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      Lonnie Smith, Soulful Jazz Organist, Is Dead at 79

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      Adept at blending the sophistication of jazz with the earthy appeal of rhythm and blues, he was later widely sampled by hip-hop artists.Lonnie Smith, a master of the Hammond B3 organ and a leading exponent of the infectiously rhythmic genre known as soul jazz, died on Tuesday at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 79.His manager and partner, Holly Case, said the cause was pulmonary fibrosis.Mr. Smith, who began billing himself as Dr. Lonnie Smith in the mid-1970s, could draw an audience’s attention with his appearance alone: He had a long white beard and always wore a colorful turban. (The turbans apparently had no specific religious significance, and he did not have an advanced degree in anything and never explained why he had adopted the honorific “Dr.”) His playing was every bit as striking.He began his career at a time when organists like Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff were blending the sophistication of jazz with the earthy appeal of rhythm and blues. Mr. Smith was very much in that tradition, but his playing could also display an ethereal quality that was all his own. His music later reached new generations of fans when it was widely sampled by hip-hop artists.Reviewing a 2015 performance at the Jazz Standard in New York, Ben Ratliff of The New York Times praised Mr. Smith’s sense of dynamics. “When he is quiet, he is very quiet,” Mr. Ratliff wrote. “During a gospelish song with the singer Alicia Olatuja, he started a solo passage at a level that almost couldn’t be heard and stayed there for quite a while, unspooling jagged, alert phrases that you had to strain to listen to: an easy trick but a powerful one.”Lonnie Smith was born on July 3, 1942, in Lackawanna, N.Y., a suburb of Buffalo, and raised by his mother, Beulah Mae Early, and his stepfather, Charles Smith. As a teenager he sang in vocal groups and played trumpet and other instruments before a store owner’s generosity spurred his lifelong love affair with the organ.As he recalled in interviews, he spent a lot of time in a Buffalo music store, mostly just looking. One day he told the owner, Art Kubera (whom he would later call “my angel”), that he was sure he could make a living in music if he had an instrument. Mr. Kubera took him to the back of the store, showed him a Hammond B3 organ and told him that he could have it for nothing if he was able to get it out of the store. He did, he taught himself to play it, and his career began.Mr. Smith was soon working regularly at the Pine Grill in Buffalo. Mr. McDuff was an early influence, and when the guitarist George Benson left Mr. McDuff’s combo to form his own group, he hired Mr. Smith.The Benson quartet had an inauspicious beginning at a bar in the Bronx, where, Mr. Benson wrote in his autobiography, “Benson” (2014), “Lonnie and I played behind a revolving cast of go-go dancers.” After moving to a jazz club in Harlem, the Benson quartet began building a following.Mr. Smith’s first album as a leader was released by Columbia Records in 1967.Both Mr. Benson and Mr. Smith signed with Columbia Records. Mr. Smith’s first album as a leader, “Finger-Lickin’ Good,” which featured Mr. Benson on guitar, was released in 1967, but his tenure with Columbia was brief. The next year he moved to Blue Note, which had already used him on the alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson’s hit album “Alligator Boogaloo.”Blue Note, which had helped launch the organ-jazz boom by signing Jimmy Smith a decade earlier, was a natural home for Mr. Smith. But after releasing four well-received albums on the label, beginning with “Think!” (1968) and ending with “Drives” (1970), he moved on.He recorded for various labels throughout the 1970s, but by the end of the decade his brand of jazz was falling out of favor and he was growing tired of the music business. He stopped recording and maintained a low profile, performing only occasionally and sometimes under an assumed name.He ended his studio hiatus in 1993 with “Afro Blue,” a tribute to John Coltrane with John Abercrombie on guitar and Marvin Smith on drums, released on the MusicMasters label. (The same trio would later release two Jimi Hendrix tribute albums, “Foxy Lady” in 1994 and “Purple Haze”in 1995.) By that time Mr. Smith’s influence had grown in ways he had never anticipated: His 1970 cover of the Blood, Sweat & Tears hit “Spinning Wheel” had been sampled by A Tribe Called Quest, the first of many hip-hop acts that would find inspiration in his catalog.Mr. Smith began performing again, both with his own groups and with Mr. Donaldson, and eventually returned to Blue Note; his first album for the label in more than 40 years, “Evolution,” was released in 2016. His most recent album, “Breathe,” released this year, included a surprising guest appearance by the punk-rock pioneer Iggy Pop on two tracks, the vintage R&B ballad “Why Can’t We Live Together” and Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman.”In addition to Ms. Case, Mr. Smith is survived by four daughters, Lani Chambers, Chandra Thomas, Charisse Partridge and Vonnie Smith, and several grandchildren.In 2017 the National Endowment for the Arts named him a Jazz Master, the country’s highest official honor for a jazz musician.“A lot of musicians get into music because they want to be rich, famous or all of the above,” Mr. Smith said in a 2012 interview. “You are already rich once you sit down and learn to play. That’s richness in itself.”Alex Traub contributed reporting. More

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      Pee Wee Ellis, James Brown’s Partner in Funk, Dies at 80

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      As musical director for the bands behind Mr. Brown and also Van Morrison, Mr. Ellis helped forge new hybrids, meshing pop, jazz, R&B and more.Alfred (Pee Wee) Ellis, a saxophonist, arranger and composer who fused jazz, funk and soul as the musical director for James Brown and Van Morrison, died on Thursday. He was 80.The cause was “complications with his heart,” his Facebook page said. It did not say where he died; he lived in Dorset County, England.Mr. Ellis also performed, arranged and recorded extensively with his own jazz groups, in funk bands with fellow James Brown alumni and as a sideman for a broad array of musicians in jazz, R&B, pop, rock and African music. And his association with Mr. Morrison stretched across two decades.Mr. Ellis shared credit with Mr. Brown for writing 26 songs performed by Mr. Brown, including “Cold Sweat” and “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud.”He had a collaborative temperament that allowed him to get along with demanding performers like Mr. Brown, Mr. Morrison, Esther Phillips and the rock drummer Ginger Baker. “I’m not hard to get along with — and I’m a good mediator,” he said in a 2020 interview with The American magazine. “All their problems were their problems, not mine.”Alfred James Ellis was born on April 21, 1941, in Bradenton, Fla. He started playing piano, clarinet and saxophone as a youth, joining the marching band in junior high school. The family moved to Lubbock, Texas, in 1949 after his mother had married Ezell Ellis, who managed local musicians. Those musicians gave Alfred, who was a skinny child, his nickname, Pee Wee.Ezell Ellis was stabbed to death in a Texas club in 1955; a white woman had insisted on dancing with him, and the killer was infuriated at seeing an interracial couple.The family moved to Rochester, N.Y., when Alfred was a teenager, and he played jazz in high school groups and in clubs. He also spent time in New York City and studied at the Manhattan School of Music. He made his first recordings as a sideman.One day, in 1957, he was retrieving his saxophone from a repair shop when he ran into the jazz titan Sonny Rollins on Broadway and boldly asked him for lessons. Mr. Rollins agreed, and Mr. Ellis began making weekly trips to New York City to study with him. In a 2014 interview for the magazine Neon Nettle, Mr. Ellis likened working with Mr. Rollins to being “a sponge in deep water.”After high school he moved to Miami and became a full-time musician. Members of Mr. Brown’s band saw him performing at a motel there in 1965, and soon afterward he was hired to join the band. In a few months Mr. Ellis had become Mr. Brown’s musical director, writing arrangements and teaching them to the band.Mr. Brown in 2010. He made more than a dozen albums as a bandleader.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesAfter a show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, Mr. Brown summoned Mr. Ellis with an idea for a bass line. Then, in the band bus on the way to Cincinnati, Mr. Ellis constructed the rest of the music for what became “Cold Sweat,” a syncopated vamp with a two-note horn line that echoed Miles Davis’s “So What.”Fiercely polyrhythmic and untethered from blues or pop-song forms, the song became a cornerstone of funk. “‘Cold Sweat’ deeply affected the musicians I knew,” the producer Jerry Wexler said in the liner notes to “Star Time,” a James Brown boxed set. “It just freaked them out. For a time, no one could get a handle on what to do next.”Mr. Brown and Mr. Ellis wrote “Say It Loud — I’m Black and I’m Proud,” another funk milestone, in response to the murder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and the subsequent summer of racial unrest.“It was a music that heralded a new attitude,” Mr. Ellis said in a 2020 interview with Jazzwise magazine, “a new and distinctive Black culture, of street culture finding confidence and popularity outside and alongside the establishment. Sweeping into mainstream consciousness during the civil rights movement was unlike anything people had heard, and its positive energy united a new generation making them proud of their music, fashion and political tastes.”But relentless touring and recording with the James Brown band was grueling, and as the 1960s ended Mr. Ellis decided to return to jazz. In the 1970s he arranged and conducted the music for full albums by George Benson and Johnny Hammond; he also recorded with Esther Phillips, Leon Thomas, Hank Crawford, Shirley Scott, Sonny Stitt and Dave Liebman. He released his first full album as a leader, “Home in the Country,” in 1977.Mr. Ellis was invited to do horn arrangements for Van Morrison’s 1979 album, “Into the Music,” starting a lasting relationship. He appeared on Mr. Morrison’s albums for the next 20 years, and had stints as the musical director for Mr. Morrison in the 1980s and 1990s.In the ’90s and 2000s Mr. Ellis rejoined the saxophonist Maceo Parker and the trombonist Fred Wesley, bandmates from his years with Mr. Brown, to perform and make albums under various names, including the J.B. Horns and the J.B.’s Reunion.He led his own group, the Pee Wee Ellis Assembly, and made more than a dozen jazz albums as a leader. His touring projects included a stint in the 2010s with a quartet led by Mr. Baker, the drummer from Cream, and “Still Black Still Proud,” a James Brown tribute featuring African musicians.He also played sessions for, among many others, De La Soul, 10,000 Maniacs, Walter Wolfman Washington, Poncho Sanchez, Oumou Sangaré, Toumani Diabaté, Cheikh Lo and Ali Farka Touré. (Information on his survivors was not immediately available.)Mr. Ellis told The American that he was happiest when collaborating. “Part of the magic,” he said, “is joining forces and making something happen from nowhere.” More

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      George Mraz, Consummate Jazz Bassist, Dies at 77

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      For half a century, he was in constant demand, backing big names like Oscar Peterson as well as countless up-and-coming performers.George Mraz, a sought-after jazz bassist whose deft, versatile work anchored the recordings and performances of generations of artists, from Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie more than 50 years ago to Cyrus Chestnut and Joe Lovano in this century, died on Sept. 16 in Prague. He was 77.His wife, the pianist Camilla Mraz, posted news of his death on Facebook. She did not give a cause, though a GoFundMe page was established in 2016 to assist Mr. Mraz with expenses related to pancreatic cancer.Mr. Mraz came to the United States from what was then Czechoslovakia in 1968 to attend Berklee School of Music (now Berklee College of Music) in Boston. While studying there, he was also playing at Lennie’s on the Turnpike and other local nightclubs, catching the ear of some of jazz’s biggest names. In 1969, Gillespie invited him to join his group in New York; soon after that, Peterson made him part of his trio.He toured with Peterson for two years and then established himself in New York. He spent six years with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra (later the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra) in its famed Monday-night slot at the Village Vanguard. He became what’s known in the music world as a first-call player — the first person you’d call if you wanted a top-notch bassist for a club date or a recording session. It was a status he held for decades, appearing on scores of albums and playing with name musicians as well as with up-and-coming ones.“Mraz’s wonderful sense of harmony and penchant for subtle surprises won him work with the likes of Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald and Stan Getz more than two decades ago,” The Boston Herald wrote in 2000, when Mr. Mraz was appearing at the Regattabar in Cambridge, Mass., as part of the quartet Grand Slam. “He has remained as in-demand as almost any bassist in jazz, particularly among piano players.” (One of his longest and most fruitful collaborations was with the pianist Tommy Flanagan.)By then, he had also become a bandleader. He recorded several albums under his name, including “Jazz” (1996) and the Duke Ellington tribute “Duke’s Place” (1999).“He played so beautifully, with so much command of the instrument,” Billy Drummond, the drummer on “Duke’s Place,” said by email. “It was captivating to see and hear, and I always looked forward to playing with him.”Mr. Drummond cited a passage from his liner notes for “Duke’s Place” to convey just how captivating Mr. Mraz could be.“I remember vividly playing with him years ago with the pianist Steve Kuhn,” he wrote in those notes, “and George’s bass solos had me so transfixed that I found myself forgetting to come back in to play.”Mr. Mraz at Birdland in New York in 2012. As an accompanist, he was expert at complementing whoever was front and center, Alan NahigianJiri Mraz — “George” was an Americanization — was born on Sept. 9, 1944, in Pisek, in what is now the Czech Republic. When he was 12 or 13, he stumbled on Louis Armstrong on a Voice of America broadcast.“I couldn’t figure out the music,” he told Bass Musician magazine in 2009, “and wondered how someone with a voice like Satchmo’s got away with singing like that. The music made me feel good, and I liked it better than a lot of other things I had heard. That’s when I started looking into jazz.”He studied at the Prague Conservatory, graduating in 1966, and was playing with top jazz groups in his country while a teenager. When the Soviet Union cracked down on liberalization in Prague in the summer of 1968, he was out of the country, playing at a jazz club in Munich. That fall, he accepted a scholarship to Berklee. It was almost a quarter-century before he was able to return to his homeland to perform.He became an American citizen in 1975.As an accompanist, Mr. Mraz was expert at complementing whoever was front and center, as in 1982 when he backed the singer Carol Sloane at the club Village West.“She uses vibrato to give each song a rhythmic pulse, and she knowingly savors every curve she adds to a melody,” Jon Pareles wrote in a review in The New York Times. “Mr. Mraz’s warm, legato bass lines gave her plenty to swing on.”Mr. Mraz was schooled in classical music and would practice it as a conservatory student, but he said he rarely practiced jazz while a student or in later years. “Mostly I learned everything on the bandstand,” he said.He had a knack for accommodating a variety of players and their demands. “There are so many different styles to consider, and I always just try to just fit with what’s happening musically around me,” he told Bass Musician. “It’s a very natural thing for me.”The collapse of the Soviet Union gave Mr. Mraz a chance to return to his home country, and to step to the fore as bandleader.“It’s not easy to decide how to put a band together,” he told The Boston Globe in 1999. “But I needed a group when I went to Prague in 1991, for the first time in 25 years, to play at a festival.”His approach as bandleader was laid back.“You can never tell people exactly what to do,” he said. “So you just try to find a way to work your concepts into the music, as well as their concepts, and just let them do what they do.”A full list of Mr. Mraz’s survivors was not immediately available.When not playing music, Mr. Mraz would sometimes pursue his hobby, fly fishing, in the rivers and streams of upstate New York.“I catch mostly trout and throw most of them back, though I keep one or two a year just to assure myself I’m not completely crazy,” he told The Globe. “The biggest I’ve caught was two feet long, and I let him go — he was too beautiful.” More

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      Listen to the Essential Terence Blanchard

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      Spike Lee scores, daring jazz: Here are highlights from the varied career of the composer of “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” at the Metropolitan Opera.Like Wayne Shorter — to whom his newest album, “Absence,” is dedicated — Terence Blanchard is the rare jazz star whose renown as a composer almost overshadows his reputation as a daring and stylish improviser. Almost.Blanchard, whose opera “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” opens the Metropolitan Opera’s season on Monday, rose as a jazz phenom in the early 1980s, taking over the trumpet chair in Art Blakey’s fabled Jazz Messengers after Wynton Marsalis left. Barely 20, he was a double threat even then: writing compositions of coiled energy and smartly woven rhythmic interplay, and improvising fiercely, cutting sharp turns and slipping into sly glissandos.He soon became Spike Lee’s musical other half, a relationship that helped to make film scoring into a primary vocation. And in the 21st century, he’s established himself as one of jazz’s most respected educators and spokesmen. Here are a few highlights from his discography.‘Ninth Ward Strut’ (1988)Throughout much of the 1980s, Blanchard led a band along with the alto saxophonist Donald Harrison — a fellow 20-something New Orleans native and Jazz Messenger — that became one of the standard-bearing groups of jazz’s Young Lions movement. In “Ninth Ward Strut,” Blanchard pays tribute to his hometown’s signature sound with a swinging second-line rhythmic underpinning, while pushing his own identity as a composer. The track is rhythmically suspenseful and harmonically jagged in a way that would become characteristic.‘The Nation’ (1992)Spike Lee tapped Blanchard to record the trumpet parts for Denzel Washington’s character in “Mo’ Better Blues” (1990), including on the film’s title tune, which became a kind of Young Lions-era classic. Lee soon began asking Blanchard to write scores — and he hasn’t stopped. “Malcolm X” (1992) was one of the first films Blanchard did, exploring an expanded palette of choral harmonies, strings and brass. He rearranged the music for jazz sextet soon after, and recorded it as “The Malcolm X Jazz Suite,” a restless and ambitious album for Columbia Records.‘A Child With the Blues’ (1997)Blanchard recorded this track with the neo-soul doyenne Erykah Badu for the soundtrack to “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” librettist Kasi Lemmons’s 1997 film “Eve’s Bayou.” Bantering with Badu, he pulls sassy glissandos from the horn and pushes her into pitter-patter rhythmic exchanges. (It later reappeared on a deluxe edition of the album “Baduizm.”)‘Dear Mom’ (2007)After scoring “When the Levees Broke,” Lee’s 2006 documentary about Hurricane Katrina, Blanchard adapted his compositions into a suite, as he had with the “Malcolm X” music. He released the results as “A Tale of God’s Will” the following year.Katrina was deeply personal for Blanchard, whose mother lost her home in the storm. Adoration and enervation course together on “Dear Mom,” as Blanchard plays a pas de deux with a large string section. The album won Blanchard the second of his five Grammys, for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.‘Can Anyone Hear Me’ (2018)For years, Blanchard has put a premium on working with younger musicians, and in his current quintet, the E-Collective, he’s assembled a wrecking crew of cutting-edge improvisers who regularly reimagine how jazz-rock fusion might work. On “Can Anyone Hear Me,” from a recent live album, Blanchard’s horn is encased in an electric bodysuit of distortion and effects, but the precision and counter-intuition of his soloing shines through. More

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      Ron Miles Headlines the Village Vanguard, at Last, as the Club Reopens

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      The cornetist led a quintet featuring Jason Moran, Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan and Brian Blade as the 86-year-old establishment came back to life after its pandemic shutdown.Ron Miles has a dusty and unvarnished sound on cornet that hints at his Rocky Mountain roots, and unlike your typical high-brass improviser, he hardly ever resorts to flash or big pronouncements. Onstage he’s unhurried, low-key and playing for the audience, yes, but not directly to it.All of which helped make his quintet’s early set at the Village Vanguard on Saturday night feel comfortable, even familiar, despite it being Miles’s first week leading a band at the storied club — and his shows being the Vanguard’s first after 18 months of lockdown.There was an air of celebration as the 86-year-old establishment came back to life, but the way to engage with it was seemingly to pick up right where things left off, letting the music do its work.Patrons returning to the club found it largely unchanged after the long pause.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesThe tiny white bistro tables and wooden chairs were just as before, knocked closely together between the venue’s obtusely angled walls, all lined with leather benches. The simple laminated drink menus were unchanged, except for a sticker on each one with a handwritten “Modelo” replacing the Stella Artois.But a big part of the night’s easy, familial feeling came from the fact that the members of Miles’s all-star quintet were all Vanguard regulars. Everyone but the band’s leader had previously headlined at the club in his own right: the pianist Jason Moran, the guitarist Bill Frisell, the bassist Thomas Morgan and the drummer Brian Blade.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesMiles, 58, has spent most of his life in Denver and has only recently begun to garner the heavy national attention he was due, and it’s come thanks to this band. He had booked this engagement with the club’s management far in advance, after the quintet had released its debut album but before last year’s equally spellbinding release, “Rainbow Sign.” When the Vanguard decided to align its reopening with Broadway’s, in mid-September, Miles’s became the first date on the schedule that stood.The cornetist first convened the quintet in 2016 as an extension of a trio that he had long maintained with Blade and Frisell. Everyone in the group spent at least his adolescent years west of the Mississippi River — Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, California — and Miles’s slyly swinging compositions are built perfectly to find the natural simpatico between these musicians. Steeped in American roots music, 1950s cool jazz and the musical openness of Don Cherry, it never feels settled but almost always seems centered on a search for shared comfort.Appearing onstage with the band just after 8 p.m., Miles allowed a pregnant silence to build before beaming out one evenly held note; Moran responded with a low and cloudy chord, striking it just half a moment behind Miles. Frisell’s guitar, run through reversed effects and sudden loops, added an electric charge to their earth tones.It was Morgan who started, finally, to set a firm pulse, though he built it in response to Blade’s scattered strokes on the snare and bass drums, which implied a flow. The tune became slowly recognizable as “Like Those Who Dream,” the opener from “Rainbow Sign.” The musicians bent in and out of blues form as they moved into a steady three-beat pattern, and solos folded neatly into composed sections.The drummer Brian Blade and the guitarist Bill Frisell on the Vanguard stage.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesThe set started with long, expansive renditions of original compositions, and ended with a diptych of short, pithy pieces: a quick-hit take on Lee Konitz’s cool-jazz classic “Subconscious-Lee” and a short version of “The Rumor,” a pool of harmony and tone that serves as the centerpiece of the new album.Miles knows about fitting his voice into another musician’s band; most of his higher-profile work had been as a side musician, and he makes himself indispensable by paying attention to a group’s entire sound, in the way that a bassist or a pianist might.He encouraged the same approach from his bandmates here by not only writing to their natural strengths but by presenting each member with a score that shows the entire band’s parts, rather than just their own.Miles’s skills as an accompanist were in evidence too on Saturday. On “Queen of the South,” another original from the new album with a memorable, folklike melody, after the solo section ended and the band reclined back into the melody, Miles capered happily around it, adding bright coloration and cross-swipes of rhythm.He followed with “Let’s,” an up-tempo tune by Thad Jones, the trumpeter and Vanguard icon, hoisting up the energy and the tempo but not the volume. Moran stayed out as Frisell improvised, starting with spare gestures and getting more creative, treating his solo like an engine being rebuilt one part at a time. Miles took his own solo quickly off the harmonic map, tugging against whatever structure had set in with the swing feel.After “Let’s,” Miles took the microphone off its stand for the first and only time that set, and spoke as if this was just a normal night of music in a highly special place. “We are blessed to be here and blessed to be in this hallowed space,” he said. “We’re going to play some more music for you.”There was an air of celebration as the club came back to life.An Rong Xu for The New York Times More

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      Bennie Pete, Bandleader Who Kept the Beat After Katrina, Dies at 45

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      A tuba player and the leader of the Hot 8, one of New Orleans’s high-profile brass bands, he brought music to his fellow citizens in the difficult days after the storm.Bennie Pete, a New Orleans tuba player who co-founded and led the Hot 8, one of the city’s high-profile brass bands, and dedicated himself to preserving the musical traditions of the Big Easy after Hurricane Katrina, died on Sept. 6 at a hospital there. He was 45.His wife, Lameka Segura-Pete, said the cause was complications of sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease, and Covid-19.The soul of New Orleans is rooted in music. Second-line parades march for hours down its streets, with brass bands followed by dancers holding feathered parasols and sipping drinks. New Orleans honors its dead with jazz funerals that strut through town, celebrating life through a musical sacrament with the city.Born and raised in the Upper Ninth Ward, Mr. Pete embraced this heritage. He started playing the tuba at 10 and joined a marching band in middle school. At 18, he helped bring together two brass bands, the Looney Tunes and the High Steppers, into the Hot 8.The Hot 8 began playing for tips on Bourbon Street and in Jackson Square, in the heart of the French Quarter. They performed outside a housing project in the Central City neighborhood, where people sat down with bags of crawfish and bottles of Abita beer to listen. Mr. Pete once found himself leading a jazz funeral for a dog.“He was a popular dog for one of the popular musicians,” he told Esquire magazine in 2014, “and they threw a big second-line parade through the streets for him. They’d make a reason to party.”By 2000, the Hot 8 had established itself as part of a vanguard of young brass bands that were upholding the jazz and funk traditions of New Orleans yet playing with a contemporary sound. The Hot 8’s repertoire included songs by the Specials and Marvin Gaye, and the band incorporated rap and hip-hop into its style. The musicians led second lines on Sundays for social aid and pleasure clubs; crowds formed at night to watch them play in bars in the Treme neighborhood.After Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the preservation of New Orleans’s musical heritage became a matter of serious concern. Countless musicians were displaced and evacuated, and longstanding jazz and blues clubs were left in ruin. Mr. Pete and a few bandmates ended up in Atlanta.Two months later, the Hot 8 regrouped to lead the first jazz funeral in New Orleans after the storm. The band played with donated instruments, and members of the procession wore salvaged pieces of finery. The parade, which honored a celebrated chef, Austin Leslie, started at Pampy’s Creole Kitchen in the Seventh Ward before ambling to the former site of Chez Helene, where a sign greeted the marchers: “We won’t bow down. Save our soul.”“Bennie wanted to play for these people to give them that New Orleans love that was missing,” his wife said of his activities after Katrina. “He and the band got busy spreading the culture around.”Maria ZbaskaAs despair weighed on the city, the Hot 8 began performing at evacuation shelters and emergency medical centers. They drove around in a van, stopping to jam for crowds until little second lines formed, before heading to another part of town. It wasn’t long before they became local heroes.“Bennie wanted to play for these people to give them that New Orleans love that was missing,” his wife said. “He and the band got busy spreading the culture around.”When Spike Lee learned of the Hot 8, he decided to feature them in his 2006 documentary about New Orleans, “When the Levees Broke,” which brought them national attention. They were signed to a British record label; they toured with Lauryn Hill and performed with Mos Def. They appeared on the HBO show “Treme” and recorded with the gospel group the Blind Boys of Alabama.But even as music returned to New Orleans after the storm, the Hot 8 endured more misfortune. Their snare drummer, Dinerral Shavers, was shot dead in his car in December 2006. It was only the latest in a series of tragedies for the band.In 1996, the trumpet player Jacob Johnson was shot in the head at his home. In 2004, the trombonist Joseph Williams was killed in an encounter with the police. And just after Katrina, the trumpeter Terrell Batiste lost his legs in a road accident.Mr. Shavers’s murder especially rattled Mr. Pete.“I wanted to move,” he told OffBeat magazine. “I was tired of New Orleans. I felt like I would be the one next.”Ultimately, Mr. Pete resolved to stay, and the Hot 8 recorded an album to honor their fallen bandmates.The Hot 8 Brass Band in 2017. From left: Christopher Cotton, Tyrus Chapman, Anthony Brooks, Harry Cook, Mr. Pete, Larry Brown, Alvarez Huntley and Andrew Calhoun.Melissa FargoReleased in 2012, “The Life & Times Of …” was nominated for a Grammy Award as best regional roots music album. The group released “Tombstone,” a sister album also based on the theme of remembrance, the next year. The Hot 8 was also featured on a 2015 compilation album, “New Orleans Brass Bands: Through the Streets of the City,” on the Smithsonian’s Folkways label.“Everything kind of worked,” Mr. Pete told Esquire. “Yeah, we are the Hot 8 who went through these things, but we’re still here, and this is who we are after the storm.”Bennie Gerald Pete Jr. was born on July 10, 1976. His father was a maintenance worker in the Garden District. His mother, Terry (Thomas) Pete, was a homemaker.As a boy, Bennie attended a Baptist church in the Seventh Ward where his maternal grandfather was pastor, and he danced in the aisles as he sang gospel music. He graduated from Alcée Fortier High School in 1994.In addition to his wife, Mr. Pete is survived by three sons, Brannon, Brennon and Bennie III; two stepdaughters, La’Shae Joseph and Laila Trask; and two sisters, Yvete and Terneisha Pete.Over the last decade, the Hot 8 began touring regularly in Europe; in New Orleans, the band performed on the vaunted stages of Tipitina’s and the annual Jazz & Heritage Festival.Mr. Pete suffered a seizure in 2014 and was diagnosed with sarcoidosis. In 2018, he underwent surgery for prostate cancer. During the lockdown, his health deteriorated and he lost 100 pounds. When the Hot 8 recently resumed their Sunday residency at the Howlin’ Wolf, Mr. Pete didn’t join them onstage.In the days after his death, brass bands in New Orleans mourned him with music. They led second lines through Treme, Central City and the Garden District. The soulful notes of “Just a Closer Walk With Thee,” a hymn played to send off the dead, echoed into the night. More

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      66 Pop and Jazz Albums, Shows and Festivals Coming This Fall

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      Anticipated returns (Abba, Diana Ross), intergenerational collaborations (Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett) and hotly tipped follow-ups (Brandi Carlile, Makaya McCraven) are coming in the new season.When pandemic lockdowns shut down the concert industry last year, some artists forged ahead with planned album releases and answered a question loaded with risk: What would a rollout look like without the regular promotional cycle of in-person interviews, late-night performances and live shows? Many musicians pivoted to streaming; others buckled down on their songwriting and hit the studio. The results of these experiments are largely emerging now.While some of pop’s biggest names are still being coy about whether they’ll make their big returns this season (Adele, Beyoncé and yes, we’re still waiting, Rihanna), this fall’s music calendar is already stuffed with a reunion of disco legends, an all-star Afrobeats festival and the arrival of a slate of buzzy newcomers.Dates are subject to change; check vaccine and mask requirements for individual performers and venues.SeptemberJUSTIN VIVIAN BOND AND ANTHONY ROTH COSTANZO It’s hard to think of an artistic pursuit that Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo haven’t tackled between them. Now the longtime friends and iconoclasts are joining forces for a theatrical concert, “Only an Octave Apart,” inspired by their mutual admiration for Carol Burnett’s collaborations with Julie Andrews and Beverly Sills, and for each other. Thomas Bartlett and Nico Muhly, also contributors to Bond and Costanzo’s upcoming album of the same name, will handle musical direction and arrangements. (Sept. 21-Oct. 3; St. Ann’s Warehouse) — Elysa GardnerCORY HENRY His soulful output as a keyboardist, singer and composer has landed Cory Henry attention from the jazz and gospel worlds, and made admirers of pop and R&B fans who pay little attention to either of those genres. He’ll perform Sept. 22-26 at the Blue Note Jazz Club, where other scheduled acts include the adventurous hip-hop and jazz fusionist Georgia Anne Muldrow (Sept. 29-30) and the sentimental favorites the Manhattan Transfer (Nov. 23-28). — GardnerAlessia Cara brings her introspective songwriting to a fresh era of her life on “In the Meantime.”Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty ImagesALESSIA CARA Since landing her first hit with “Here” — a tart, ambling song about being a wallflower — at 18, the Canadian singer Alessia Cara has documented the friction of adolescence and young adulthood with clear eyes and a sharp pen. On “In the Meantime,” her third album, Cara’s youthful unease gives way to mid-20s ennui; she sings about the passage of time (“What if my best days are the days I’ve left behind?” she wonders on one misty piano ballad), romantic disappointment and feelings of inadequacy. Incisive and introspective as ever, Cara continues to position herself as both pop star and self-therapist. ( Sept. 24; Def Jam) — Olivia HornTHE COOKERS There’s something dangerous about putting together an all-star crew of jazz musicians whose careers took off (mostly) in the 1970s. It was a complicated, ungoverned time in jazz, when fusion was upending the genre’s creative economy and even traditionalists were pushing their own boundaries. In the years since, our memory of the era has become a bit simplified, and some of its more rugged straight-ahead jazz — made for labels like Strata-East and Black Lion — hasn’t fully made it into the canon. But the Cookers, a group of luminaries mostly now in their 70s and 80s, have managed to retain the rough-and-tumble spirit of their old work, while accepting the laurels that have rightfully come to them. On their new album, “Look Out,” a bristling collection of originals, the old feeling is newly alive. (Sept. 24; Gearbox Records) — Giovanni RussonelloTHEO CROKER Born into a family of civil rights activists and jazz musicians, Theo Croker was well positioned to carry the mantle of the music and its message. Now in his mid-30s, he has amassed an impressive résumé as a side musician for a diverse array of musical innovators, including the jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater and the rappers J. Cole and Common. For his new album, the smoldering neo-jazz collection “Blk2Life || A Future Past,” the tables are turned and he’s calling in favors: Guests include Wyclef Jean, Ari Lennox and Kassa Overall, a longtime Croker pal and collaborator. (Sept. 24; Sony Masterworks) — RussonelloThe big-band composer Miho Hazama, whose arrangements thrive on big gestures, exuberance and bravado technique.Nicolas Koch FuttrupMIHO HAZAMA AND THE DANISH RADIO BIG BAND Top northern European big bands have long invited great composers and arrangers from abroad to collaborate on albums. These well-tooled orchestras can offer expert and faithful readings, though it’s often all too apparent that the bands don’t have a particularly lengthy or intimate relationship to the guest’s music. For the upstart Japanese big-band composer Miho Hazama, whose arrangements thrive on big gestures, exuberance and bravado technique, that’s not a huge problem. If “Imaginary Visions,” her new album with the Danish Radio Big Band, feels like a master class in crisply executed contemporary big band jazz, it’s a class worth attending. (Sept. 24; Edition Records) — RussonelloKONDI BAND This intercontinental, intergenerational group’s story began when a YouTube video of the street musician Sorie Kondi made its way to Chief Boima, an American D.J. and producer with roots in Kondi’s native Sierra Leone. Boima’s subsequent remix of Sorie’s song “Without Money, No Family” paved the way for the pair’s ongoing collaboration as Kondi Band, named for Sorie’s 15-pin thumb piano, which lends an undulating backbone to glittering, electronic compositions that draw on West African traditions and contemporary dance music. “We Famous,” Kondi Band’s second album, expands its global footprint with contributions from a third member, the London-based producer Will Horrocks. (Sept. 24, Strut) — HornNAO With her gravity-defying soprano and lithe, darting melodies, the English songwriter Nao glides through songs about falling in and out of love, sounding buoyant even when she’s downhearted or uncertain. She’s joined by kindred jazzy-R&B songwriters on “And Then Life Was Beautiful,” including Lianne La Havas, serpentwithfeet and Lucky Daye. (Sept. 24; Sony Music UK/RCA Records) — Jon ParelesTHE OPHELIAS On their third album, “Crocus,” this Ohio four-piece delivers tender and sometimes unnerving songs of the heart, wrapped in thickets of expressive violin and delicate harmony. But the beauty of the arrangements doesn’t blunt the spikiness of lyrics penned by the group’s frontwoman, Spencer Peppet, as she surveys the emotional wreckage of relationships in the rearview mirror (“Holding you feels like a bomb went off in my chest” she sings, memorably, on “The Twilight Zone.”) Julien Baker, an artist with whom Peppet shares a knack for lyrical vulnerability, lends guest vocals to one track. (Sept. 24; Joyful Noise) — HornPoppy’s “Flux” captures an artist who works in between genres and moods.Burak Cingi/Redferns, via Getty ImagesPOPPY Since her ascent on YouTube several years ago, Poppy has ping-ponged from one identity to another: She’s styled herself as an internet satirist, a cyborgian pop star and, most recently, a nu-metal frontwoman. In every role, her signature move is to unnerve, whether she’s demonstrating a makeup look for a funeral, singing about body culture or screaming atop thrashing guitars and hurtling hard-core drums. Poppy’s upcoming fourth album follows last year’s “I Disagree,” which earned her a Grammy nomination for best metal performance. Titled “Flux,” it lands somewhere between the sonic extremes of her previous work, marrying heavy distortion with sticky pop hooks. (Sept. 24; Sumerian) — HornDAVID SANFORD BIG BAND The composer and academic David Sanford has spent his career exploring the ways big-band jazz and Western classical can feed off each other, with dashes of punk, ambient and experimental music thrown in too. His new album, “A Prayer for Lester Bowie,” pays tribute to the influential trumpeter and composer, a key member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, who shared Sanford’s proclivity for scrambling prefabricated formulas. The album is a glorious hodgepodge of large-ensemble synchronicity and wah-wah-drenched blazes, with plenty of time devoted to featuring Hugh Ragin, a Chicago trumpeter like Bowie, whose rough and gleaming sound bespeaks a mix of pride and lament. (Sept. 24; Greenleaf Music) — RussonelloSUFJAN STEVENS AND ANGELO DE AUGUSTINE After some synthesizer-powered albums, Sufjan Stevens returns to his pristinely folky side on “A Beginner’s Mind,” a collaboration with the songwriter Angelo De Augustine, full of fingerpicking and delicate vocal harmonies. It’s high-concept in an unobtrusive way; the songs are inspired by movies, but it’s just as easy to take them as first-person ruminations on character and fate. (Sept. 24; Asthmatic Kitty) — ParelesBilly Strings. His name says it all.Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressBILLY STRINGS The path from bluegrass to the jam-band circuit was opened by none other than Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Lately it has been traversed by Billy Strings, who writes pensive, philosophical songs and breezes through them with his virtuosic guitar picking. On “Renewal,” his fourth album, the core of the music is an acoustic string band — with fiddle and banjo, no drums — that happily takes an occasional psychedelic detour. (Sept. 24; Rounder) — ParelesENDEA OWENS & THE COOKOUT Let’s be honest: A lot of us started the pandemic with a pledge to fill the lonely stretches of lockdown with new and meaningful projects. For Endea Owens, a young bassist on the rise, that vow panned out. A member of the “Late Show” band led by Jon Batiste, she began organizing free “cookout” concerts in her Harlem neighborhood, providing live music and free meals to a broad swath of the often-underserved community, while playing a mix of jazz standards and backyard R&B jams. This fall, not long after Jazz at Lincoln Center reopens its doors for live concerts, Owens will bring her band, now called the Cookout, to Dizzy’s Club for a two-night run. (Sept. 25-26; Dizzy’s Club) — RussonelloTHE DIAMOND SERIES AT FEINSTEIN’S/54 BELOW Soprano Heaven arrives this fall, as the venue welcomes sparkling leading ladies for concert-length performances. Kelli O’Hara (Sept. 28-Oct. 3) and then Laura Benanti (Oct. 5-10) will kick off the series and Megan Hilty follows, Nov. 2-7. Also on tap at the Midtown club: the song and dance marvel Tony Yazbeck (Sept. 21-22); the silver-voiced Broadway veteran Christine Andreas (Sept. 24-25); the flame-haired dynamo Marilu Henner (Oct. 17); the grande dame Marilyn Maye (Oct. 25-30, Nov. 1) the show biz-diva Ruby Manger, alter ego of comedian and actor Julia Mattison (Oct. 13); and “Seussical Reunion Concert,” featuring members of the 2000 Broadway musical’s original cast (Nov. 22). — GardnerDUCHESS The women in this vocal trio — Amy Cervini, Hilary Gardner and Melissa Stylianou — are not siblings by blood, but their sisterly, airtight harmonies have won them a following in jazz circles. The group will appear Sept. 30 at the newly reopened Birdland Theater, where the fall lineup includes beloved regular Natalie Douglas (Oct. 1-2, Nov. 15), Klea Blackhurst in a tribute to Jerry Herman (Oct. 20-22); Marissa Mulder, saluting John Prine (Oct. 3); and the singer-songwriter Christine Lavin (Nov. 22); in addition to weekly installments of “The Lineup With Susie Mosher” on Tuesdays and, upstairs at Birdland Jazz Club, “Jim Caruso’s Cast Party” on Mondays. The jazz club will also host a Sept. 20 concert featuring cast members from the returning Broadway production of “Company,” benefiting the mental health nonprofit Darkness Rising. — GardnerMICHAEL GARIN AND MARDIE MILLIT AT THE WEST BANK CAFE The husband-and-wife duo, who also perform together in the Habibi Kings, continue to hold forth at the West Bank Cafe (and on Facebook), where on the first two Sunday nights of every month you can catch Michael Garin — pianist, singer, raconteur, mash-up maestro — leap between genres with Mardie Millit serving as his comedy partner and lending a lustrous soprano. The Jazz Bandits appear every Friday, while Saturdays bring the piano and vocal stylings of Eric Yves Garcia, followed by the Gabrielle Stravelli Trio, led by the jazz singer and songwriter. — GardnerOctoberKELLY CLARKSON The original “American Idol” diva released her last album, the soulful, stomper-filled “Meaning of Life,” in 2017, and has since turned back to TV, where she dishes out advice to contestants on “The Voice” and hosts a daytime talk show. But Clarkson got back in the studio to capture a bit of holiday magic, and will release a Christmas album — her second — in October. The first single, “Christmas Isn’t Canceled (Just You),” is due Sept. 23. (Atlantic) — HornJOEY PURP Like his fellow Chicagoan and occasional collaborator Chance the Rapper, Joey Purp wears his independent artist credentials with pride. He continues his string of self-releases with his third mixtape, “UpLate,” leaning into his more hedonistic instincts while rapping about conquests, cars and cash with cool detachment. With no features, it’s a relatively insular effort from an artist who tends to work collaboratively. He also contributed production, favoring bouncy, unfussy beats over the flashier aesthetic of earlier projects. (Self-released) — HornLady Gaga and Tony Bennett team up again, for what are to be Bennett’s final studio recordings.Marco Piraccini/Getty ImagesTONY BENNETT AND LADY GAGA The two singers first connected on “Cheek to Cheek,” a 2014 album of jazz standards. “Love for Sale,” their newest, dives into the Cole Porter catalog, and will be Tony Bennett’s last studio recording following the recent announcement that he has Alzheimer’s disease. Lady Gaga is just a year removed from releasing the kaleidoscopic dance pop album “Chromatica,” but once again her chameleonic musical instincts make her flexible voice a natural fit alongside Bennett’s timeless tenor. (Oct. 1; Columbia/Interscope) — Jeremy GordonBRANDI CARLILE Since she released her sixth album “By the Way, I Forgive You” in 2018, the roots rock star Brandi Carlile’s profile has risen considerably. First there was that unforgettable performance of her anthemic song “The Joke” at the 2019 Grammys; then, earlier this year, her resilient and acclaimed memoir “Broken Horses” debuted atop the New York Times best-seller list. Expectations are high for her next album, but the searing “In These Silent Days” rises to the occasion. It’s a confidently composed testament to Carlile’s eclecticism, featuring fiery rockers (“Broken Horses”), politically engaged narratives (“Sinners Saints and Fools”) and a few shimmying folk numbers (“You and Me on the Rock”) that prove her recent live performance covering Joni Mitchell’s album “Blue” in its entirety may have unlocked a whole new phase of her own songwriting. (Oct. 1; Low Country Sound/Elektra) — Lindsay ZoladzTHE DAPTONE SOUL REVUE The 20-year-old Daptone label has been devoted to funk, soul and gospel that harks back to the 1960s and 1970s. In 2014, it gathered its roster on an appropriate stage to record “The Daptone Super Soul Revue Live at the Apollo,” with a parade of singers fronting an impeccable backup band, working up to one bluesy peak after another. Topping the extensive bill were Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones, two gutsy, grown-up shouters who didn’t survive the 2010s. (Oct. 1, Daptone) — ParelesTIRZAH The avant-garde English electro-pop musician Tirzah’s sensuous second album “Colourgrade” is the result of extended jam sessions with her fellow producers and longtime collaborators Coby Sey (whose vocals are featured on the standout duet “Hive Mind”) and the experimental pop artist/Oscar-nominated musician Mica Levi (close friends with Tirzah since their school days). Tirzah’s songs are atmospheric, hypnotic and rarely straightforward, but her low croon has a beckoning allure — like Sade vocals refracted through a gleaming prism. (Oct. 1; Domino) — ZoladzLOST IN RIDDIM Afrobeats, the Nigerian pop that elegantly and ingeniously meshes African rhythms and savvy programming behind unflappable voices, was on its way to conquering the United States when the pandemic struck and destroyed tour plans. But Afrobeats tracks have still been racking up tens of millions of streams. A festival at the Railyards District in Sacramento, Lost in Riddim, presents 20 hitmakers — including Wizkid, Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage and Mr Eazi — offering a two-day immersion in Afrobeats for a U.S. audience. (Oct. 2-3; Railyards District, Sacramento, Calif.) — ParelesMISS RICHFIELD 1981 The toast of Provincetown and “ambassadoress” of her native Minnesota suburb celebrates four decades of drag glory with “40 Years on the Throne,” a multimedia shindig mixing songs, videos and games with audience interplay at the Triad Theater,(Oct. 7-9). The club favorites the Dozen Divas, starring Dorothy Bishop, return (Sept. 24); later, acclaimed jazz singer Sharón Clark will appear with the Chris Grasso Trio (Oct. 16); “Extra! Extra!” will showcase the MAC Award winner Scott Raneri (Sept. 25, Nov. 7); Naima Mora will spin “The Amazing Adventures of a Woman in Need,” a tale of inner life and solidarity in New York that the model and actress co-wrote with Marishka S. Phillips (Oct. 16); and the sessions singer and recording artist Clayton Thomas will deliver “A Christmas Love Song” a couple of weeks early (Dec. 11). — GardnerTammy Faye Starlite will embody the Israeli chanteuse Tamar at Pangea.Al Pereira/Getty ImagesTAMMY FAYE STARLITE Alt-cabaret’s most enchanting chameleon returns, this time in the guise of the Israeli chanteuse Tamar, who sings in English and Hebrew. Developed with the director Rachel Lichtman, Tammy Faye Starlite’s latest creation draws inspiration from her former muse Marianne Faithfull, as well as Françoise Hardy, Juliette Gréco and Leonard Cohen. (Tamar’s version of “Suzanne” includes lyrics from “Ba’Shana Haba’ah.”) She’ll hold court each Thursday in October at Pangea. On Nov. 8 and 15, the old-school champion Sidney Myer — held dear among cabaret fans as both an entertainer and a booker — starts his own new chapter, premiering “Sidney’s Back at Pangea.” And Tweed TheaterWorks returns with its “Sundays @ 7” series, with participants set to include the octave-jumping vocalist and mystic Carol Lipnik (Oct. 17) and the celebrated writer-performer David Cale with his musical collaborator Matthew Dean Marsh (Nov. 21). — GardnerJOHN COLTRANE No jazz recording is more sacrosanct than the John Coltrane Quartet’s 1964 capture of “A Love Supreme.” But perhaps no recording can live up to the fierce combustion of a live jazz show. So there’s reason to celebrate the recent discovery of a 1965 recording on which Coltrane gives a rare club performance of his masterpiece. “A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle” marks the first time that a live version of the suite is being officially released as an album of its own. At this show, verging into the avant-garde, Coltrane augments his quartet with two saxophonists, Pharoah Sanders and Carlos Ward, plus a second bassist, Donald Garrett, and lets the expanded group spontaneously remold his compositions into something new and cathartic. (Oct. 8; Impulse) — RussonelloNATALIE HEMBY Natalie Hemby has thrived in Nashville as a collaborator, sharing songwriting credits on dozens of songs (including the Grammy-winning “I’ll Never Love Again” from “A Star Is Born”) and lately joining the Highwomen with Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris and Amanda Shires. But her voice can stand on its own. On her second solo album, “Pins and Needles,” she sings about love’s enticements and complications, avoiding current arena-country gimmickry for a sinewy, naturalistic 1990s sound that harks back to another of her collaborators, Sheryl Crow. (Oct. 8; Fantasy) — ParelesOLD DOMINION For the better part of a decade, members of this five-piece have been shaping the sound of country radio, both with hits of their own and those they pen for stars like Luke Bryan, Sam Hunt and Kelsea Ballerini. “Time, Tequila & Therapy,” Old Dominion’s fourth full-length, is packed with chipper, harmony-rich country-pop that teeters pleasantly between earnestness and goofiness. “There’s no hard feelings, and no bad vibes,” the frontman Matthew Ramsey sings on one contented tune; the album’s title is his recommended recipe for post-breakup enlightenment. (Oct. 8; Sony Nashville) — HornWORLD CAFE 30 OVER 30 WXPN is a Philadelphia radio station with rock foundations but an eclectic bent, known to public radio listeners across the country for its NPR-distributed flagship program, “World Cafe.” That show — which features live performances and interviews with artists including industry fixtures (recently the Wallflowers and David Crosby) and up-and-comers (Jensen McRae, Shungudzo) — turns 30 this fall. To celebrate, XPN will roll out 30 weeks of special programming on air and online beginning Oct. 11; offerings will include resurfaced archival footage and a collection of new covers by program alumni. — HornZAC BROWN BAND Longtime listeners who may have felt alienated by the country juggernaut Zac Brown’s pair of pop-oriented 2019 releases — his band’s eclectic album “The Owl,” and Brown’s even glossier solo album “The Controversy” — are likely to find “The Comeback” a fitting title for the Zac Brown Band’s seventh studio album. Returning to the raucous, full-bodied sound of the Georgia-based group’s 2008 breakthrough “The Foundation,” “The Comeback” leans hard into many of its proven strengths, from the playful, “Margaritaville”-esque dispatches “Paradise Lost on Me” and “Same Boat” to the lush group harmonies and intricate guitar work showcased on “Out in the Middle.” Don’t be afraid to call it by its name. (Oct. 15; Warner Music Nashville/Home Grown Music) — ZoladzCOLDPLAY After briefly linking up with the Swedish pop impresario Max Martin a few years ago, Britain’s most tender big-tent export has handed him the reins for its new album. “Music of the Spheres” refashions the band’s emotionally generous stadium rock into nimble and soaring pop, and further commits to its eternally optimistic worldview on bouncy songs like “Higher Power,” where a spiritual take on life also extends toward a belief in the extraterrestrial. It also features a formal collaboration with the Korean megastars BTS, following a few years of mutual public appreciation. (Oct. 15; Atlantic) — GordonFINNEAS The artist born Finneas Baird O’Connell is more commonly known as the primary collaborator of his sister, Billie Eilish, with whom he’s won eight Grammys. “Optimist” is his debut solo record, following a 2019 EP. Contrary to his sister’s moody, minor-key pop, Finneas is more of a classic crooner in the model of Rufus Wainwright or Elton John, which you can hear in the exposed “What They’ll Say About Us.” (Oct. 15; Interscope) — GordonXENIA RUBINOS The Brooklyn musician Xenia Rubinos continues to build on the creative ambition of her last album, “Black Terry Cat” from 2016, on which notes of hip-hop, R&B and rock mingled, bolstered by Rubinos’s considerable jazz chops and incisive, often barbed, lyricism. Early singles from her vivid upcoming album, “Una Rosa,” suggest the ways in which her project has expanded: Rubinos layers electronics into her already-eclectic sound, and mutates her vocals to signal alienation and grief. Named for a danza by the Puerto Rican composer José Enrique Pedreira, “Una Rosa” also digs deeper into Rubinos’s Afro-Latino musical heritage, and features more singing in Spanish than her prior releases. (Oct. 15; Anti-) — HornYoung Thug’s forthcoming album, “Punk,” is an intriguing new chapter for a shape-shifting artist.Jessie Lirola for The New York TimesYOUNG THUG The ’20s pop-punk renaissance is in full effect, and its latest devotee is the prolific rap chameleon Young Thug. After releasing the second installment of his “Slime Language” compilation earlier this year, Young Thug debuted a new sound during an NPR Tiny Desk concert this summer: chunky rock guitars, rapid-fire live drumming, and over the top of it all, the rapper pivoting between sharply confessional bars and catchy hooks. A little bit SoundCloud-era emo-rap, a little bit “Rebirth”-era Lil Wayne, the declaratively titled “Punk” is an intriguing new chapter for a shape-shifting artist who’s never content to repeat himself. (Oct. 15; 300 Entertainment/Atlantic) — ZoladzSAMARA JOY The daughter and granddaughter of accomplished gospel artists, this aptly named 21-year-old found her own calling in jazz. Floating from precociously warm, sexy low notes to a silky top, Samara Joy’s voice evokes classic influences and has earned her collaborations with leading contemporary musicians such as the guitarist Pasquale Grasso, whose trio will accompany her at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club on Oct. 17. On Oct. 24, Dizzy’s will host the scat master Ashley Pezzotti and Her Trio; Pezzotti will also join the JALC Orchestra With Wynton Marsalis for “Big Band Holidays” at JALC’s Rose Theater, Dec. 15-19. — GardnerTaylor Mac’s new show at Joe’s Pub is “Sugar in the Tank: New Songs About Queer People.”Willa FolmarTAYLOR MAC The boundary-shattering theater artist returns with “Sugar in the Tank: New Songs About Queer People,” crafted with the music director and arranger Matt Ray, and showcasing the talents of other old friends (along with new ones), including band members who performed in Taylor Mac’s acclaimed “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” and the costume designer Machine Dazzle. The show runs Oct. 19-23 at Joe’s Pub, where offerings include another reliable source of inspirational irreverence (and Ray collaborator), Justin Vivian Bond (Oct. 5-9); “Kludge,” a collection of music and poetry curated by Laurie Anderson (Oct. 12-16); the neuro-inclusive Epic Players (Oct. 24-25); the enduringly pure and fierce voice of Toshi Reagon, with Big Lovely (Nov. 9-11) and Lizz Wright (Nov. 12-13); Jazzmeia Horn and Her Noble Force, the innovative young vocalist and dynamic big band (Nov. 16-20); and the drag diva Peppermint, in “A Girl Like Me …” (Dec. 5-6). — GardnerBRIC JAZZFEST Picking back up where it left off before the pandemic, this annual jazz festival will bring a mix of rising Brooklyn-based talent and established stars to the arts organization’s sprawling home base in Downtown Brooklyn. Headliners at the three-night festival will include the vocalists Cecile McLorin Salvant and Kurt Elling, both performing on opening night; the Sun Ra Arkestra, an avant-garde standard-bearer, slated for Friday; and Madison McFerrin, the upstart jazz-and-beyond singer and composer, who served as a co-curator of the 2021 festival. (Oct. 21-23; BRIC House) — RussonelloCIRCUIT DES YEUX Harnessing the bewitching power of Haley Fohr’s four-octave voice, the sixth album from her project Circuit Des Yeux, “-io,” has an operatic grandeur and a rumbling, Scott Walker-like intensity. Fohr composed these haunting and elemental songs for a 24-piece orchestra, and their bombastic percussion and screaming string sections make “-io” her most ambitious achievement to date. A stirring reflection on grief, oblivion and acceptance, the album sounds like a fearless free fall into the void. (Oct. 22; Matador) — ZoladzGROUPER Liz Harris’s work as Grouper is for listeners who crave mystery, and don’t mind if a song never resolves into legibility. “Shade,” her 12th full-length record as Grouper, compiles songs written over the last 15 years across the country. On tracks like “Followed the Ocean” and “Basement Mix,” her voice, submerged under tape hiss and aqueous piano chords, sounds like a dispatch from a lost civilization. (Oct. 22; Kranky) — GordonELTON JOHN The isolation of Covid-19 led Elton John to try collaborations galore. On “The Lockdown Sessions,” he takes his place (sometimes virtual, sometimes in person) alongside Dua Lipa, Lil Nas X, Miley Cyrus, Stevie Wonder, Brandi Carlile, Eddie Vedder, Rina Sawayama, Stevie Nicks, Charlie Puth, Nicki Minaj and many more. By turns he’s a colleague, a venerated elder, a cover act and a hook singer; all sorts of musicians wanted to latch on to his dramatic melodies and benevolent aura. (Oct. 22; Interscope) — ParelesMy Morning Jacket’s first album since 2015 harks back to even earlier eras of rock ’n’ roll.Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressMY MORNING JACKET With a self-titled album, its first since 2015, My Morning Jacket ponders the nature of reality in a digitally mediated, late-capitalist era. The music, harking back to the late 1960s and early 1970s of Pink Floyd and the Allman Brothers, makes even clearer how much the band longs for a vanished analog past. (Oct. 22; ATO) — ParelesARTIFACTS TRIO The self-titled debut album from this iconoclastic group of all-star Chicagoan improvisers, released in 2015, was a direct homage to the legacy of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, featuring covers of compositions by figures from throughout the history of that avant-garde collective. This time, the trio — Tomeka Reid on cello, Nicole Mitchell on flute and Mike Reed on drums, all association members themselves — is carrying the spirit of homage into the present, with a disc of their own original compositions called “… and Then There’s This.” As on the last album, the intrigue is in the empty spaces, the territory left open by the lack of a piano or a bass or, often, any clear rhythmic pulse at all. (Oct. 29; Astral Spirits) — RussonelloGEESE Last spring, while many of their fellow high school seniors were solidifying their college plans, members of the buzzy Brooklyn rock band Geese were taking meetings with record labels. After announcing themselves with the misleadingly named single “Disco,” this teenage five-piece is set to release its expansive, guitar-forward debut record on the same label that houses post-punk groups like Idles and Fontaines D.C. Titled “Projector,” it’s packed with spiny guitar riffs, angsty, psychedelic musings and plenty of indulgent instrumental breaks. (Oct. 29; Partisan/Play It Again Sam) — HornED SHEERAN Ed Sheeran’s guileless style of pop music made him an unlikely global superstar, largely owing to his intuition for navigating universal emotions through undeniable melodies. “=” (pronounced “equals”), his latest LP, draws from the same genre-agnostic well: The lead single, “Bad Habits,” splits the difference between folk and pop like a polite club banger, while “Visiting Hours,” a tribute to his late mentor, Michael Gudinski, is pure choral pathos. A variety of musicians such as Kylie Minogue, Natalie Hemby and Ben Kweller also contribute. (Oct. 29; Atlantic) — GordonTHE WAR ON DRUGS Over the last decade, Adam Granduciel’s band has developed a conduit between blurry art rock and blue-skied Springsteenian ambition, slowly refining its ethos with the patience of a painter stippling a canvas point by point. On “I Don’t Live Here Anymore,” the band’s first studio record since winning the Grammy for best rock album, still waters mask anxieties about change, love and finding one’s place in the world. Ideal for those who want the experience of standing in a cool breeze while sitting at home. (Oct. 29; Atlantic) — GordonPOSTY FEST If you’re trying to figure out “the kids” — or, if by the miracle of chronology, you’re one of them — you could do worse than attending Posty Fest, a two-day festival curated by the pop-rap trickster Post Malone. This year’s lineup features Megan Thee Stallion, Roddy Ricch, Flo Milli, Jack Harlow and more. The festival will take place outdoors in order to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. (Oct. 30-31; AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Tx.) — GordonNovemberIdles escalates from electronic Minimalism to flat-out stomp and roar.Sebastien Bozon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesIDLES The British band Idles wrings new variations from the post-punk vocabulary of obstinacy, impact, dissonance, talk-singing and ratcheting-up tension on its fourth studio album. The band escalates from electronic Minimalism to flat-out stomp and roar; the vocalist, Joe Talbot, veers from bitter cynicism to dance-floor instructions to howls of “Damage! Damage! Damage!” (Partisan) — ParelesABBA After nearly 40 years, the Abba fan’s plea of “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! … some more Abba songs, please” has finally been answered. “Voyage” is the Swedish mega-group’s first LP since “The Visitors,” but the lush grooves of songs like “Don’t Shut Me Down” sound like they’ve been retrieved from a time capsule. The new record will be followed by a reunion concert starting in 2022, where the group will perform as holograms. No, seriously. (Nov. 5; Capitol) — GordonART BLAKEY & THE JAZZ MESSENGERS The quintessential band of the hard-bop era was near the height of its powers in 1961, when it traveled for the first time to Japan for a series of performances. With Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Lee Morgan on trumpet, Bobby Timmons on piano and Jymie Merritt on bass, this configuration (the group’s membership rotated constantly) had already recorded a pair of instant-classic albums, “The Big Beat” and “A Night in Tunisia,” but there’s nothing quite like the casual synergy and playful sparring that they put on display live. On “First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings,” a previously unheard collection that was recently dug up, no performance is under 10 minutes long. Extended takes on Benny Golson’s “Blues March” and Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time” are among the standouts. (Nov. 5; Blue Note) — RussonelloAIMEE MANN The singer-songwriter Aimee Mann’s 2017 album, a glum but elegant collection straightforwardly titled “Mental Illness,” is a good primer for her new project: a song cycle based on “Girl, Interrupted,” Susanna Kaysen’s celebrated memoir about her stint in psychiatric care at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. Mann’s new songs were commissioned for an upcoming stage adaptation of the book — the details of which remain unknown — and will soon be released on the album “Queens of the Summer Hotel” (a reference to a line from a poem by Anne Sexton, another notable McLean patient). The theatrical prompt puts good use to Mann’s more maudlin songwriting instincts, and gives her occasion to indulge in lush orchestrations. (Nov. 5; SuperEgo) — HornRADIOHEAD Radiohead decisively jettisoned rock’s structural and sonic conventions with its 2000 and 2001 albums “Kid A” and “Amnesiac,” challenging itself to upend expectations with every new track. It’s reissuing the two albums along with a third disc of material from the same sessions as “Kid A Mnesia,” including a few rare songs and radically different takes of familiar ones. (Nov. 5; XL) — ParelesDiana Ross’s first album in 15 years features production from Jack Antonoff, known for his collaborations with Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey.Rick Kern/Getty ImagesDIANA ROSS You can’t hurry a Diana Ross record. The Motown icon’s first album in 15 years is the beatific “Thank You,” which features some fresh talent: Jack Antonoff, pop producer du jour, contributed to “I Still Believe,” a boisterous disco track that also features St. Vincent on guitar, and Tayla Parx, a frequent Ariana Grande collaborator, helped write the schmaltzy ballad “Just in Case.” (Nov. 5; Decca) — HornSNAIL MAIL On “Lush,” her debut LP as Snail Mail, Lindsey Jordan pushed herself to the forefront of modern guitar pop. “Valentine,” which she co-produced with Brad Cook, expands her tightly manicured sound by incorporating R&B and hip-hop, but still centers her emotive songwriting about the fussy and devastating thoughts that keep us up at night. “You’ll always know where to find me when you change your mind,” she sings on the title track, like someone who intimately knows how feelings can’t be ignored. (Nov. 5; Matador) — GordonDONNA McKECHNIE One of musical theater’s true triple threats, Donna McKechnie was already a Broadway veteran when she scored a Tony Award singing, dancing and acting in the original company of “A Chorus Line.” In “My Musical Comedy Life,” at the Green Room 42 from Nov. 11-13, she’ll share songs and stories tracing her career, including numbers from “Company,” “Sweet Charity” and “Promises, Promises.” The venue’s fall lineup also features the two-time Broadway World Award winner Mark William (Sept. 25); the “Dear Evan Hansen” alumnus Michael Lee Brown (Oct. 2 and 9); the multi-artist showcases “Broadway Belters Sing!” (Sept. 29, Oct. 6) and “Whitney Houston: A Celebration in Song” (Nov. 6); the musical actress Bianca Marroquin (Nov. 10); and, on Tonys night, Sept. 26, “Hold Me Closer Tony Extravaganza: Tony Award Viewing Party,” hosted by the Skivvies. — GardnerDamon Albarn wrote lyrics for “The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows” during pandemic lockdown.Torben Christensen/EPA, via ShutterstockDAMON ALBARN Remarkably, the prolific musician from Blur, Gorillaz and many more projects is releasing what’s formally just his second solo album. “The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows” originated as an orchestral piece, but was lyrically fleshed out during lockdown. Here, the acid wit of Damon Albarn’s earlier work further peels away to reveal contemplative lyrics about the passage of time, among other openhearted ideas, set against a shimmering musical backdrop of strings and synth textures. (Nov. 12; Transgressive) — GordonCOURTNEY BARNETT Witty, dense lyricism and uneasy ruminations on modern life are this Australian musician’s bread and butter; since her breakout EP arrived in 2013, they’ve earned her scores of fans. On Courtney Barnett’s third album, “Things Take Time, Take Time,” she seems unburdened: her tone is lighter, her guitar tamer. “Don’t worry so much about it,” goes the amiable thesis of “Rae Street,” “I’m just waiting for the day to become night.” The record was produced with Stella Mozgawa, of the indie-rock band Warpaint, and features contributions from Vagabon and Cate Le Bon. (Nov. 12; Mom & Pop) — HornJONI MITCHELL Following last year’s revelatory “The Early Years,” the second volume of Joni Mitchell’s ongoing collection of archival releases charts one of the most astonishingly productive periods of her career, from 1968 to 1971 — or, in terms of Mitchell’s discography, from her promising debut “Song to a Seagull” to her enduring masterwork “Blue.” (“Clouds” and “Ladies of the Canyon” came in the years between, if you can believe it.) Across five discs and 119 tracks, “Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971)” provides an intimate glimpse into the process of a peerless songwriter’s rapid evolution, including some previously unheard early versions of Mitchell classics like “All I Want,” “A Case of You” and “California.” But just as compellingly, the many live recordings in this collection also chronicle Mitchell’s increasingly confident command of larger and larger audiences, including an unreleased 1968 set in an Ottawa coffee house (taped by the devoted Mitchell fan Jimi Hendrix), her famed 1969 Carnegie Hall debut and a breathtaking 1970 London show that features backing vocals from her partner at the time and one of her “Blue” muses, James Taylor. (Nov. 13; Rhino) — ZoladzBen LaMar Gay’s “Open Arms to Open Us” bubbles with the sounds of mixed percussion, stringed instruments from across the globe and digital overlays.Sebastien Salom Gomis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesBEN LAMAR GAY For Ben LaMar Gay, a love song can also be a kind of self-affirmation, and a low-key theory of everything. Likewise, as his career wears on, the walls between the various corridors of his artistry — as an electronic musician, a jazz-trained improviser, a postmodern folklorist — continue to disintegrate. The 17 tracks on “Open Arms to Open Us” bubble with the sounds of mixed percussion, stringed instruments from across the globe and digital overlays. One thing that stays relatively clear is Gay’s voice, a wise and confiding baritone, which he barely alters with any reverb or effects. (Nov. 19; International Anthem/Nonesuch) — RussonelloROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS Much has changed since “Raising Sand,” the 2007 Grammy-winning and chart-beating collaborative album between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, but on “Raise the Roof,” their voices still fit together like a pair of dusty boots nestled atop a welcome mat. Fans of Led Zeppelin’s folksier side will appreciate Plant’s return to Appalachian bluegrass, and the covers of artists from Merle Haggard to Bert Jansch to Geeshie Wiley. T Bone Burnett returns as producer. (Nov. 19; Rounder) — GordonMAKAYA McCRAVEN The drummer, composer and producer Makaya McCraven has become one of the most talked-about improvising musicians in the game largely thanks to his method: He tinkers with his band’s live recordings until they’ve become something murkier, groovier and more kaleidoscopic. He typically doesn’t pull from old recordings or archival aesthetics, but instead remixes his own group’s music. With the release of last year’s “We’re New Here,” an affectionate reworking of Gil Scott-Heron’s final album, that changed: McCraven strapped on his headlamp and wandered deep into the archive. On “Deciphering the Message,” McCraven’s newest album and his first for Blue Note, he delves into the label’s own back catalog, using samples and clips from classic recordings as a centerpiece around which his band improvises and embellishes. (Nov. 19; Blue Note) — RussonelloThe newest entry in Taylor Swift’s series of rerecorded albums will be “Red (Taylor’s Version).”Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesTAYLOR SWIFT In the most prolific chapter of her career so far, Taylor Swift is both exploring new sounds — the moody cabin-pop of last year’s twin releases, “Folkore” and “Evermore” — and revisiting her early work. Swift’s ongoing project of recreating her first six albums in an effort to reclaim control of her master recordings continues with “Red (Taylor’s Version).” This new edition of her 2012 album comes with nine previously unreleased tracks; among them are “Nothing New,” featuring Phoebe Bridgers; Swift’s own version of “Better Man,” which she wrote for the country group Little Big Town; and an extended cut of the fan-favorite song “All Too Well.” (Nov. 19; Republic) — HornSUZANNE VEGA In 2019, the folk-influenced singer-songwriter, author and occasional theater artist Suzanne Vega embraced another outlet for storytelling, performing a two-week residency at Café Carlyle. Her New York-themed set was released last year as “An Evening of New York Songs and Stories” — now the basis for “Two Evenings of New York Songs and Stories.” The show arrives Nov. 26-27 at City Winery, where the fall roster veers from other troubadours — including John Hiatt and the Jerry Douglas Band (Sept. 26-27), Rodney Crowell (Oct. 14), Graham Parker (Nov. 1 and 8), Marc Broussard (Nov. 2-3), Joe Henry (Nov. 14) and Vanessa Carlton (Nov. 22) — to the actress and comedian Janeane Garofalo (Oct. 11) and “A John Waters Christmas” (Dec. 12), with the Pope of Trash ringing in the holy season. — GardnerDecemberANA MOURA Ana Moura is firmly rooted in the smoky, fatalistic traditions of fado from her birthplace, Portugal. But album by album she has been connecting ever more widely to the former Portuguese empire and to 21st-century technology. On “Mázia,” the melancholy richness of her voice is backed not only by the Portuguese guitarra but also by beats from Portugal, Brazil, Angola and Cape Verde, and she’s perfectly at home with blues-rock guitar, electronics and flecks of Auto-Tune, even as the melancholy richness of her voice comes through. (Dec. 3; Universal) — ParelesALSO THIS FALL100 GECS The 2019 debut album of Dylan Brady and Laura Les’s internet-inspired future pop launched 1,000 think pieces about the duo’s chaotic approach to musical collage. That LP was conceived over email, but “10000 gecs,” the follow-up, was recorded in person in Los Angeles. Their way-way-way-left-of-center approach to the pop mainstream is grounded by the studio drummer Josh Freese (Guns N’ Roses, Katy Perry), but there’s still enough manic genre collision to launch 10,000 more think pieces. (Dog Show) — GordonKEVIN ABSTRACT The impending breakup of the all-American boy band Brockhampton hasn’t slowed the creative momentum of Kevin Abstract, its most visible member. Befitting his ongoing work to collapse artistic distinctions — famously, Brockhampton includes a handful of nonmusical members — his third solo album flits between genres and moods. The hard-hitting rap of “Slugger” bleeds into a softhearted track like “Sierra Nights,” which sounds like a coming-of-age movie. (Question Everything/RCA) — Gordon More

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      A Rare Look at Bob Dylan in the Studio, and 13 More New Songs

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      Hear tracks by Tems, Adia Victoria, Cuco and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new songs and videos. Just want the music? Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes). Like what you hear? Let us know at theplaylist@nytimes.com and sign up for our Louder newsletter, a once-a-week blast of our pop music coverage.Bob Dylan, ‘Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight (Version 2)’“Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight (Version 2)” is from the latest deep dive into the Bob Dylan archives, the five-CD “Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 1980-1985.” The track is similar in feel — though full of Dylan’s improvisatory variations — to the take that appeared on “Infidels” in 1983, with a new mix that dials back the unfortunate 1980s drum sound. Dylan had a superb studio band, with the Jamaican team of Sly (Dunbar) and Robbie (Skakespeare) on drums and bass, and a conversational interplay between Mick Taylor (formerly of the Rolling Stones) on slide guitar and Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits) on electric guitar. It’s not the most radical discovery in the set — which also includes rarities like “Enough Is Enough” and “Yes Sir, No Sir” — but it arrives with live footage of the sessions, a rare glimpse of Dylan in motion in the studio. JON PARELESThe War on Drugs featuring Lucius, ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’The War on Drugs trades psychedelic haze for 1980s heft in “I Don’t Live Here Anymore.” Adam Granduciel sings about coming to terms with the past, breaking up, letting go and moving on, deciding — with the voices of Lucius as a choir — “We’re all just walking through this darkness on our own.” Deploying neat, reverberating guitar and synthesizer hooks like Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer,” the song is a booming march toward a willed recovery. PARELESTems featuring Brent Faiyaz, ‘Found’This stellar duet between the young Nigerian singer Tems and the R&B crooner Brent Faiyaz is saturated with an easy melancholy. On the song from Tems’s new EP, “If Orange Was a Place,” she sounds anxious and unraveled: “I feel I might just be coming undone/Tell me why you can’t be found.” When Faiyaz arrives, he’s alternately soothing and cloying. “Found” has echoes of SZA’s insular angst, and also the robust, earthen texture of mid-1990s R&B. It’s utterly swell. JON CARAMANICACarly Pearce and Ashley McBryde, ‘Never Wanted to Be That Girl’A stoic and affecting back and forth between Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde, both coming to the realization that they have a man in common. It’s a timeless trope, and an effective one — neither one attempts to out-sing the other, a gesture of their shared frustration (unlike in, say, Reba McEntire’s blistering 1990s duets with Linda Davis, which delved into throat warfare). CARAMANICAAdia Victoria, ‘Mean-Hearted Woman’After dabbling in electronic textures with her 2019 album, “Silences,” Adia Victoria circles back, at least partway, toward bluesy roots-rock on her new album, “A Southern Gothic.” Its songs deal with power, mortality and, in “Mean-Hearted Woman,” heartbreak and revenge. Lingering on one chord, with a plucked guitar and a persistent tambourine, she sings about being dumped and replaced, and while her voice stays quiet and breathy, she moves bewilderment and heartache to fury, with a death threat that’s no less menacing for staying quiet. PARELESCuco, ‘Under the Sun’“Under the Sun” is a shape-shifting statement about the journey to self. Cuco immerses us in interdimensional psych rock, only to quickly shift to a cumbia interlude, and then to a wave of lightning guitar licks. In the video, he leaves a lit candle at an altar featuring the artwork for his 2019 album “Para Mi.” Consider this a new era, one where all bets are off. ISABELIA HERRERASnail Mail, ‘Valentine’“Why’d you want to erase me?” Lindsey Jordan — the songwriter behind Snail Mail — yowls in “Valentine.” It’s a song about affection, obsession, estrangement, jealousy and bewilderment, with tempestuous quiet-LOUD-quiet indie-rock dynamics that mirror a passionate, messy, still unresolved relationship. PARELESMoor Mother, ‘Rogue Waves’For years, it has felt painfully imprecise to slap the “hip-hop” label onto the music of Camae Ayewa, a poet, electronic musician and Afrofuturist who performs as Moor Mother. (Not that that’s stopped streaming services and other grid jockeys from trying.) But two confluent things have been happening recently: Ayewa is embracing lower-slung, more head-nodding beats, and hip-hop itself is becoming a spacier, gooier, more abstract zone. The new Moor Mother album, “Black Encyclopedia of the Air,” features guest spots from rising rappers and vocalists, like Pink Siifu and Orion Sun, on most tracks. But on “Rogue Waves,” over a hydraulic swinging beat, Ayewa goes it alone — confronting subject matter that’s sometimes abstract and evocative, elsewhere tender and intimate. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLOCraig Taborn, ’60xsixty’In the same week that he announced his first solo album in 10 years (coming Oct. 8), the pianist Craig Taborn released another collection of music that’s similar in nature, but not quite the same. “60xsixty” contains 60 restive and fleeting pieces, all about a minute each, that play back-to-back at 60xsixty.com in a randomized order that’s different each time you visit the site. You’re unable to pause or skip: The listener’s usual sense of control is stripped away, as is the very notion of a finished product — Taborn has said he may swap out some tracks for new ones in the future, keeping the total number at 60. The current range of tracks varies from 12-tone-scale improvisations on acoustic piano to the kind of squelchy, three-dimensional electronic music that Taborn makes with his project Junk Magic. On other tracks, he’s most concerned with stirring up ambient sound. RUSSONELLOOneohtrix Point Never and Elizabeth Fraser, ‘Tales From the Trash Stratum’Leave it to Oneohtrix Point Never and the Cocteau Twins vocalist Elizabeth Fraser to craft the ultimate experiment in glossolalia. “Tales From the Trash Stratum” runs like a New Age seminar on mushrooms: OPN collages glitchy arpeggios, synth crashes and delicate piano keys; Fraser’s echoed sighs and angel-dust melodies flicker in and out of the production. It’s a blast of neurological delirium and decay, rendered as soothingly as possible. HERRERAAmaarae featuring Kali Uchis, ‘Sad Girlz Luv Money (Official Remix)’Last year, the Ghanaian American artist Amaarae quietly released “The Angel You Don’t Know,” an imaginative, buoyant album that masterfully harnessed all kinds of Afro-diasporic sounds, including R&B, Southern rap and Nigerian highlife. “Sad Girlz Luv Money” was an immediate standout: a breezy Afropop anthem for midnight trysts. On the official remix, the Colombian American singer Kali Uchis whispers hushed, silky come-ons in Spanish, and Amaarae’s sky-high melodies and smoky raps curl over the beat. HERRERALindsey Buckingham, ‘Swan Song’A frenetic drum loop, like a pummeled punching bag, drives “Swan Song” from Lindsey Buckingham’s new, self-titled album, recorded solo in the studio and released after his severance from Fleetwood Mac and emergency triple-bypass surgery. The mix feels inside-out, with his voice enclosed by percussion while his flamenco-tinged acoustic guitar and wailing electric guitar both poke outward. He taunts mortality — “She says it’s late, but the future’s looking bright”— with fast fingers. PARELESIann Dior featuring Lil Uzi Vert, ‘V12’What a dreamily beautiful song from Iann Dior, a sweet-sounding sing-rapper with just the faintest of barbed edges, and Lil Uzi Vert. Together, they’re boastful and playful, and yet the production has an elegiac edge, as if sadness were an inevitable byproduct of success. CARAMANICAOuri, ‘Chains’Ouri — the Montreal composer and electronic producer Ourielle Auvé — sketches a track being assembled and tweaked on the spot with “Chains,” from her album “Frame of a Fauna,” due Oct. 22. She dials in swooping sounds, echoey vocal syllables, a glitchy beat, tentative chords; the dance beat solidifies, falls away and reappears, briefly locking into syncopation with wordless vocal syncopations before evaporating. The video shows Ouri concocting a CGI dancer who leaps out as flesh and blood: virtual efforts turning physical. PARELES More