite by UDEiGWE (Lawrence Udeigwe) built around four mathematical ideas—orthogonality, sparsity, local maximum, and stable equilibrium—each paired with a corollary. The album uses these structures not as technical demonstrations but as metaphors for independence, reduction, misread completion, and dynamic balance. Across voice, piano, bass, drums, and trumpet, Udeigwe moves between speech and song, using groove‑driven writing to frame reflections on identity, perception, and coherence.
Musicians:
Lawrence Udeigwe — compositions, lyrics, vocal, piano, keyboard
Steph Clement — trumpet
Wayne Tucker — trumpet
Josh Green — drums
Rade Bema — bass
Dave Darlington — mixing and mastering
Lucy Yeghiazaryan - Hey Love! (La Reserve)
19th June 2026
Featured Track : Next Spring
Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, the session features Grant Stewart, Bruce Harris, Tardo Hammer, Peter Washington, and Kenny Washington, with Johnny O’Neal appearing on two tracks. Co arranged by Yeghiazaryan and Stewart, the album favours unvarnished interplay and straight ahead swing.
An Armenian immigrant shaped on New York bandstands, Yeghiazaryan is clear about her position: “I just don’t think the American songbook is dead. Every time I’ve heard a good musician play a standard that’s over 100 years old, it’s new again
Christopher Sánchez - Latin Jazz Meets Opera (Zoho)
8th May, 2026
Featured Track : The Flower Duet
Christopher Sánchez baritone singer, Jazmine Saunders soprano singer , Carlos Mena upright bass, Keisel Jimenez timbal, Edgar Martinez Ochoa congas, bongo & percussion, Giovanni Siveroni trumpet, Xito Lowell trombone, Dayramir González piano, Monica Davis violin, Yesu Woo violin, Angela Pickett viola, Laura Metcalf violoncello
Latin Jazz Meets Opera is a deeply personal album. It tells the story of Christopher Sánchez’s life through music, tracing how Latin rhythm, opera, and jazz shaped his identity across family, migration, and place. What begins in the Dominican Republic through inherited sound and memory unfolds in New York City, where those traditions converge and mature. This album is not a stylistic experiment. It is the sound of a life lived between cultures, brought into focus through voice.
Caribbean music has always evolved through migration. In the twentieth century, Latin rhythms and American jazz collided in New York and gave rise to Latin Jazz, a genre born from diaspora and shaped by memory, reinvention, and ambition. With this album, Sánchez takes the next step in that evolution. He brings Latin Jazz into opera not as a novelty, but as a continuation of Caribbean artistry, becoming more expansive and more fully at home in its adopted capital.
Kathy Ingraham - Jazz Dreams (Peirdon Records)
16th March 2026
Featured Track : Eli’s Comin’
Eclectic jazz chanteuse and composer Kathy Ingraham returns with the release of her latest album, Jazz Dreams, marking her fourth album dedicated to the genre. Ingraham employs jazz arrangements to revisit rock ballads of cultural and personal significance. The project was initially inspired by the artist’s happenstance viewing of the 1944 Oscar-winning best short film, Heavenly Music, which tells the tale of a bebop jazz band leader (Ted) who must justify his entry into the heavenly Hall of Music before a committee of elitist classical composers. Ted’s goal is to gain “eternal residence into the sanctum sanctorum of music.” Ultimately Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Bach, Wagner et al. are convinced to perform their own interpretations of Ted’s jazz tune in their own notable styles. This inspired Ingraham’s genesis for Jazz Dreams, proving the film’s theory that a great song can transcend genre through her interpretations of iconic rock songs. At once nostalgic and innovative, the album approaches these songs with a refreshing interpretation, revealing colors and shadows of lyric and melody that were previously obscured by the songs’ original styles. Each one featured is familiar and yet carries a sensitivity that only Ingraham’s experience, both musical and personal, can offer. Her unique vocal style has been compared to Nina Simone for its mighty richness and Blossom Dearie for its whimsical, intimate quality. Her voice offers a wide bouquet. On Jazz Dreams, Ingraham evokes a magical alchemy with a talented group of musical collaborators, including Randy Brecker (flugelhorn), Pete Levin (piano, bass), Elliott Randall (guitar), Joel Rosenblatt (drums), Evan Christopher (clarinet), Matt Wensor (guitar), William Galison (harmonica) and Lily Del Rosso (backing vocals).
Chuck Bergeron - Bass & Face (Summit Records)
5th June, 2026
Featured Tracks : Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West/Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love
Bassist Chuck Bergeron has enjoyed working in a wide variety of settings over the course of his more than four-decade career, from hard-charging small groups to the boisterous big band swing of his South Florida Jazz Orchestra. But he has especially cherished his interactions with singers. On his new album, Bass and Face, Bergeron realizes his long-held dream to pair up with some of his favorite vocalists for a set of intimate duets. Out June 5, 2026 via Summit Records, Bass and Face features a world-class roster of voices pairing with Bergeron on a diverse repertoire of songs. The line-up includes Janis Siegel of the legendary Manhattan Transfer, Pete McGuinness, Roseanna Vitro, George Rabbai, Lisanne Lyons, Deborah Silver (Grammy-nominated for her 2025 collaboration with the Count Basie Orchestra), Kate Reid and Nicole Yarling, as well as two iconic singers who are no longer with us: Sheila Jordan, who passed away shortly after the recording, and Kevin Mahogany, whose contributions stem from a 2005 session undertaken during Bergeron’s seven-year stint in the singer’s band. The two selections with Kevin Mahogany are drawn from a number of sessions led by Bergeron more than 20 years ago, but included to honor a singer whose support was momentous for the bassist. John Lewis’ “Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West” also includes saxophonist Charles Pillow, drummer John Riley and pianist Phil Strange, and Strange returns for the Charles Mingus composition “Duke Ellington’s Sound of Love,” adding lush chords to Bergeron’s tender bowing and Mahogany’s syrup-smooth baritone.
Chicago Soul Jazz Collective - No Wind & No Rain (Calligram Records)
10th April 2026
Featured Track : A Town Called Mercy
Chicago Soul Jazz Collective returns with No Wind & No Rain, their fourth album and most fully realized artistic statement to date. A seven-piece ensemble led by saxophonist John Fournier and featuring the acclaimed vocalist Dee Alexander, CSJC has spent years seeking that elusive sweet spot where Chicago soul and jazz converge with blues, gospel, and folk to create a sound that echoes throughout the history and the present moment of the Windy City. Under the expert production of guitarist Larry Brown Jr., they’ve crafted a record that is as sophisticated as it is gritty, as gripping as it is grooving—just like the city they call home.
The ensemble’s journey began in 2017 when Fournier, feeling lost and seeking comfort, returned to the records that first inspired him as a young musician—Ramsey Lewis, The Crusaders, Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, Eddie Harris, Les McCann. “I was listening to records I had not heard in years but which were my initial inspirations,” reflects Fournier. “I found this music had an underlying sheer joy which made me feel great. I figured that if listening to them made me feel great, then playing them live would make me feel even better.” What started as a modest Wednesday night residency at WIRE in Berwyn, Illinois, quickly became something more significant. By the second performance, the club was packed, and CSJC has been playing to full houses ever since.
Paul Kahn - Willingness (CarlCat Records)
19th June, 2026
Featured Track : Pull Another Leaf From The Clover
Some projects take time and rely on returning a favour to come to fruition. Such is the case with Paul Kahn’s six song EP, Willingness, produced by Catherine Russell and recorded in the summer of 2025. By that point, Paul and Catherine had known each other for 25 years, and Paul had produced or co-produced nine Catherine Russell albums, receiving 3 Grammy® nominations. Willingness will be released on CarlCat Records, reviving the label created for Carline Ray - Vocal Sides, a 2013 release that Catherine produced of her late mother, legendary musician Carline Ray. When Paul rediscovered his original songs, written and demoed before he and Catherine met, Catherine insisted that they needed to be recorded. Catherine recalled, “The honesty in his lyrics plus beautifully unpredictable chord changes drew me into the songs.” In addition to producing, Catherine contributed backing vocals, mandolin, keyboard and arrangements. The songs explore universal and timeless themes. The title track, Willingness, is a poignant meditation on the search for peace and justice. Catherine called upon musicians they’d both come to know and admire, the elite of New York City-based players. Shawn Pelton, renowned drummer and percussionist in the Saturday Night Live house band, was a friend from Shawn’s work with Rosanne Cash. Russell Hall is a highly sought after musician and songwriter and first call bassist on the jazz scene. Matt Munisteri, on guitars, is Catherine’s long-time musical director, with a knack for playing all styles with his own original signature. The vibe is Caribbean with an undercurrent of jazz.
