Eric Alexander has had many opportunities to record as a leader for several different labels, though producer Tetsuo Hara, owner of the Japanese label Venus, has become a huge fan, recording him almost any time he travels to New York City. This is another superb outing by Eric Alexander on a freewheeling trio to compile a nine-track full of jazz's favorite staples from John Coltrane, Cole Porter and many more! There's a new sort of edge in Eric's horn, sided with the sublime work of Dezron Douglas on bass and Neal Smith on drums, which he displays throughout the set with a new great sense of spirituality.

Louis Hayes, one of the chief architects of modern jazz drumming, was the rhythmic drive for historic recordings by Horace Silver, Cannonball Adderley, Oscar Peterson, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon and McCoy Tyner. When he reformed the Jazz Communicators, the band that he co-founded in the late 1960s with Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson, Hayes purposefully deviated from a conventional quintet lineup by featuring vibraphone and tenor saxophone out front. It’s the esteemed pair of Steve Nelson and Abraham Burton respectively, and their chemistry with Hayes, pianist David Bryant and bassist Dezron Douglas makes "Return of the Jazz Communicators" an inspired and rewarding set.

DE3 is a cooperative trio whose name is an acronym for its members: bassist Dezron Douglas, drummer Eric McPherson both of whom came from trumpeter Duane Eubanks's, quintet (which includes saxophonist Abraham Burton and Marc Cary on keyboards). The result is the "Live At Maxwell's", where "live" basically means unedited rather than with an audience. In the end the meaning is the same in that the music has that unplanned, chance-taking feeling of a live concert. The actual sound is on the dry side but highly detailed with a very strong you-are-there feel.

Legendary drummer Louis Hayes makes his Blue Note debut with this loving tribute to his mentor and friend, the great pianist, composer and bandleader Horace Silver. Hayes was 19 years old when he moved to New York City in 1956 and joined Silver’s quintet, putting his stamp on several timeless Blue Note recordings. Co-produced by Don Was and bassist Dezron Douglas with the eminent Maxine Gordon acting as executive producer, "Serenade for Horace" presents Hayes leading an ensemble that revisits 10 Silver classics in addition to the Hayes original Hastings Street, a dedication to his hometown of Detroit. The album's first single "Song for My Father" features Grammy-winning vocalist Gregory Porter.

Joel Frahm is New York-based saxophonist and recording artist. This album features "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", "Early Autumn" and other love songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Bossa Nova's famous songs romantically and sentimentally tells jazz's attractive tenor saxophone.

Cyrus Chestnut is a highly-regarded, Baltimore-born jazz pianist, who embraces a range of influences from hard bop, and modalism, to gospel. For this release for Japanese audiophile label, Venus Records, he is joined with the bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Neal Smith to re-imagine the classics from Beethoven and Chopin to Bach and Tchaikovsky in Piano Trios jazz arrangements.