New Music Releases: The Vision, Incognito, Tino Contreras

The Vision | “The Vision” 

The musical partnership between Ben Westbeech and Kon has been behind a number of the most meaningful dance releases of the last twelve months. Striking the balance between classic and contemporary in a way few of their peers are able, the duo now present their eponymous debut album, ‘The Vision’. A magnet for A-List collaborators, Roy Ayers, Honey Dijon, Andreya Triana, Dames Brown and Nikki-O all feature on The Vision. Previous singles ‘Heaven’ and ‘Mountains’ have already garnered support from tastemakers like Gilles Peterson, Gerd Janson, Annie Mac, Maryanne Hobbs and Joe Claussell to name just a few, with their return to traditional music-making practices attracting champions of the highest order. The culmination of five years’ work, this album shows The Vision making their mark on the musical landscape with a non-conformist body of work that demonstrates their refusal to be pigeonholed. Via London, Boston, Ibiza and beyond, this is an album destined to break new ground, with all the makings of a future classic. The Vision are here.

Incognito | “Wake Me” (Louie Vega & Joe Claussell Remix)

Vega Records are proud to bring you a special collaboration with three pioneers of eclectic sounds. The ultra talented lead guitarist, composer, producer, Bluey and his brilliant band Incognito combine forces with Louie Vega & Joe Claussell on the new release, “Wake Me”. It’s a super soulful and jazzy interlude only two minutes or so long, an album track on “Tomorrow’s New Dream” released in 2019 by Incognito. Louie & Joe heard an extended rework in their minds and brought the interlude into a cosmic trip with effects, delays, and the soulful heavenly vocals of James Berkeley, with a driving, infectious beat taking you on an eight minute plus musical bliss. Enjoy the sounds of Bluey with Incognito, Louie Vega & Joe Claussell available at all digital & streaming outlets, and soon on vinyl at a store near you!

Tino Contreras | “La Noche De Los Dioses”

A brilliant late statement from Tino Contreras – the legendary Mexican drummer who's been part of the jazz scene in Mexico City for decades – and who can still give the world wonderfully vibrant music like this! There's a deeply spiritual vibe to the record – a sound that's like some of Tino's most far-reaching work of the late 70s – and the group here features added percussion alongside piano, organ, saxes, and guitar – both acoustic and electric, which creates a great bridge in the sense of sound – as the music swirls together with a sense of majesty that almost recalls the best Latin America projects of Gato Barbieri on Impulse Records. All tunes are originals by Contreras, delivered with a fantastic spirit by the group – and titles include "Mascaras Blues", "Nina Yahel", "El Sacrificio", "Al Amanecer", and "Malinche". ~ Dusty Groove

New Music Releases: Keith Jarrett, Peter Bernstein, Lionel Loueke

Keith Jarrett | ”Budapest Concert”

Keith Jarrett in our favorite side of his talents – playing the long, improvised style that first made him a breakthrough artist on ECM in the 70s – and which still remains one of his most important contributions to the history of jazz! Even later years, Jarrett's sense of imagination on the keys is amazing – and here, you'll hear very few echoes of other improvisations – long tracks that show that Keith is always able to create spontaneously, at a level that few others can match – especially as he never goes too far outside, or seems to lose a sense of melody in his music. The work is divided up into shorter passages – the older Jarrett sometimes needs a break on the keys, but never in his cognition – and as with other concert recordings of this type, the encores are older standards – "Answer Me My Love" and "It's A Lonesome Old Town" – but both given a very free, open Keith Jarrett approach!  ~ Dusty Groove

Peter Bernstein | “What Comes Next”

Guitarist Peter Bernstein is standing on an empty New York street on the cover – a good indication of the June 2020 date on which the material was recorded – a moment that also seems to come through in the music as well! Bernstein's still got all those wonderful colors we love in his work on guitar, but there's also maybe some deeper feelings that come through too – perhaps out of speculation from the months spent sheltering in place before Peter journeyed to the studio to cut this set – working with a strong quartet that features Sullivan Fortner on piano, Peter Washington on bass, and Joe Farnsworth on drums. Farnsworth is nicely restrained at times – very much letting Washington shape the tunes alongside Bernstein's strings – and titles include the originals "Blood Wolf Moon Blues", "Simple As That", "What Comes Next", "Empty Streets", and "Harbor No Illusions" – plus a nice take on "Con Alma". ~ Dusty Groove

Lionel Loueke | “HH”

Some of the most beautiful music we've ever heard from Lionel Loueke – a set that's mostly just solo guitar, with a bit of vocalization thrown in for good measure – and which has a style that's almost more compelling than some of Lionel's work in a larger format! Loueke doesn't really sing so much as he makes vocalized expressions at moments along with the guitar – sometimes with lyrics, sometimes more in a scat-based mode – and sometimes with a quality that's almost percussive, and which resonates strongly with his work on the strings! The HH title is a reference to Herbie Hancock – and most of the tunes here are classics from the Herbie songbook, but completely redone in a very unique way – on selections that include "Tell Me A Bedtime Story", "Cantaloupe Island", "Hang Up Your Hang Ups", "Watermelon Man", "Speak Like A Child", "Rockit", "One Finger Snap", and "Voyage Maiden". ~ Dusty Groove

New Music Releases: Bobby Hutcherson, Patrick McLean, Dorrey Lyles

Bobby Hutcherson | “Oblique” (180 gram pressing)

One of Bobby Hutcherson's greatest records ever – and a session that never got released at the time! The album's an excellent quartet session, one that's very much in the best spirit of Bobby's great Happenings album on Blue Note – and it features a similar group that includes Hutcherson on vibes, Herbie Hancock on piano, Albert Stinson on bass, and Joe Chambers, one of Hutcherson's best accompanists from the 60s, on drums. The format's a bit more modal than Happenings – and the set features 6 wonderful little tracks that mix together the "new thing" sound of earlier Hutcherson Blue Notes, with some of the nascent soulfulness that started creeping into his work at the end of the 60s. The album was recorded in 1967, but only first issued in Japan in at the end of the 70s – and then later in the US, and even then only briefly – but we'd still rank the set as one of Bobby's best for Blue Note! Titles include "Til Then", "Mr Joy", "Subtle Neptune", and "Theme From Blow Up". (Part of the Blue Note Tone Poet Series) ~ Dusty Groove

Patrick McLean | “One Heart One Beat”

Patrick McLean is an r&b/soul vocalist, saxophonist, songwriter, arranger and producer, formerly a co-founder member of the Britfunk band Hi-Tension. After devoting the past two decades to family life he is back to the music, most recently as a co-founder member of The Brit Funk Association. “One Heart One Beat” is a collection of self-penned songs inspired by his life journey, with the exception of one tribute to his Hi-Tension days with a reworking of “There’s A Reason”, originally co-written and sung by the group’s David Joseph. Album features some of the best UK musicians.

Dorrey Lyles | “My Realized Dream

Dorrey Lyles is a powerhouse that can shake the foundation, but she possesses the sensitivity that will warm you from the inside out. Her perfectly combined mixture of Gospel, R&B, Soul or Jazz guarantees an intense musical experience. Throughout her career Dorrey Lyles has been working with the Harlem Gospel Singers, James Ingram, Oleta Adams, Peabo Bryson, Melissa Manchester, Barry Manilow and Natalie Cole. In 2012 she became part of the world-renowned Weather Girls, together with Dynelle Rhodes, the daughter of the group’s founder Izora Armstead. ”My Realized Dream” is Dorrey Lyles’ first solo album that came out as a digital release on her 50th birthday on June 12 this year. An album with many self-written songs showing the diversity of her work that includes soul-dance tracks like ”Back To Me”, delivers groovy Motown sound in „Call Your Name“ a duet with David A. Tobin, as well as Gospel R&B on ”Child of Soul”, which tells her personal life story. With ”I Believe In Us” Dorrey Lyles presents a beautiful ballad, which immediately causes goose bumps. Her latest single ”Dancing In The Rain” is a sexy and intoxicating R&B track with 70s disco funk feel produced by Rob Hardt as well as her interpretation of the fantastic soul classic ”Caravan Of Love”. ”My Realized Dream” is a milestone in the impressive career of Dorrey Lyles that showcases the work of this great soul singer.

New Music Releases: Colin Curtis presents Jazz Dance Fusion Volume 2, Debra Debs, Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, 9th Wonder, & Kamasi Washington |

Colin Curtis presents Jazz Dance Fusion Volume 2 – Various Artists

Welcome to the second instalment of my ‘Jazz Dance Fusion’ compilation series for Joey Negro’s Z Records. I continue to look back into the story & history of the UK jazz dance and jazz music scene; a movement that started for me back in the 70’s. The sounds of funk & soul mixed with jazz, influences from Brazil, Africa, Europe and all over the globe, textures of instrumental sounds & voices, fuse to create the much-loved ‘jazz fusion’ sound that we love. Here we are in 2020 when interest in all forms of Jazz is growing fast as DJ pioneers such as Gilles Peterson, Patrick Forge, Perry Louis, Snowboy, Nick Hosier, Alan Mckinnon, Jim Bernardi, Kev Beadle, Harv Nagi, Shuya Okino and David Patterson continue to push all aspects of Jazz to converted and new audiences. So, to this compilation where I am showcasing unreleased material and offering tracks up for the first time ever on vinyl and CD. The track listing covers my addiction to dance-floor jazz, coupled with my passion for vocal and percussive jazz, with my usual trademark latin touches.

Debra Debs | “Seven”

When you listen to Debra Debs, there is no denying she’s been influenced by the likes of Jill Scott, Lauryn Hill, Mary J Blige, Musiq Soulchild, Ella Fitzgerald and other great RnB, Soul and Jazz artists. In 2013, she released her debut album ‘Lifecycles’, a 100% contemporary RnB/Soul album which rapidly garnered rave reviews in the UK Soul and Jazz circuit. Featured on Jazz FM’s ‘Album of the Week’, ‘Lifecycles’ is a blend of “NeosoulfulJazzyRnBAfrosoulThings”. As much of a mouthful that is, the LP is an intricate blend of sounds infused with 90’s RnB, Jazz, Gospel, AfroSoul and skilled lyricism that tend to impart socio-conscious messages or resonate poetic enchantments for those with a weakness at describing seduction and life’s multi-experiences. Having taken a 7 year hiatus since ‘LifeCycles’, she’s been back in the studio to re-create the sounds that were once familiar to her fans in her debut album ‘Lifecycles’. Her sophomore project, ‘Seven’ was released on the 9th of October 2020 and is much of a masterpiece as LifeCycles was.

Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, 9th Wonder, & Kamasi Washington | “Dinner Party” 

A fantastic blend of jazz, contemporary soul, and hip hop – served up by a group who can really get the sound right – Terrace Martin on keyboards and alto, Robert Glasper on keyboards, Kamasi Washington on tenor, and 9th Wonder on beats! Vocals on most tracks are by Phoelix, who really helps give the instrumentation some focus – yet the jazz component of the record is never buried under the lyrics, as the players get plenty of space to do their thing – with a vibe that's a bit like some of Glasper's Black Radio project, yet given much more the kind of cool Crenshaw vibe that we've loved in Martin's previous records. All four artists are credited with songwriting and production and you can really hear that balance in the sound – on tracks that include "Love You bad", "Sleepless Nights", "The Mighty Tree", "Freeze Tag", "Luv U", and "From My Heart & Soul". ~ Dusty Groove

Josh Sinton's What Happens in a Year | "cérémonie/musique"

cérémonie/musique is the utterly unique expression of idiosyncratic multi-instrumentalist, composer and audio conceptualist Josh Sinton and his collaborative trio What Happens in a Year featuring Sinton on baritone saxophone and bass clarinet, guitarist Todd Neufeld, and electric bassist Giacomo Merega. The band’s debut recording represents a seemingly radical but absolutely organic “next-step” in Sinton’s artistic development. Released on October 9 via FiP Recordings, cérémonie/musique is a daringly spacious and crepuscular album filled with coherent improvisations reflective of the trio’s longstanding musical relationship. The recording is also the inaugural release of Sinton’s new record label FiP, an acronym for “form is possibility.”

The conceptual idea behind Sinton’s trio involved of making music that was a.) quiet, b.) spacious and c.) executed at fast tempos. “Originally, my thought was to get the three of us together to improvise and record it. Then I’d go home with the field recording and turn it into compositions,” says Sinton. After their very first meeting, it was clear that the spontaneous improvisations, with their mysterious, enticing musical expression, made formal, pre-written compositions superfluous. After several years of investigative playing, the trio entered Oktaven Studio and, with the help of engineers Ryan Streber and Luis Bacque, produced a document of lushly alternating textures. Phrases begin and end with musical ellipsis, one player poses an obscure question while the next answers with a terse rhyme, and it all melts away into an enigmatical mist.

In addition to being the debut album of What Happens in a Year, and the inaugural release for FiP Records, cérémonie/musique marks a first for Sinton in other ways. “I’ve always viewed composition and improvisation as nearly identical creative activities, although the results of each can often be confused. Given the vast quantity of free-form-based recordings, there’s no question that it is a musical category with a history, a context and recognizable styles. I just assumed that when I started my musical training, that making a recording of free-form improvisations was as valid and unsurprising as an album of my own compositions, or a recording of Steve Lacy’s music, or an interpretation of David Lang’s ‘press release.’”

Yet, I’ve never recorded a group that only executed free-form improvisations. The closest I came was my album anomonous with Denman Maroney and Ben Miller, but that was made for a friend’s short film, so even that had an extra-musical impetus. Here it’s just the three of us getting together and ‘starting from zero,’ so to speak.”

The results are a clear focalization on implications generated by Sinton’s earlier work. From the hushed ethereality of ‘algernon’ to the rapid mumblings of ‘sleepwalk digest’ to the disturbing lilt of ‘untethered,’ the music of What Happens in a Year once again displays Sinton’s interest in dynamics, pulse and a broad intervallic language.

The title of the album came from guitarist Todd Neufeld when he thought about, “three guys slogging out through these days of teaching, work, fatherhood, marriage and having this kind of musical ceremony when they met each week to make new music.” According to bassist Merega, “A ceremony is a ritual and if I didn’t have rituals, I’d be like a chihuahua in a jungle, I wouldn’t last a day. Among those rituals are making espresso, having breakfast with my daughter, and improvising with Todd and Josh.”

Josh Sinton is an award-winning baritone saxophonist, bass clarinetist, flutist and composer. He was named “Rising Star” in the baritone saxophone category of Downbeat’s 2020 Critics’ Poll. He has been the leader of numerous groups including Predicate Trio, musicianer and Ideal Bread and has been an important voice in the decades-long creative music renaissance of Brooklyn, New York. He has worked with artists including Anthony Braxton, Tom Rainey, Nate Wooley, Ingrid Laubrock, Roswell Rudd, Kip Hanrahan, Darcy James Argue and Andrew D’Angelo.

Todd Neufeld is an electric and acoustic guitarist, born August 5, 1981 in Huntington, NY and based in Brooklyn, NY. He has performed and/or recorded as a member of the Lee Konitz Quartet, Masabumi Kikuchi's TPT Trio, Tyshawn Sorey's Koan, Oblique and other of his ensembles, Gerald Cleaver's NiMbNl, Dan Weiss Group, Tony Malaby Group, Samuel Blaser Quartet, Michael Adkins Quintet, Aaron Parks Quintet, Richie Barshay's RB3, Alexandra Grimal Quartet, Thomas Morgan Quartet, Rema Hasumi's UTAZATA band, Flin van Hemmen trio, Sergio Krakowski Trio, Vitor Goncavles quartet, Raphael Malfliet Trio and many others. He has performed at venues, concert halls and festivals throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan.

Italian virtuoso bass guitarist, improviser and composer Giacomo Merega has been an original figure in the New York improv/new music scene for over a decade. Giacomo’s recordings as a leader and/or sideman have been written about and aired on radio stations in a dozen countries and have won critical awards in the US, Italy, France and Canada. His work has been released by Hat Hut, Not Two, American Clave, Underwolf and Rudi Records and he has performed with acclaimed musicians such as Joe Morris, Anthony Coleman, Steve Swallow, Kip Hanrahan, Nate Wooley, Tyshawn Sorey, David Tronzo, Brandon Ross, Satoshi Takeishi, Dana Colley, Noah Kaplan and Mat Maneri among many others.

This album marks the first release on Josh Sinton’s Form is Possibility Recordings (FiP), an outlet exclusively devoted to recordings of his work. “I’m starting a label in order to sidestep the ever-present challenge of getting someone else interested enough in my work to put their imprimatur on it. I like my records and I would like to give other folks the opportunity to give my voice and my art a listen.” Releases will arrive approximately once a year and will come in the form of digital download and limited runs of physical media (for now compact disc) with original cover art by TJ Huff. They will be well-recorded, multi-sectioned, carefully considered works of sonic art that document Sinton’s ever-growing body of heterogenous and self-generated- idiomatic work. “These albums will be more like a self-contained book or movie in that they will dictate their own rules of engagement. Their one unifying factor will be my presence.”

Jacam Manricks | "Samadhi"

Saxophonist and composer Jacám Manricks marks his arrival as a full-fledged auteur on the splendid Samadhi, available on his own Manricks Music Records. Already an accomplished composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and improviser, Manricks’s sixth album adds recording, engineering, producing, and mixing to his overflowing skill set. Thus it stands as a vision entirely of the leader’s own making—albeit with input from his high-caliber colleagues, pianist Joe Gilman, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Clarence Penn. 

Samadhi is a Sanskrit term that refers to a state of heightened, holistic focus that allows for communion with the divine. Manricks uses that title not to announce his achieving it, but his goal of reaching it: “Getting to that state of intense concentration where everything else disappears around you and only the music exists,” as he explains in the liner notes. The wide spectrum of creative mastery he deploys on the album reflects that goal. 

So does the music on display. Samadhi’s eight tracks (seven Manricks originals, with one improvised collaboration between the saxophonist and Gilman) feature a remarkable range of ideas and emotions, from the paradoxically bright yet tense opener “Formula One,” to the ruminative title track, to the playful “Common Tone” and the mysterious “Ethereal.” The range of textures and timbres is also formidable; Manricks plays alto, tenor, and soprano saxophones as well as clarinet and bass clarinet, flute and alto flute, and MIDI strings (for which he wrote the orchestrations). 

Of course, part of Samadhi’s purpose, Manricks says, is to allow him to flex these polymathic muscles. “It’s not just the horn anymore. It’s about me as a composer and orchestrator. It’s about what sort of environments I’m putting myself in and how I’m orchestrating colors within that. … ultimately trying to make something beautiful with rhythms and pitches”. 

“I’m wearing so many hats,” he adds. “This is the culmination of a lot of things for me, and I’m extremely proud of Samadhi.”

Jacám Manricks was born in 1976 in Brisbane, Australia, the child of two classical musicians in the Queensland Symphony Orchestra—and the grandson of a celebrated Portuguese jazz saxophonist and clarinetist, and a Sri Lankan concert pianist. As a boy, Jacám quickly began finding a niche in this musical family, immersing himself in his father’s jazz records and in his parents’ concert performances. He began learning to play the piano at age five and the saxophone at age nine. 

After receiving a degree in music performance (classical and jazz saxophone) from the Queensland Conservatorium, Manricks began making his way in the Sydney music scene before moving to New York in 2001 to study at William Paterson University. He earned a master’s degree in composition there, then a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music in 2007. 

While at the Manhattan School, he composed and premiered a large-scale work, “Chromatic Suite for Jazz Philharmonic Orchestra,” for the school’s 90th birthday celebration. Its combination of classical and jazz traditions presaged Manricks’s 2009 debut album, Labyrinth, which blended a chamber orchestra with a venturesome jazz quintet. Trigonometry followed in 2010, then Cloud Nine in 2012, Chamber Jazz in 2016, and GilManricks in 2017. Each received international acclaim. 

One could say that Manricks, with 16 international tours as a leader and countless credits as a sideman, has also graduated from the “real school,” particularly during his 13 years in New York working for luminaries such as Jeff “Tain” Watts, Tyshawn Sorey, and Elio Villafranca, to name a few. 

Relocating to Sacramento, California, in 2014, Manricks spent five years teaching at the nearby University of California, Davis, working as a member of Sacramento’s Capital Jazz Project, running his own super sax style ensemble (Super Saxto) and leading his own 19-piece big band (Jacám Manricks Orchestra). Meanwhile, Manricks also learned the ins and outs of sound engineering, using that knowledge to build his own home studio where Samadhi was recorded and mixed.

Jacam Manricks Concert

“2020 has been rough,” says Manricks. “The pandemic is hitting the performing arts hard with prospects for safe public gatherings more than ever remote. The loss of artistically enriching events, which typically uplift and create our communities, imposes a cultural deficiency impacting the quality of life for all, including those working outside the arts industry. Therefore, it has never before been more important that artists create and where necessary find new ways to share our work. For me, this means producing new music and providing access to it through any means I can. 

“In late June,” he adds, “I was bedridden for two weeks with COVID, quarantined in my son’s bedroom while my family remained safely at bay. During the entire shutdown and especially while quarantined, I’ve had more time to reflect on life, my personal goals, music and how it enriches our lives. One thing that became abundantly clear was that focused listening to music—the kind you do with your eyes shut—is an incredibly healing experience. Using your ears and mind to escape, meditating to music in search of beauty, we can find solace, inspiration, and a refreshed state of mind. Samadhi is being released during the shutdown for this purpose primarily. Go forth and find solace in this music.” 

Randy Brecker & Eric Marienthal Join Forces For Some Double Dealin’

What do you get when you pair two visionaries who happen to be kindred spirits? You get an ace in the hole! Multi Grammy award-winners trumpeter/flugelhornist Randy Brecker and saxophonist Eric Marienthal and deliver ten thrilling originals on their anticipated Shanachie Entertainment debut Double Dealin’. It’s all aboveboard on Double Dealin’ as Brecker and Marienthal opt not to follow suit but rather let the spirit of the moment be their guide as they draw some wild cards and the blur boundaries between traditional and contemporary jazz. Randy Brecker, who was a key player in numerous ground-breaking fusion bands like Blood, Sweat and Tears and Larry Coryell’s The Eleventh House, states “Duke Ellington said ‘There are only two kinds of music, good and bad' and we both love the latter!” Double Dealin’ marks Brecker and Marienthal’s first co-led recording. Danny Weiss, Shanachie Entertainment VP Of Jazz A&R says, “This album is a rarity - funky and brilliant at the same time. One plus one equals five with these two jazz giants.” 

Brecker and Marienthal have built careers being musician’s musicians. Randy Brecker has remained at the forefront of creative music for over six decades collaborating with everyone from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Horace Silver, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, The Brecker Brothers (with his late tenor titan brother, Michael Brecker), Bruce Springsteen, Parliament/Funkadelic and Steely Dan. Saxophonist Eric Marienthal’s equally impressive career has allowed him to captivate audiences alongside everyone from Chick Corea’s Elektric Band, Patti Austin, Lee Ritenour, Elton John, Billy Joel and Stevie Wonder, among others. Longtime comrades on and off the stage, Marienthal and Brecker credit one thing for bringing them together. “Pizza” exclaims Brecker who won a Grammy this year for his album with the NDR Big Band. Laughing he adds, “We dig each other's playing and personalities. We also like each other’s families. Eric and I have played together many times throughout the years with different ensembles including Jeff Lorber, The GRP Big Band and always 'clicked' as a section, so we were long overdue in doing a project together.” Marienthel adds, “Yes, definitely pizza! Besides being one of the world’s great musicians and trumpet players, Randy is a very open and cool guy. Getting to play with Randy is like getting to make a pizza with Mario Batali! You just know that no matter what you do it’s going to end up being great.” 

Bringing Double Dealin’ to fruition was a bi-coastal affair as both musicians created from their own home based studios with Brecker in Long Island and Marienthal in Los Angeles. The duo sent files back and forth to one another and Brecker even admits that his attire for some of the session was PJs. “When the pandemic hit the mixing phase was about to begin,” recalls Marienthal who is the musical director of both the Blue Note At Sea Cruise and The Smooth Jazz Cruise. “I have to say it was a welcome distraction to deep dive into this music.” Double Dealin’ unites the dynamic duo with keyboardist and producer George Whitty, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Dave Weckl. “George Whitty is one of the very best musicians and record producers out there,” comments Marienthal. “Dave Weckl and John Patitucci are longtime bandmates of mine with the Chick Corea Elektric Band and good friends. Their playing on this record is exceptional and really put the icing on the cake!”

The thrilling ten-track album opens with the first single and title track. All bets are off as Brecker and Marienthal get down to business on this funky and free wheeling ditty that sets the tone for the joyous excursion ahead. The composition “Three Deuces,” takes us out for a bluesy cruise while “Fast Lane” shift gears for a high-octane affair propelled by Dave Weckl’s driving rhythms. Double Dealin’ also features tender moments like the gorgeous ballad “Mine The Fire,” penned by Marienthal and Whitty in memory of guitarist and friend Chuck Loeb. “Chuck was one of my closest friends,” reflects Marienthal, who appears on Loeb’s last two Shanachie recordings Bridges (Co-led by Marienthal) and Unspoken. In 2018, Marienthal organized and played a star-studded memorial concert at the Berks Jazz Fest for Loeb that featured Brecker among numerous others. Brecker who has long had an affinity for Brazilian music offers “Sambop,” where Samba rhythms and Bebop harmonies joyously collide. Brecker’s no-holds barred track “You Ga (Ta Give It),” is a delight as he and Marienthal create maximum firepower from the opening note to the exhilarating end. Eric Marienthal and George Whitty’s intriguing and intensely beautiful “True North” lends itself to some memorable interplay and soloing including that of bassist John Patitucci. It’s all about the groove on “The Hipster,” while the meandering and percussive “Jetlagged” takes us down a totally different path. Double Dealin’ comes to a finale with “Habañero,” which lives up to its name offering the perfect combination of hot and cool that leaves you wanting more.

Randy Brecker concludes, “Double Dealin’ is uplifting and filled with great vibes and fun beats. I hope it takes everyone's mind off our current problems and I hope people just groove with it and forget about everything else for a while!” Eric Marienthal adds, “This record has a particularly uplifting feel which is a good thing for the times we’re in right now. I know I feel better when I listen to it!”

Mary Halvorson issues new Code Girl release Artlessly Falling

Recently hailed as “NYC’s least-predictable improviser” by Howard Mandel, guitarist-composer Mary Halvorson now emerges as one of the city’s least-predictable songwriters. Her forthcoming release Artlessly Falling – available via Firehouse 12 Records on October 30, 2020, two weeks after Halvorson’s 40th birthday – expands and evolves Code Girl, the Brooklyn-based artist’s critically-acclaimed project featured on the cover of DownBeat in June 2018.

Bonding form and fragmentation, Artlessly Falling traces eight poetic forms – from Haibun to Villanelle – through new music and diverse thematic material. “This approach was different because it challenged me to shape the music within the framework of various pre-existing poetic forms,” says Halvorson, who penned each poem, often engaging specific meter and rhyme schemes, before composing the music.

Co-produced by Halvorson, Nick Lloyd and David Breskin, the album features longtime creative associates Amirtha Kidambi on vocals, Michael Formanek on bass and Tomas Fujiwara on drums, alongside new collaborators Adam O’Farrill on trumpet and María Grand on tenor saxophone and vocals, plus a very special guest vocalist – the legendary British musician Robert Wyatt – whose music has provided layered inspiration for Halvorson over the years. 

“Robert is one of my heroes,” she says. “It’s such a big deal to me that he was open to singing on this record, because his music has been an enormous influence on Code Girl, and just about everything else I’ve done. I wrote the three tracks he sings on specifically for him, and I was floored by the grace and brilliance with which he approached this music. It was a dream come true.”

Halvorson’s unbound improvising stretches from searing lines buoyed by a quickfire-response rhythm section to intimate storytelling through her signature pitch-bending sound. Her choices teem with intention and discomfort. Formanek’s sensitivity, harmonic depth and varied textural expression hallmark the enormity of his presence on the record. Complementing the album’s fierce spontaneity, the addition of vocal performances from Wyatt and Grand serves Halvorson’s appetite for orchestral experimenting. Different vocal textures and techniques offer near-endless sound permutations she explores from one track to the next.

“I loved that María was able to both sing and play saxophone on the record. It’s a unique doubling. The new context allowed me the flexibility of having two voices and one horn, sometimes two horns and one voice.”

Opening in harmonic restlessness, “Lemon Trees” features Wyatt’s poignant delivery of lyrics Halvorson wrote in Tanka form, drawing their inspiration from select words of novelist Lawrence Osborne. The song also spotlights melodic, ruminating solos from O’Farrill and Fujiwara, both of whom provide endless creative statements and thoughtful responses throughout the recording.

Some content material emerges explicitly, as on “Last-Minute Smears” whose Found Poem context highlights moments from Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 testimony in front of the US Senate. As she watched in real time, Halvorson found herself scrawling fragments of his 45-minute speech, which became the lyrics. “It was so dramatic,” she says. “I kept thinking, ‘Did he really say that?’ I wanted the music to have a mournful tone, which was entirely absent from his testimony.” Other messaging remains artfully obscured. The cyclical nature of “Walls and Roses,” a Pantoum, suggests a kind of slow, pervading crisis, but Halvorson is eager to allow listeners to find their own interpretations of certain tracks, a nod to the name Code Girl. “Not everyone is going to connect to the lyrics in the same way,” she says. “Some of them have multiple meanings, or a meaning that’s private to me. I like using language with the aim of having that flexibility.”

Throughout the recording, lyrics tend to align with composed music, prompting the improvising to happen in the spaces between – though not exclusively. The title track’s form, Sestina, proved trickiest for Halvorson to craft, ultimately serving as a context for through-improvisation. “Everyone is improvising throughout,” says Halvorson, including Kidambi whose soaring, deliberate vocals stretch each lyric – often literally – interpreting the music around her spontaneous intention. 

Halvorson had never attempted writing within the strict guidelines of a Sestina. Encouraged by Breskin – himself, a published poet – she rose to the form’s myriad challenges. “‘Artlessly Falling’ took me months to write,” she says. “It had so many drafts, and it changed significantly as it went along. It was like solving a Rubik’s cube.” Surprisingly, when she finished the final draft, the music emerged quickly. “It’s almost like the form itself inspired music,” says Halvorson. “A lot of these forms are inherently musical – the Sestina traces back to 12th century troubadours.”

Artlessly Falling’s release date aligning close to Halvorson’s 40th birthday proved a happy coincidence. With each release, she gains greater perspective on her own playing and mysteries of the music. “Poetry and music are similar in that there’s a lot to be gained from more than one reading or listening,” she says.

Guitarist-composer Mary Halvorson has been described as “a singular talent” (Lloyd Sachs, JazzTimes) and “one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz – or otherwise” (Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal). In recent DownBeat Critics Polls, Halvorson has received awards for guitarist, rising star jazz artist and rising star composer of the year. In 2019 she received a MacArthur Fellowship award. Halvorson has released a series of critically-acclaimed albums on the Firehouse 12 label, including Dragon’s Head (2008), her trio debut featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith, that would expand into a quintet with trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon on Saturn Sings (2010) and Bending Bridges (2012), a septet with tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and trombonist Jacob Garchik on Illusionary Sea (2014), and finally an octet with pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn on Away With You (2016). Most recently, she debuted Code Girl (2018). Over the past decade, Halvorson has worked with such diverse musicians as Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Dieterich, Trevor Dunn, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Jessica Pavone, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot and John Zorn. She is also part of several collaborative projects, including longstanding trio Thumbscrew with Michael Formanek and Tomas Fujiwara. 

Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project : Kites and Strings

Ben Rosenblum doesn't just invite a diverse array of influences into his music. While his projects reflect his potent and deeply rooted point of view, the pianist, accordionist, composer and arranger positively thrives on a thrum of contrasting approaches. With Kites and Strings, his third album as a leader and the debut of the Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project, he's convened an exceptionally vivid cast of collaborators and provided them with a program of arrestingly beautiful pieces. The album is the work of an artist who's found that his voice contains multitudes. Regularly employed by some of jazz's most revered masters, Rosenblum has already established a national profile as bandleader by logging thousands of miles on the road, playing some 100 gigs annually with his trio at clubs, theaters, schools and community centers, and relishing the opportunity to bring jazz into communities where fellow musicians rarely play. 

Kites and Strings features some of the most exciting young players on the New York scene including trumpeter Wayne Tucker, guitarist Rafael Rosa, Jasper Dutz on tenor sax and bass clarinet, bassist Marty Jaffe, and drummer Ben Zweig, with vibraphonist Jake Chapman, trombonist Sam Chess and pianist Jeremy Corren expanding the sextet on several tracks. "These are all great jazz musicians who are steeped in the music's history, and they all have very different approaches to the music," he says. "My bandleader heroes often worked like that. Think of Astor Piazzolla's Tango: Zero Hour when he put together a traditional tango violinist, a rock-influenced electric guitarist, and a jazz pianist. I love seeing the way people's different styles play off of each other and combine into something beautiful and unique."

Encompassing rock and klezmer, Latin American rhythms and Bulgarian harmonies, Kites and Strings marks a major leap for Rosenblum as a composer/arranger. He gained widespread notice with his 2017 debut Instead (One Trick Dog), a confident trio session featuring drum legend Billy Hart and bass master Curtis Lundy that earned four stars from DownBeat Magazine. After holding his own with two revered improvisers he followed up in 2018 with River City (One Trick Dog), a trio with his rapidly rising contemporaries bassist Kanoa Mendenhall and drummer Ben Zweig. Kites and Strings introduces Rosenblum as a composer/arranger with a capacious palette of textures and voicings and firm command of form. The project also establishes him as the newest member of a small, extraordinary keyboard cadre made up of players equally expressive on piano and accordion, a talent-laden club that includes Gary Versace, Sam Reider, Rob Reich, and Rio de Janeiro-born Vitor Gonçalves, who's a particular source of inspiration for Rosenblum.

The new album gathers together compositions Rosenblum's been developing over the past decade, opening with "Cedar Place," a hat tip to the inestimable pianist/composer Cedar Walton. The propulsive bass line and one-chord vamp section bring to mind the deceptively simple elegance and forceful swing of Walton's standard "Bolivia." The buoyant title track bobs and weaves with a 7/4 pulse inspired by the effortlessness of odd-meter feels in Venezuelan merengue or Bulgarian hora, evoking the celebratory meter with interwoven lines by accordion, trumpet and vibes. The accordion also figures prominently in "Motif From Brahms (op. 98)," which borrows a dozen bars directly from the titular composer before some gorgeous piano work by Jeremy Corren (who's been heard recently with vibraphonist Joel Ross).

Rosenblum originally intended "Fight or Flight" for the violinist Benjamin Sutin's klezmer jazz combo Klazz-Ma-Tazz, and the piece just keeps adding diverting attractions after the circus-like accordion figure, with a snapping trumpet fanfare and distortion-tinged guitar solo. Another highlight is Rosenblum's gorgeously orchestrated arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's "Somewhere," which recalls Lee Morgan's rendition on the trumpeter's posthumously released album, Standards. Corren digs into the bittersweet melody. "I knew Jeremy would shine on this," Rosenblum says. "I love his playing on more melodic pieces. His voice leadings are unlike anyone else, and his supportive accompaniment frees me up to play the melody on accordion."

Rosenblum turns Neil Young's elegiac "Philadelphia" into an arresting jazz ballad, and gives the band an angular blues to stretch out on with "Laughing On the Inside."  The album closes with Rosenblum's arrangement of "Izpoved," a piece he distilled from the beloved recording Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares Vol. 2. Featuring Jasper Dutz's thick, sinuous bass clarinet work, the piece captures the haunting, otherworldly quality of the all-women Bulgarian vocal ensemble.

In many ways Rosenblum's welcoming aesthetic reflects his cosmopolitan upbringing in New York City. A Gotham native born on March 29, 1993, he earned a BA in philosophy from Columbia University while also studying piano at Juilliard in a joint degree program. But before he was out of high school he'd connected with his first mentor, esteemed Israeli-born pianist Roy Assaf. Knowing that the most essential jazz education is acquired on the bandstand, Assaf connected Rosenblum with first-call drummer Winard Harper who was just starting a new jam session in Jersey City to bring jazz back into his home community. "He had a small budget so he got young musicians like me for the house band, and that ended up being an incredible experience," Rosenblum says. Assaf also connected him with veteran vocalist Deborah Davis, a veritable New York institution, who took him under her wing "and taught me so many tunes and how to accompany a singer," he recalls.

Davis recommended Rosenblum to bassist Curtis Lundy, who became another invaluable mentor, "somebody who provided tough love in a way that was great for my development," he says. "I needed to hear about getting my left hand together and being rhythmically solid, how to lead a piano trio, the importance of listening to certain recordings. I've been so fortunate in getting to play with these masters. I also received some beautiful instruction from Bruce Barth at Columbia and Frank Kimbrough at Juilliard. I continue to learn the most playing with other people. I'm surrounded with great young musicians who are never shy about telling me if they hear something different."

Nebula showcases a dazzling cross section of rising New York talent. Trumpeter Wayne Tucker, who delivers consistently crackling work throughout Kites and Strings, has been touring with vocalist Cyrille Aimée recently. He and Puerto Rican guitarist Rafael Rosa, who's part of the brilliant wave of Latin American musicians transforming the New York scene, are a few years older than Rosenblum and were shaped by a different peer group. "Wayne has a ton of experience in jazz and also in the R&B/hip hop world, and he's bringing in that musical attitude. His swing is more laid back. I love pairing him with Jasper, who studied with Walter Smith III and is more classically minded. He's got a deep relationship with the bass clarinet. I love how different they are, yet how committed they are to the blend."

The group is built upon Rosenblum's working trio with bassist Marty Jaffe and drummer Ben Zweig, whom Rosenblum has toured with throughout the United States and internationally for several years. They are a highly sympathetic unit that renders any time signature with a relaxed flow. "I love playing with them so much," he says. "They're willing to be as adventurous musically as I want to be. I've never been a hyper-specialist. I want to explore a lot of different styles. The two of them have such a deep knowledge of traditional jazz and hard bop and how to swing, but they're willing to spend the hours to learn about, say, Brazilian music in a deep way."

Best known as a highly adaptable pianist, Rosenblum started to focus on the accordion about five years ago. He studied with Vitor Gonçalves, and the dearth of jazz accordion players meant that he "received opportunities that really pushed me to get better on the instrument," he says, like touring around Europe with New York-based Croatian jazz vocalist Astrid Kuljanic. A weekly Manhattan gig with her band featuring the great Brazilian percussionist Rogério Boccato allowed him to begin to fully explore the instrument and start thinking about it compositionally. "The accordion introduced me to all kinds of international styles – South American, klezmer, Romanian, and Irish music," he says. "I subbed in the pit for Fiddler On the Roof, which really got my accordion chops up. It's always a work in progress, and I'm having a great time with it."

The pleasure the musicians take in each other's company comes through bright and clear on Kites and Strings. It's like one of those famous New York parties where you never know who's going to walk through the door or what's going to happen next. And you're invited.

New Music Releases: Modern Jazz Classics Volume Two, Blundetto, Cinephonic

Modern Jazz Dance Classics Volume Two Compiled By Jeff The Fish

A great assortment of funky jazzy cuts from recent years – a stunning package that shows just how much the love of jazz on the dancefloor has exploded in the contemporary underground – in ways that are so different than the modes of decades back! Yes, there was a time when "jazz" on a dance track meant a lame sax solo or stolen sample from the 70s – but things really evolved past that, to a whole generation of artists who've really re-embraced live instrumentation mixed with clubbier rhythms – pushing things way way past the more familiar jazz funk sounds of back in the day! In other words, these cuts are new, but also resonate with some vintage elements – very fresh, and exploding with new ideas and very groovy sounds – titles that include "Finding Common Ground" by Mario Cruz, "Catfish Sandwich" by Brian Charette, "Yggdrasil" by PJS, "Theme From Quartet" by Fox Capture Plan, "Another Brick In The Wall" by Wildcard, "Falling In Love With Love" by Niki Haris, "Lisbon" by Markpaulnorton, "Gotta Be Free" by Nina Mya, "K's Dream" by Yusuke Shima, "San Gogo Fu" by Caroxfa, "Fly" by Nicole Banks, and "Jungle" by Shahin Novrasli. ~ Dusty Groove

Blundetto | "Good Good Things"

The title might seem familiar – given that Blundetto's first album was called Bad Bad Things – but this record really shows a strong evolution of his sound over the ten years since that release – the shifting sense of sound between hip hop, global roots, and more dynamic elements – sounding even better here than on any previous records! Blundetto works with production help from Blackjoy – in a mode that might have been born in hip hop studio techniques, but which here has much more of a French post-colonial vibe – wrapping together different global elements, soulful expressions, and jazzy flourishes with effortless ease – into a style that's completely his own overall. Titles include "Fly High", "Pais Azucar", "Barcelona", "Sunday In The Club", "Feel The Cold", "Bingi", "Menina Mulher Da Pele Preta", "Antiguas", and "Mo'Dinero".  ~ Dusty Groove

Cinephonic | "Les Paradis Artificiels"

A nice little record that lives up to the name of the group – a record that's maybe jazz at the core, but served up in very cinematic ways – very much the spirit of the dark, moody image pictured on the cover! This isn't chase, crime, or cop music – but instead maybe the sounds you'd hear on the journey home after the battle – slow funk in the rhythms, peppered with great work on vibes, piano, and mellotron from Pierre Chretien – who also wrote, arranged, and produced the whole record too! Most tunes have a nice light melody over heavier drums and percussion on the bottom – never too over the top, but well-paced in a way that really makes this one stand out from the pack. Titles include "Les Corbeaux", "Eveil De La Cite", "Aube Sur La Ville", "Fleurs De Bitume", "Le Petit Cimetiere", "Apres Le Deluge", and "Illusions Perdues".  ~ Dusty Groove

New Music Releases: Mammal Hands, The Royal Bopsters, Etuk Ubong

Mammal Hands | "Captured Spirits"

Maybe the strongest record so far from Mammal Hands – a set that really has the group growing in their sense of tone and color, and in the unique timing they bring to their tunes! The group is a trio, but not in a mode that you might be guessing – because next to the piano of Nick Smart, and drums of Jesse Barrett, there's also a range of instruments from Jordan Smart – tenor, soprano sax, bass clarinet, and electronics – all used in these shifting ways with the really fresh rhythms from Barrett, and these flowing chains of acoustic piano soul from Smart – cresting, dipping, turning, and soaring with a really majestic sensibility! Titles include "Floating World", "Spiral Stair", "Ithaca", "Chaser", "Late Bloomer", "Riddle", "Rhizome", "Shoreless", and "Versus Shapes". ~ Dusty Groove

The Royal Bopsters | "Party Of Four"

Party of Four, the sophomore release from renowned vocal jazz quartet The Royal Bopsters is a twelve-track cornucopia of delightful and sophisticated harmonic treasures that celebrate both the proud history and the bright future of vocal jazz. A master class in the art of vocal jazz and vocalese, Party of Four demonstrates the dazzling possibilities of four voices coming together as one. Bopsters Amy London, Dylan Pramuk, Pete McGuinness, and the late Holli Ross (to whom the album is dedicated) are joined by guest lead vocalists, NEA Jazz Master Sheila Jordan (91 years young) who delivers a delightful rendition of "Lucky to Be Me" and NEA Jazz Master Bob Dorough, whose humorous recording of his classic "Baby, You Should Know It" became one of his final recordings when he sadly passed in 2018. Six-time GRAMMY®-winning bassist Christian McBride also guests on two strong tracks.

Etuk Ubong | "Night Dreamer Direct To Disc Sessions"

Trumpeter Etuk Ubong leads a mighty heavy combo here – a righteous group that mixes together Nigerian roots and spiritual jazz – a blend that's very different than anything we've ever heard before – and which maybe puts Ubong's music in the same territory as some of the South African jazz greats from decades past! Ubong's not afraid to sing with the group, too – and alternates between his instrument and occasional vocals in a lineup that has lots of percussion and drums at the core – with added horns, bass, and a bit of keyboards – plus guest vocals from Bahghi Yemane – whose style is a nice contrast to Ubong's. The main focus is on righteous grooves and soaring solos – bold trumpet lines over some fast modal rhythms, on titles that include "Mass Corruption", "Spiritual Change", "Purpose Of Creation", "African Struggle", and "Africa Today". ~ Dusty Groove

John Finbury | "Quatro"

John Finbury's new album "Quatro" premieres new music with broad Latin American and Spanish influences, mixed and matched in an unorthodox fashion.

Alternating vocal and instrumental tracks, the album was produced by Latin Grammy winner Emilio D. Miler, and features Magos Herrera on vocals, Chano Domínguez on piano, John Patitucci on bass, and Antonio Sánchez on drums.

Recorded over two sessions in New York in 2019, "Quatro" is both a celebration of cultural diversity and immigration, and a condemnation of those who seek restriction based upon prejudice.

The album opener, "Llegará El Día" ("The Day Will Come"), is a "Freedom Song" and a fierce assertion of the album's concept, with influences of Peruvian Festejo and Mexican Huapango. The lyrics, penned by producer D. Miler, knit a poetic landscape with references to Mexican iconography and to someone, unnamed, who will soon disappear.

The pianist offers a solo cadenza to present the first instrumental, "Independence Day", Finbury's take on Spanish Flamenco, specifically Bulería. With John Patitucci on electric bass, the trio flies high, with Chano taking more solo spots throughout the song.

"La Madre De Todos Los Errores" ("The Mother Of All Mistakes") features an intricate melody delivered with passion by Magos, which develops over a driving bass ostinato. The lyrics, written by Roxana Amed, are directed at someone whose assumptions and narcissism overlook the beauty that lies in the details which shape identity.

"All The Way To The End", featuring lyrics by Patty Brayden, is a sultry Son-Bolero dance around the pledge of eternal love, sung in English with Spanish Flamenco ornaments. Chano Dominguez's solo enters, piercing and playful, becoming the other ‘tease' in this conversation. When the song appears to be over, a final section emerges featuring a melancholic vocalise in exquisite interplay with the band.

A solo acoustic bass cadenza resolves into an a capella vocal, and so "Comenzar" ("To Begin (again)" ) is born. With lyrics penned by Magos Herrera herself, the song is a homage to our capacity to reinvent ourselves and find new beginnings within the same story. The music displays influences of Argentine Zamba, and other folkloric music from the Andes that share similar rhythms.

Reminiscent of old school dance halls "Salón Jardín" ("Garden Ballroom"), is the trios's take on a slow Bolero, fertile territory for an outstanding acoustic bass solo by John Patitucci. Chano Domínguez's reprise of the melody is so personal that it feels like a solo in its own right.

Antonio Sánchez's solo cadenza at the beginning of "Romp" feels like a disruption of the smooth tone set by the previous track… and it isn't the last one!

A clave-based, New Orleans Second Line groove takes shape, a musical reminder that the South of the United States was once part of the same melting pot as the Spanish Antilles. "Romp" is the jam after the party, when musicians and a few lucky guests blend together in a celebration of togetherness.

John Finbury redefines his being American, not just as a native of the United States, but as a citizen of the Americas. His music on QUATRO often defies strict stylistic classifications, and finds unity in organic, intense renditions by a world-class band.

Make no mistake: "Quatro" is a political statement; a musical and poetic expression of freedom and the power of collaboration to contradict the fiction that those who are different should remain apart.

Though written and recorded before the world was stunned by a pandemic that has hindered our ability to gather and celebrate, "Quatro" presents a musical meeting place that strives to bridge that distance, and convey the certainty that we are better together.

Junk Magic | "Compass Confusion"

For more than a decade, Junk Magic has been honing a collective sound that relies on individual ex- pressions, imagination and subversion. Appearing first as a 2004 album title under pianist-composer Craig Taborn’s name, Junk Magic has transitioned into a sonic identity comprising electronic sound design, production techniques and elements of improvised music.

Compass Confusion – issued October 30 on Pyroclastic Records – presents a holographic snapshot of the Junk Magic sound. “Everything is warped by something else,” says Taborn, who serves as album com- poser and producer. “You’re still trying to capture things ‘in a moment,’ in a certain sense. But then also, because of how the process works, you’re not. There’s a lot of time to craft things after the fact.”

Compass Confusion features Chris Speed on saxophone, Erik Fratzke on bass, Mat Maneri on viola, Da- vid King on drums and Taborn on piano, keyboards and synthesizer. Together, they disarticulate boundaries that imply separation of live music and digital production. “I don’t really view using creative methods in ambient techniques as a ‘different side’ of musical expression,” says Taborn. “It’s all the same expression. But this album is definitely leaning in to the production process as opposed to relying more heavily on the live playing.”

Compositional and textural layers, as well as pacing and extended ebb and flow, emerge intentionally throughout the recording. The artists honor space. They harness movement through time. Using methods that challenge perception and embrace subversion, they develop sound narratives unique to each track that create a story arc across the entire album. The interplay’s the thing. “Laser Beaming Hearts” introduces a cast of characters, layering and mingling their identities, not only through sound design but melody.

“Whenever I hear a melody, it really does set up an identity, a character,” says Taborn, who seeks, at times, to subvert a character’s initial impact by elevating a textural element or an ambience. Often, that relationship inverts. First conjuring an ocean inside a seashell alongside echoing heartbeats, “Dream and Guess” soon moves into a new melody — beautiful, mysterious and primed for sonic disruption.

Rather than disorient — despite its title — the album constantly reorients the listener. Many tracks, including “The Science of Why Devils Smell Like Sulfur,” feature sound chambers, through which the artists freely move. Within these chambers, textures layer, flicker, persist, and stories develop; sound collage may enhance as melody recedes. “There are different methods of attending compositionally,” says Taborn. “If I were writing a traditional tune, it would be melody and some chord changes; if I were writing a hip hop track, I would focus more on beats, loops and sound design; ifI were writing strictly ambient music, I would focus on the sound relationships, how the shapes are evolving with certain sonic elements. On a lot of these pieces, I’m really playing with the foreground and background of all those things.”

While Taborn’s process serves a fixed vision, his approach preserves spontaneity. He populates each chamber by listening and responding to what he hears. “Each tune kind of has a radically different process,” he says. “I do think about narrative, because it moves through time, but it’s the narrative of these sound worlds, moving between them.”

The artists entered sessions in Minneapolis and Brooklyn knowing each studio hit would be one step of the process. Most of the album’s construction would come together away from mics and amps. Still, Taborn asserts an aesthetic throughout Compass Confusion that reflects his expansive foundation in live, improvised music. Deep admiration for hip hop and EDM production techniques notwithstanding, Taborn seeks to preserve solo performances artists throw down in the studio. “To a large extent, what you hear is what people played in the order that they played it,” he says. “I don’t cut up performances. And that’s not an ethos, it’s just an aesthetic. I’m not cutting up a drum solo and making loops, but I’m doing other things that might trick you into thinking it’s looped.”

Mixed and mastered in Taborn’s native Minneapolis by Brett Bullion (The Bad Plus) and Huntley Miller (Bon Iver, Kassa Overall), respectively, Compass Confusion presents a confluence of expressions within a collective sound. “We’re improvisers,” says Taborn. “While a lot of this material is written, there’s so much improvising in the playing. Even in my approach to making tracks, making beats in the studio, it’s still improvisational. You’re working on things in the moment.”

Junk Magic, over the years, has featured countless acclaimed artist-composers, including Craig Taborn, Chris Speed, Erik Fratzke, Mat Maneri, Aaron Stewart, Mark Turner and David King (The Bad Plus). Bonding improvisational aesthetic with digital production and electronic music tech- niques, the project ethos challenges existing perceptions of sound design. A 2004 self-titled release gar- nered praise from Pitchfork, PopMatters and All About Jazz, which acknowledged the sound’s “stagger- ing futuristic potential.” Anticipated followup Compass Confusion, released on Pyroclastic Records, positions Junk Magic on the rolling crest of acoustic wave expansion.

Pianist-composer Kris Davis founded Pyroclastic Records in 2016 to serve the release of her acclaimed recordings Duopoly and Octopus with the goal of growing the label into a thriving platform that would serve like-minded, cutting-edge artists. In 2019, Davis launched a nonprofit to support those artists whose expression flourishes beyond the commercial sphere. By supporting their creative efforts and ensuring distribution of their work, Pyroclastic empowers emerging and established artists — including Cory Smythe, Ben Goldberg, Chris Lightcap, Angelica Sanchez and Marilyn Crispell, Nate Wooley, Eric Revis and Craig Taborn — to continue challenging conventional genre-labeling within their fields. Pyroclastic also seeks to galvanize and grow a creative community, offering young artists new opportunities, supporting diversity and expanding the audience for noncommercial art. 

Pianist Emmet Cohen To Release "Future Stride"

The sound of stride piano vividly evokes scenes from the past: the roaring nightclubs of 1920s Harlem, the raucous birth pangs of jazz’s nascent years, the gymnastic burlesques of risk-taking silent movie madcaps. But in the music of pianist/composer Emmet Cohen, the past is always present, if not venturing with sly turns into an open-eared future as we enter into a new iteration of the roaring 20s.

On his latest album, Cohen revisits one of the music’s earliest forms without a trace of quaintness or throwback pastiche by meticulously covering the genre’s lexicon spanning the past century and melding its context with “modern” music. With Future Stride, due out January 29, 2021 via Mack Avenue Records, he instead finds the immediacy in a stylistic approach that can speak volumes to modern listeners open to recognizing its thrilling vitality.

The new album comes following Cohen's win at the 2019 American Pianists Awards. He received a cash prize and two years of career advancement and support valued at over $100,000, making this one of the most coveted prizes in the music world and the largest for American jazz pianists. Cohen's recording contract with Mack Avenue Music Group was a part of the prize from the American Pianists Association as well. Cohen joins illustrious past winners including Sullivan Fortner, Aaron Diehl, Dan Tepfer, Aaron Parks and Adam Birnbaum, among esteemed others.

Though he’s made a point of connecting with masters from the past throughout his still-young career, Cohen pointedly invites a group of his peers to realize this project, including his longtime rhythm section partners, bassist Russell Hall and drummer Kyle Poole, along with two of modern jazz’s most progressive voices, trumpeter Marquis Hill and saxophonist Melissa Aldana.

“I find that all great art can be considered modern,” Cohen explains. “Whenever you listen to Stravinsky or watch Stanley Kubrick, when you read Shakespeare or look at Picasso, it remains the most modern, genius art that you can find. It allows people in every time period to feel and experience the same emotions relevant to the period that they live in. For me, stride piano belongs in that category; the music of Art Tatum and Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines and Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith has implications that can affect people today in a very deep manner.”

In that sense, the music of Future Stride viscerally connects our century’s second decade with the last, dissipating the mists of time that shroud the era of early jazz. For anyone who might relegate the music’s pioneers to some antiquated past, Cohen makes a bracing argument from the outset with “Symphonic Raps,” a piece that Louis Armstrong recorded with the Carroll Dickerson Orchestra in the late 1920s and has been rarely, if ever, revived since. The trio’s breakneck rendition ensures there’s no dust left on the tune, which Cohen likens to “a hip-hop groove. That tune sums up how our trio communicates joy.”

The mood shifts drastically with the album’s second track, Cohen’s haunting original “Reflections at Dusk,” with the pianist’s shimmering keys underlying the aching melody essayed by Hill and Aldana. Cohen wrote the piece while contemplating a series of personal changes that had affected his own life in the months leading up to a global pandemic altering everyone’s lives. “I had started to take a lot of time for reflection even before the world stopped,” he says. “I think everyone is going through some version of that now, finally taking advantage of the chance to stop and listen to their own voices and thoughts. This piece is about taking time for yourself, which can be very difficult sometimes.”

The beloved drummer Lawrence “Lo” Leathers, who died tragically in June 2019, is given a deeply felt farewell on “Toast to Lo.” Leathers had been an influential figure in the lives of all the members of the quintet, Cohen recalls. “We miss him very dearly. He became like the mayor anywhere he went; he knew everyone. He reminded me of a jazz musician from the past. Russell and I played our first gig ever in Paris with him, and we watched as he even became the jazz mayor of Paris. We saw him cultivate his outlook on the world, which was one of power, beauty, and equality.”

The title track – written by Cohen and Poole – provides Cohen’s own contribution to the stride tradition, with the pianist engaging in a time-warping dialogue with his triomates, embodying the concept of the album in daring and spirited fashion. The classic Sammy Cahn/Jimmy Van Heusen ballad “Second Time Around” makes a similar point from a very different perspective, tapping into a timeless emotion with a profound tenderness. “Dardanella” is something of a rite of passage for stride pianists; with a wide breadth of pianists throughout history having put their own twist on the oft-recorded tune. Cohen foregoes the usual solo approach to take it for a lilting spin with the trio all contributing to its sparkling vivacity.

Cohen wrote “You Already Know,” a tune quickly achieving newfound standard status, shortly after moving to New York City, and the quintet’s version captures his wide-eyed response to the city’s hectic pace. Duke Ellington wrote “Pitter Panther Patter” as a showcase for his Orchestra’s mighty bassist, Jimmy Blanton, and Cohen uses it to similar ends, shining a well-deserved spotlight on Russell Hall’s agile talents. The Rodgers and Hart standard “My Heart Stood Still” was a last-minute call as the session neared its end, allowing the trio to show off its breezy but scintillating camaraderie. The album ends with another Cohen original, “Little Angel,” a tale of heartbreak brilliantly illustrated by Hill’s gorgeous, hushed melodicism.

Where Future Stride began with a piece revived from nearly a century ago, it ends with a tune that explicitly points to the future, with a supple R&B influence that colors much of Cohen’s original music but has become one bold path for modern jazz to explore. The fact that a listener would be hard-pressed to point to one or the other of those poles as more “old-fashioned” or more “forward-looking” makes Cohen’s point more eloquently than words ever could: if emotion is conveyed from musician to listener, that emotion lives in the eternal now and the sound is always past, present and future.

New Music Releases: Nicole Mitchell & Moor Mother, Spontaneous Groovin’ Combustion, The Society Hill Orchestra

Nicole Mitchell & Moor Mother | "Offering: Live At Le Guess Who"

Nicole Mitchell is an artist who made us sit up and say "wow" when we first saw her perform on the south side of Chicago 25 years ago – and she continues to make us express the same sort of surprise as the years go on – ever shifting her music, changing her focus, and continuing to get involved with really creative projects like this! The record is part of Mitchell's new sense of cosmic exploration – and features Nicole on flute and electronics, working alongside a lot more electronics from Moor Mother, who also delivers spoken passages on the album's all long tracks – which maybe make the whole thing come across like some Afro-Futurist blend of jazz, spoken word, and science fiction music – something that must have been amazing to see when it was performed live for this recording. Titles include "Up Out Of The Ugly", "Vultures Laughing", and "Prototype Eve". ~ Dusty Groove

Spontaneous Groovin’ Combustion | "Spontaneous Groovin’ Combustion"

While fans of Spontaneous Groovin’ Combustion chomp at the bit for the perfectly named urban jazz fusion ensemble’s debut album – due in February 2021 – group leader and saxophonist Warren Keller (a one-time NYC rocker) whips up a hypnotic, freewheeling blast of cool melodic funk on “Double Deuces,” their gem of a fourth single. The track builds slowly from a soulful atmospheric simmer, alternating Keller’s punchy sax lines and improvisations with Luigi Pistillo’s crisp, crackling electric guitar and incorporating colorful flute and vibes harmonies as the tune shines brightly and inspires excitement!

The Society Hill Orchestra | "Revisit Philly Classics"

There has been a long running tradition in soul music regarding the area of Philadelphia and its surrounding towns. The "Philly Soul" sound has never really gone away – certain vocalists or bands may come and go, but it seems like someone is always there to take their place and carry on the tradition. One of the organizations still carrying the torch has been one that has seemingly never faded away - the best way to describe it is not as an organization, but rather an institution, and that tireless entity is known as Society Hill Records - named after the historic neighborhood in Center City Philadelphia. Today, after all the years of great music that has emanated from the label, artists old and new carry on the great tradition with music that has never strayed far from the source. On the new compilation, The Society Hill Orchestra Revisit Philly Classics, that promise is glaringly evident. Led by the first family of Philly Soul, the Ingram Family band - that has played on so many Philly soul hits for decades, is once again at the helm of this new project. Together with the Society Hill Orchestra are artists/friends that are faithfully carrying on the tradition such as Benny Barksdale, Donnie Tatum, Mary Harris, Sugarbear, TRU, Baxter and Jimmy Lee, and the music sounds as fresh today as it did over 40 years ago. Producer Butch Ingram has picked some of the biggest hits of Philly soul music over the decades and once again proves the vitality of this genre of music will live on for decades to come.