Feel the Love

“A Child Not Yet Born”

(Posi-Tone)

Portland-based trumpeter Farnell Newton has always been about lifting up the jazz community. His Jam of the Week group on Facebook is one of the hippest cliques in jazz, in which musicians from around the world post video of themselves improvising to a new tune each week. (It was a godsend during the pandemic years.) His latest album, Feel the Love, is very much about celebrating that community — and the many styles, personalities, moods and grooves that make it up. On the slower side of the set is the tune “A Child Not Yet Born,” a solemn ballad with a joyous heart. In his poignant solo, Newton serves his heroes well, firmly staking out his own voice while hinting at influences from Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Kenny Dorham and other trumpeters of the hard-bop ilk. For those in the jazz family — listener and practitioner, living and living on — this album feels like a love letter.