Spike Lee will direct the first video by Lizz Wright from her debut CD Salt. It happens to be my favorite song on the recording too “Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly”

Meshell Ndegeocello will release a jazz album on Verve on January 13. The project will be under the name Papillon and the title is Dance of the Infidels. Ndegeocello plays bass on the CD and is joined by Kenny Garrett, Cassandra Wilson, Wallace Roney, Jack DeJohnette, Don Byron, Lalah Hathaway, and Soulive’s Neal Evans. Ndegecello is joining Soulive on tour for three weeks in October. Did you catch her performances in the excellent film Standing in the Shadows of Motown? Impressive.

Speaking of Soulive, the band has departed Blue Note. Their next recording is coming out on Velour and it’s a remix of the Turn It Out CD. The trio offers remixes as well as notable producers DJ Spinna, DJ Krush, Tycoon, and Adam Deitch. Meshell Ndegeocello, the Beatnuts, and Wordsworth are among the guests on Turn It Out Remixed which is in stores on October 7.

Sonic Trance, the upcoming fusion CD by Nicholas Payton, gets major exposure in Entertainment Weekly this week. It’s in the Listen2This section that is included with subscriber copies, which still constitutes a few thousand people who might not heard about this CD. The review grants the release a grade of ‘A-‘ and says that Payton “pushes jazz into the future, securing a place in history.”

The Manhattan Transfer has signed a three-album exclusive deal with Telarc. Couldn’t Be Hotter is the initial release for the label and is their first new live album since Man-Tora! Live In Tokyo in 1996. The album features the quartet’s jazzy versions of 1930s and 40s swing music and is in stores on September 23. Could a sequel to their excellent The Christmas Album be part of that package?