Loving covers of popular music is a grand jazz tradition. From blues vamps to show tunes to popular song of the day, jazz musicians have explored the harmonic opportunities found in pop music.

Vimeo. Matt Parker’s debut album Worlds Put Together is appealing, but in an odd way. Perhaps that’s because on this record, the tenor and soprano sax practitioner is a paradox.

Taking a page from Cannonball Adderley, who had a remarkable ability to take the complex and make it feel approachable, Christian McBride’s new album is as relatable as it is intense, as ebullient as it is substantive.

Steve Miller says his next album will be “a really interesting thing” where the classic rocker combines jazz instrumentals with blues lyrics.

Steve Jenkins may be a bassist, but he’s seemed to have learned a lot from guitarists with which he’s worked, like, say, Vernon Reid and David Fiuczynski, in how to craft music around his chosen instrument and his style of playing it.

1989 Monk Competition winner Bill Cunliffe is a diversely skilled pianist who puts his range to use in a variety of settings, from Latin jazz, to fusion to fruitful collaborations of straight ahead jazz.

The sharp, agreeable Haymaker will be Noah Preminger’s first album since the last one Before The Rain (2011) catapulted the tenor saxophone master to the front ranks of today’s current crop of young lions.

The follow-up to 2010s’ Betweenwhile by Bacteria To Boys involved a transition from Darius Jones to Jon Irabagon in the sax role, but also a transition for its chief, Mike Pride, too.

Best known as the drummer in the barrier-breaking metal band Living Colour, Will Calhoun has quietly put together an impressive resume in jazz — notably performing with Wayne Shorter on the Grammy-winning effort High Life

Albums with as many songs as a 45 single are bound to be interesting, and that’s undeniably the case for Mike Pride’s dual epic numbers compiled into his upcoming Drummer’s Corpse album.