Wow! Altera Vita, the new recording by harpist Alina Bzhezhinska and tenor saxophonist Tony Kofi, shimmers with grace and beauty. This is a duets recording, just the two of them on their instruments, as well as handling percussion, which consists of a variety of chimes, kalimbas, singing bowls and such. The proceedings are called to order with three rings on a metal bowl before Kofi introduces the simple, sweet melody of “Tabula Rasa–Blank Slate.” It’s a quiet ballad of hope and yearning with both Bzhezhinska and Kofi taking their time to soak in every moment of this music. So begins this six-song, perfectly paced set where the two ooze soul and spirituality. It’s quiet and meditative, boisterous and thought provoking, with Kofi keeping his cool, offering well-timed explosions of power on tunes like “Audite Me–Hear Me.” Bzhezhinska flows water-like throughout, especially on the tune “Anima–Breathe.” If this sounds like a tribute to John and Alice Coltrane, there’s a definite element of that here. Bzhezhinska and Kofi performed together in 2017 for a concert honoring “the first couple of jazz” at the EFG London Jazz Festival. But it’s even more of a tribute to the late saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, a major influence for both artists. After Sanders passed away in 2022, Kofi wrote “Altera Vita (for Pharoah Sanders),” this album’s namesake, and its closing number, here titled “Altera Vita–Another Life.” He and Bzhezhinska recorded and released it as a single last year. This magazine gave it 5 stars, a rarity because DownBeat doesn’t often review singles. The concept for the album, thankfully, grew from there. It’s a fantastic work, one that does the memory of those legends proud and expands on the tradition of jazz spirituality. Altera Vita is a powerful, moving, take-your-breath-away masterpiece.

In a very real, geographical sense, the gorgeous Tidal Currents is a panorama of Canadian jazz. The 16-piece Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra — resident in the city closest to Canada’s geographic center — has commissioned two charts apiece from East Coast-born, West Coast-based Jill Townsend and West Coast-born, East Coast-based Christine Jensen. In addition to the Trans-Canadian perspectives that are the focus of their work here, they also happen to be (arguably) their country’s two most accomplished writers for big band. (They also perform, Jensen on alto and soprano saxes and Townsend as conductor.)

The WJO proves more than up to the task of interpreting their music. Details matter: The ensemble is smooth as sea glass on Townsend’s “Inside The Wave,” a waltz evoking her childhood in the maritime province of Nova Scotia. But the secret weapon is drummer Fabio Ragnelli, whose cymbals mimic the hiss and crash of the breakers from a distance, while his tom-driven solo suggests the same sound from, well, inside the wave. On Jensen’s “Crossing Lachine,” meanwhile, the tune’s opening stop-and-start rhythms echo the trepidation of navigating the titular St. Lawrence River rapids; Niall Cade’s game tenor solo scans like a real-time narrative of that crossing.

At the same time, though, those details are just the icing on the cake. One need not examine it under a microscope to hear the joyful catharsis in Jensen’s soprano solo on her pensive romance “Rock Skipping Under The Half Moon,” or the orchestral swells that push it along. Likewise, there’s no need for granular analysis in appreciating peak after rhapsodic brass peak in Townsend’s “Tidal Currents.” All four of the tracks overflow with memorable melody, rich harmony and easy groove. Winnipeg is high in the running for North America’s ugliest city, but, man, can they create beauty.

Inspired by life itself, this brilliant new recording by a great jazz artist leading an elite ensemble through a program of original big band music relates directly to everything going on in the world these days. LifeSongs represents something of a musical homecoming for Marshall Gilkes, the virtuoso trombonist and composer who spent four years in Germany making his mark within the ranks of the WDR Big Band’s brass section until his departure in late 2013. A month after his WDR tenure ended, Gilkes and the mighty Cologne-based big band reunited for what would become the album Köln, his auspicious large-ensemble project debut. In 2018, the two teamed up again for Always Forward. And now, the two entities come together for yet another go-round with LifeSongs, Gilkes’ third album fronting WDR and his eighth release as a leader. The program finds Gilkes channeling events and experiences from his own personal sphere as well as the world itself. The bold opener “Fresh Start” is a mini concerto that relates to human existence in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, while the soulful followup “Back In The Groove” references the pace of life renewed, with solo spotlights on alto saxophonist Johan Hörlén and pianist Billy Test. Gilkes revisits and revises his composition “Cora’s Tune” (written for his daughter), a piece he’s recorded in different configurations on two previous albums and which appears here in a texturally enriched format. “My Unanswered Prayer” addresses gun violence in the U.S.; its combination of elegiac tones and haunting harmonies prove an appropriate fit for the disturbing subject matter. Other album highlights include the spellbinding “All The Pretty Little Horses,” commissioned by the Air Force Academy Band and featuring vocalist Sabeth Pérez, and the supercharged “Sugar Rush,” which paints a portrait of candy-fueled youth and gives tenor saxophonist Paul Heller a healthy stretch of solo space while reminding listeners of the power of play and the sweetness of life itself. The digital download version of LifeSongs includes two substantial bonus tracks: the thrilling “Taconic Turns,” a medium-up romp distinguished by hard accents, rhythmic displacement and bright soloing (by trumpeter Ruud Breuls and alto saxophonist Pascal Bartoszak); and the Brazilian-flavored, wistful “Longing For Home,” a soulful reflection on the nature of inspiration itself that features uplifting solo statements by bassist John Goldsby and tenor saxophonist Ben Fitzpatrick. Traversing the realms of big band swing, post-bop, Latin jazz and classical chamber music in one fell swoop, LifeSongs reaffirms Gilkes’ status as one of the premier large-ensemble composers of our time, and once again establishes him as a first-rate instrumentalist and improviser whose many gifts amount to a gift from the universe to anyone eager and brave enough to embrace life itself.

Riley is the amazing debut solo recording from trumpeter Riley Mulherkar, a founding member of The Westerlies and a frequent performer with the likes of vocalist Theo Bleckmann and the folky Fleet Foxes. He’s the rare musician who understands that making a statement in the recording studio is much different than making one live onstage. He wrote much of the material at SPACE on Ryder Farm in upstate New York; the opening tune, “Chicken Coop Blues,” was written in an actual chicken coop. It sets the tone for the entire album: über hip, modern yet timeless. Space, air and intimacy hold listeners near throughout. “Coop” begins with the echoing, processed thud of a bass drum, like a heartbeat. Mulherkar improvises a beautiful blues over it using effects in just the right way. Every breath becomes part of the tune, his vibrato offering opportunities to add little electronic flourishes that take the music to a different plane. “Ride Or Die,” another original, is the hit here. It’s only March, but this is my favorite jazz single of the year so far. And it’s got staying power. I love the thematic approach, where Mulherkar and producers Rafiq Bhatia and Chris Pattishall introduce “Ride” again with a simple drum beat, this time at a quicker tempo to create that sense of taking off. A simple trumpet melody, at times overdubbed to sound like two trumpets, lifts the theme into the air, the rhythmic cadence of the bass offering a danceable groove for Mulherkar to glide over. When the solo drop happens, it is both unexpected and amazing. This music has jazz underpinnings, for sure, but takes the music in very personal, vastly different directions. This is someone who knows Miles and Dizzy and the history of jazz trumpet, but Mulherkar grew up in Seattle, so he knows grunge and folk and rock, too. The Westerlies have made a career of broad-minded music making that is obviously part of Mulherkar’s DNA, even when he’s delivering chestnuts like “King Porter Stomp” and “Stardust,” or “No More” featuring the beautiful vocals of Vuyo Sotashe. There is much to like on Riley, a wonderful listen from beginning to end, and one of the best debut records to come out in a long, long time.

Bassist Brian Bromberg doesn’t channel Scott LaFaro’s sound on his hat-tip to the bass innovator, who died at age 25 in 1961. Both players are virtuosi, but LaFaro broke new ground by supplying a contrapuntal voice even while comping; on LaFaro, Bromberg saves his daredevilry for the solos and walks the bass through its accompaniment passages. The tribute comes by way of Bromberg, like LaFaro, being indefatigably himself on the titan’s most familiar repertoire.

“Milestones,” for example, heard on Bill Evans’s Waltz For Debby (Bromberg concentrates on LaFaro’s work in Evans’ trio), finds LaFaro right alongside the pianist and running through a stream of melodic patterns, often in his middle and high registers, capped by a solo that scans like a poetry reading. On the same tune, Bromberg opens with a pretty fill, then backs up pointedly behind pianist Tom Zink. Drummer Charles Ruggiero locks in with him, together delivering an unobtrusive but consistently swinging infrastructure that keeps the bass at the bottom until his middle-register solo (whose cadences are closer to scat singing than poetry).

Don’t be confused into thinking that Bromberg is resolutely a background player. Indeed, he takes the lead on most of the heads — to particularly thrilling effect on “Alice In Wonderland” and “Blue In Green” — and even delivers a pathos-laden solo performance of “Danny Boy.” Even these, though, are remarkably ego-less: They give the performance what it needs. But it says something that on LaFaro’s composition “Gloria’s Step,” he yields center stage to Zink and gives his own solo over to the song’s rhythm. Just as LaFaro served an (influential, but idiosyncratic) vision of his instrument, so does Bromberg on LaFaro. It’s just that his is a “make your case, then support” kind of vision, and he plays it beautifully.