SML, from left, Booker Stardrum, Josh Johnson, Jeremiah Chiu, Anna Butterss and Greg Uhlmann.

Kurt Elling, Katherine Russell and Emmet Cohen (host on the 2027 Jazz Cruise) share a laugh at sea.

“I wanted it to be bare,” says Zaccai Curtis of his new album. “I didn’t want to have a ton of overdubs.”

Marshall Allen, left, and bassist/producer Jamaaladeen Tacuma in front of the Sun Ra House (aka the Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra) in Philadelphia.

“One day, it just hit me — I wanted to record an album,” said clarinetist Harry Skoler, 18 months after a medical emergency sidetracked his music career.

Seamus Blake has taken a deep dive into the music of Eddie Harris. “The more that I listened to him, the more I appreciated and recognized the diversity of his kind of talent.”

“When we get together to play, to improvise, we’re just trying to make something fresh and all those influences and experiences that everybody has just comes out in a natural way,” says Jeff Parker of his ETA IVtet, from left, Josh Johnson, Jay Bellrose, Ana Butterss and Parker.

The Music Of Randy Weston captures three 1980s performances.

“I tried to make a CD that I would like to listen to myself, so that there would be no walls between me and the listener,” Clara Haberkamp says of Love Maps.

“I’ve always wanted to make something bigger than just my own music and that can relate to my father’s legacy,” Ibrahim Maalouf says of playing his father’s invention, the four-valve trumpet.