Named for the Grateful Dead song that concludes this double album, Uncle John’s Band features masterful guitarist John Scofield at his most freewheeling. Wide ranging repertoire finds his trio with Vicente Archer and Bill Stewart tackling material from Dylan’s “Mr Tambourine Man” to Neil Young’s “Old Man”, from Leonard Bernstein’s “Somewhere” to the Miles Davis Birth of the Cool classic “Budo." And jazz standards including “Stairway to the Stars” and “Ray’s Idea” rub shoulders with seven far-reaching Scofield originals that are variously swing, funk and folk-inflected. The red thread through the program is the trio’s improvisational verve.

“I feel like we can go anywhere” says John Scofield of the group’s multi-directional versatility, and they do. The opening “Tambourine Man” for instance begins almost in the spirit of raga, before the theme emerges, lilting and country-flavored, and the improvisation opens up a new space where “we don’t follow a form but play freely,” with Archer’s heartfelt solo an early highlight. From moment to moment the group embraces the structures of the pieces it plays, then stretches and liberates them. “All the compositions are vehicles for us to improvise on,” Scofield told rock magazine Relix recently. “All are equally important to me.”

If Scofield is first and foremost a great jazz guitarist – a status confirmed by a biography that has included celebrated work with masters including Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Gary Burton, Gerry Mulligan, Joe Henderson and more, as well as the many outstanding groups that he has led - he has always been an open-minded player. Rock and blues were his original starting points as a teenaged guitarist, and the quality of direct emotional expression associated with those idioms has remained an unmistakable part of his sound, however sophisticated the harmonic context. In parallel to his jazz activities, he has long been welcomed as a distinguished guest on the rock jam band scene and, as a contributor to Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh’s groups, has played “Uncle John’s Band” live on multiple occasion over the last 20 years.

Uncle John’s Band is Scofield’s third album as a leader on ECM: it follows Swallow Tales (recorded 2019), dedicated to the music of frequent partner Steve Swallow, and the solo album John Scofield, recorded in the isolation of lockdown in 2021. Other appearances on ECM include Bass Desires (1985) and Second Sight (1987), with bassist Marc Johnson’s group whose frontline paired Scofield with Bill Frisell. Saudades (2004), a celebration of the music of Tony Williams Lifetime, featured Scofield with Jack DeJohnette and Larry Goldings.

Archer is widely considered one of today's profound voices on the bass. He has been playing in a variety of Scofield led bands since 2017 as well as with Kenny Garrett, Terence Blanchard, Tom Harrell, Freddie Hubbard, Louis Hayes, Curtis Fuller, Mark Whitfield, Roy Haynes, Geri Allen, Stanley Jordan, Wycliffe Gordon, Stefon Harris, Janis Siegel, Robert Glasper, Nicholas Payton and The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. In 2023, after many years of creative contribution to other musicians’ concepts, Archer released his first album as a leader, Short Stories (Cellar Music) with Bill Stewart and Gerald Clayton in 2023. Uncle John’s Band marks his first appearance on ECM.

Stewart has performed and recorded with many leading musicians, including Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, Maceo Parker, Larry Goldings, Charlie Haden, Joe Henderson, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter, Lee Konitz, Nicholas Payton and others. He co-leads the popular group Goldings/Stewart/Bernstein, and has been associated with John Scofield for more than 30 years. “What Bill does is more than ‘playing the drums,’” Scofield has said. “He’s a melodic voice in the music, playing counterpoint, and comping, while also swinging really hard.” This is evident throughout the new album, not least on Scofield’s “How Deep”, which lifts the 32-bar jazz form to new heights…

The Scofield trio takes the music on the road in the weeks and months ahead. In the US, Scofield, Archer and Stewart play a three-night run at Baltimore’s Keystone Korner (November 17-19), followed by four nights at The Blue Note in New York (November 21-25). They then head to Canada to play Toronto’s George Weston Recital Hall (November 30).

Uncle John’s Band was recorded at Clubhouse Studio in Rhinebeck, New York, in August 2022. The album includes liner notes, with commentary on each track, by John Scofield.

More information: www.johnscofield.com

Lee Mendelson Film Productions (LMFP) is thrilled to announce the release – for the first time ever – of the complete Vince Guaraldi soundtrack for You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, the timeless 8th animated Peanuts® special, from writer and creator Charles Schulz, director Bill Melendez and producers Melendez and Lee Mendelson. Originally airing on October 29, 1972 on CBS-TV, the special is currently available for streaming on Apple TV+.

All versions of the album include the original 16 recordings that comprise the song cues of the special – with extended performances never available before now – plus another nine bonus or alternative tracks never heard before.

Guaraldi brought Dixieland jazz, his classic favorites, and even his voice (for the first time in a Peanuts special) to the score for Linus’s campaign for student body president.

Some highlights include: the complete (over five minutes) “Joe Cool” where Guaraldi sings about one of Snoopy’s most famous alter egos; multiple versions of “Incumbent Waltz” written for the special; probably his saddest tune in “Deserted Charlie Brown”; classic Linus and Lucy updated for the ’70s; and several of the eponymous “You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown” tunes. There are bonus tracks for “Joe Cool,” alternate takes of songs like “Blue Charlie Brown” and a bonus of “African Sleigh Ride,” which they ended recording a different version of for a latter special.

When the session tapes were rediscovered, it became apparent that many of the songs had been cut down or edited (or replaced) for time or feel within the special for its final edit. This release resurrects many of those performances to their original full length. And for the first time they can be appreciated on their own, not underneath dialogue or effects from the special.

The recording features Guaraldi (piano, electric piano, vocals and guitar), Seward McCain (bass and flute), Tom Harrell (trumpet), Glenn Cronkhite (drums), Mel Martin (woodwinds), Pat O‘Hara (trombone) and John Scott Trotter as the music supervisor. The soundtrack was produced by Sean Mendelson and Jason Mendelson; remixed at Bones and Knives by Terry Carleton and restored and re-mastered by Vinson Hudson.

The album became available September 6, 2024, including an exclusive vinyl variant in Woodstock Yellow LP via Record Store Day Indie Exclusive, available at participating stores. Order here.

A 12” LP in black, a CD of all 25 tracks, and a complete digital release are also available.

The records and CDs are all eco-minded: The records are made with BioVinyl, a new and unique product that replaces petroleum in S-PVC by recycling used cooking oil or industrial waste. There will be a 100% CO2 savings compared to traditional PVC vinyl, without sacrificing any acoustic or optical quality. Each record comes in a reusable, compostable PLA bag that is made from 99% renewable material, and the jacket, label, and liner notes are all made from sustainably forested trees for minimum ecological harm. The CDs are also made of recycled material, and their paper inserts are from sustainably forested trees as well.

The physical copies will include liner notes that give a track-by-track analysis by Derrick Bang and notes from Sean Mendelson, son of Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson and co-producer of the record. The LP liner notes are four pages, the CD liner notes are eight pages, and all versions contain images from the special. The LP release also includes rare photographs and images from the original tape boxes recently re-discovered that led to this release.

Find participating stores and more information about orders here or order from MVDSHOP here.

For an extended version of the press release and more information, including the track list, click here.

About Peanuts:

The characters of Peanuts and related intellectual property are owned by Peanuts Worldwide, which is 41% owned by WildBrain Ltd., 39% owned by Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., and 20% owned by the family of Charles M. Schulz, who first introduced the world to Peanuts in 1950, when the comic strip debuted in seven newspapers. Since then, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang have made an indelible mark on popular culture. In addition to enjoying beloved Peanuts shows and specials on Apple TV+, fans of all ages celebrate the Peanuts brand worldwide through thousands of consumer products, as well as amusement park attractions, cultural events, social media, and comic strips available in all formats, from traditional to digital. In 2018, Peanuts partnered with NASA on a multi-year Space Act Agreement designed to inspire a passion for space exploration and STEM among the next generation of students.

About Lee Mendelson Film Productions, Inc.:

Lee Mendelson Film Productions (LMFP) is the Publisher of the Vince Guaraldi musical catalog associated with Peanuts. LMFP is also the producer of the classic Peanuts television specials, including A Charlie Brown Christmas, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, along with the Hollywood animation studio Bill Melendez Productions. LMFP also produced over 50 other network Peanuts specials, 12 prime time Garfield specials, 121-program series “Garfield and Friends” and many other film and television animated, documentary and entertainment programs. Founded by the late Lee Mendelson in 1963, Lee Mendelson Film Productions, Inc., has received 11 Emmy Awards (from 45 nominations) and four Peabody Awards, as well as producing projects that have received Grammy and Academy Award nominations.

From the free playing attitude of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Lights On A Satellite lands with a full groove right in the heart of swing. The recording is a tribute to the life‘s work of Marshall Allen, who celebrated his 100th birthday on May 25, 2024. Recorded in Studio A at New York‘s Power Station on June 16, 2024, the album honors the mastery of this exceptional musician as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, bandleader, teacher and keeper of Sun Ra‘s legacy.

Allen is one of the most distinctive voices in jazz. His versatile alto saxophone has defined the sound of the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1958. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, the NEA Jazz Master (2025) embodies like no other the music that has come to be recognized as America‘s classical music. He has played an active role in shaping all eras of jazz and his eloquent tone continues to unfold its radiance and expressiveness to this day. With Steiner‘s Electronic Valve Instrument (E.V.I.), Allen has created an exclusive realm of sound that has catapulted him directly into the 21st Century.

Allen has led the Sun Ra Arkestra for more than 30 years. Founded by Sun Ra in the early 1950s, the band bears the name Arkestra as a deliberate combination of Noah‘s Ark and orchestra. No other ensemble has more justification for making the past and future happen simultaneously, as if in a time machine. On Lights On A Satellite we hear pieces from a century of jazz, which has become present in an astonishing way. Sun Ra‘s reverberations will probably continue to have an effect beyond his earthly end in 1993 and into eternity, according to the astonishing realization, as we experience the world premiere of the Sun Ra composition “Baby Won‘t You Please Be Mine.”

Allen has not allowed the Sun Ra Arkestra to atrophy into a repertoire band. He has organized and sifted through the estate of his friend and mentor, filled it with life, trained young musicians in his spirit and thus also arranged these new Sun Ra compositions and brought them into the band‘s repertoire. Allen has not toured internationally since 2021. But he has by no means retired. In the “Arkestral Institute Of Sun Ra," the terraced house in Philadelphia‘s Morton Street, which was declared a historical monument in 2022 and has served as the band‘s headquarters since 1968, Allen continues to work on his mission.

On Lights On A Satellite we experience the virtuosity of the master and his satellites, the interplay of the Sun Ra Arkestra as a very own sound entity in the greatest possible expansion, across generations of musicians, and with an all-encompassing repertoire.

Allen discovered Sun Ra’s 1955 composition “Baby Won’t You Please be Mine” in his estate six years ago and recently added it to the Arkestra’s repertoire. It sounds like it was written for Billie Holiday in the 1930s with its charming instrumental parts moving in the playing posture of the 30s but breaking out in favor of free playing, even for just a short phrase. Horace Henderson’s “Big John’s Special’ was originally arranged by his brother Fletcher Henderson during his tenure playing in his big band. Like Horace Henderson, Sun Ra played piano and wrote arrangements under his real name Herman Poole Blout in Fletcher Henderson’s. This showcases a more relaxed, straight-ahead composition style that does not push forward like Benny Goodman, but builds up a restrained tension reminiscent of bands from New Orleans.

The million-selling “Holiday for Strings” (1942 by David Rose and his Orchestra) is still considered a classic of American music and was a signature turn of the popular Red Skelton Radio show in the 1950s and 1960s. It can also be heard on the 1960s Sun Ra Arkestra recording “Holiday for a Soul Dance” as a solemn, piano-accented instrumental piece, albeit with rapid tempo change.

In Lights On A Satellite Allen unfolds his full mastery of the alto saxophone. His distinctive voice bursts out of the exquisite interplay with the strings with all its explosive solo power in the moment the entire reed section kicks in. The album concludes with “Tapestry From An Asteroid,” which has been a part of Sun Ra Arkestra’s instrumental repertoire since 1956 and can finally be heard with a wonderful arrangement particularly highlighting the sonorous baritone saxophone of Noel Scott and Allen’s striking overblowing of the higher registers.

The inimitable groove of this exceptional orchestra can be experienced through the entire orchestration with 24 musicians, recorded in a quality that allows all voices to be savored and thus presents the music in its full beauty. Going into a recording studio as a producer with these specifications and 24 musicians was a risk.

With Lights On A Satellite Frank Kleinschmidt from IN+OUT Records expresses his 40-year connection to the Sun Ra Arkestra. Here we have a compilation of sound and film documents which, in addition to the cinematic and photographic side of the studio day, also provides background information in the form of liner notes and photographs by Allen biographer Sibylle Zerr - and, as a summary of the spirit of the memorable studio day, by Allen himself.

From the free playing attitude of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Lights On A Satellite lands with a full groove right in the heart of swing. The recording is a tribute to the life‘s work of Marshall Allen, who celebrated his 100th birthday on May 25, 2024. Recorded in Studio A at New York‘s Power Station on June 16, 2024, the album honors the mastery of this exceptional musician as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, bandleader, teacher and keeper of Sun Ra‘s legacy.

Allen is one of the most distinctive voices in jazz. His versatile alto saxophone has defined the sound of the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1958. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, the NEA Jazz Master (2025) embodies like no other the music that has come to be recognized as America‘s classical music. He has played an active role in shaping all eras of jazz and his eloquent tone continues to unfold its radiance and expressiveness to this day. With Steiner‘s Electronic Valve Instrument (E.V.I.), Allen has created an exclusive realm of sound that has catapulted him directly into the 21st Century.

Allen has led the Sun Ra Arkestra for more than 30 years. Founded by Sun Ra in the early 1950s, the band bears the name Arkestra as a deliberate combination of Noah‘s Ark and orchestra. No other ensemble has more justification for making the past and future happen simultaneously, as if in a time machine. On Lights On A Satellite we hear pieces from a century of jazz, which has become present in an astonishing way. Sun Ra‘s reverberations will probably continue to have an effect beyond his earthly end in 1993 and into eternity, according to the astonishing realization, as we experience the world premiere of the Sun Ra composition “Baby Won‘t You Please Be Mine.”

Allen has not allowed the Sun Ra Arkestra to atrophy into a repertoire band. He has organized and sifted through the estate of his friend and mentor, filled it with life, trained young musicians in his spirit and thus also arranged these new Sun Ra compositions and brought them into the band‘s repertoire. Allen has not toured internationally since 2021. But he has by no means retired. In the “Arkestral Institute Of Sun Ra," the terraced house in Philadelphia‘s Morton Street, which was declared a historical monument in 2022 and has served as the band‘s headquarters since 1968, Allen continues to work on his mission.

On Lights On A Satellite we experience the virtuosity of the master and his satellites, the interplay of the Sun Ra Arkestra as a very own sound entity in the greatest possible expansion, across generations of musicians, and with an all-encompassing repertoire.

Allen discovered Sun Ra’s 1955 composition “Baby Won’t You Please be Mine” in his estate six years ago and recently added it to the Arkestra’s repertoire. It sounds like it was written for Billie Holiday in the 1930s with its charming instrumental parts moving in the playing posture of the 30s but breaking out in favor of free playing, even for just a short phrase. Horace Henderson’s “Big John’s Special’ was originally arranged by his brother Fletcher Henderson during his tenure playing in his big band. Like Horace Henderson, Sun Ra played piano and wrote arrangements under his real name Herman Poole Blout in Fletcher Henderson’s. This showcases a more relaxed, straight-ahead composition style that does not push forward like Benny Goodman, but builds up a restrained tension reminiscent of bands from New Orleans.

The million-selling “Holiday for Strings” (1942 by David Rose and his Orchestra) is still considered a classic of American music and was a signature turn of the popular Red Skelton Radio show in the 1950s and 1960s. It can also be heard on the 1960s Sun Ra Arkestra recording “Holiday for a Soul Dance” as a solemn, piano-accented instrumental piece, albeit with rapid tempo change.

In Lights On A Satellite Allen unfolds his full mastery of the alto saxophone. His distinctive voice bursts out of the exquisite interplay with the strings with all its explosive solo power in the moment the entire reed section kicks in. The album concludes with “Tapestry From An Asteroid,” which has been a part of Sun Ra Arkestra’s instrumental repertoire since 1956 and can finally be heard with a wonderful arrangement particularly highlighting the sonorous baritone saxophone of Noel Scott and Allen’s striking overblowing of the higher registers.

The inimitable groove of this exceptional orchestra can be experienced through the entire orchestration with 24 musicians, recorded in a quality that allows all voices to be savored and thus presents the music in its full beauty. Going into a recording studio as a producer with these specifications and 24 musicians was a risk.

With Lights On A Satellite Frank Kleinschmidt from IN+OUT Records expresses his 40-year connection to the Sun Ra Arkestra. Here we have a compilation of sound and film documents which, in addition to the cinematic and photographic side of the studio day, also provides background information in the form of liner notes and photographs by Allen biographer Sibylle Zerr - and, as a summary of the spirit of the memorable studio day, by Allen himself.

Lee Mendelson Film Productions (LMFP) is thrilled to announce the release—for the first time ever—of the complete Vince Guaraldi soundtrack for You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown, the timeless eighth animated Peanuts® special from writer and creator Charles Schulz, director Bill Melendez, and producers Melendez and Lee Mendelson. Originally airing on October 29, 1972, on CBS-TV, the special is now available for streaming on Apple TV+.

All versions of the album include the original 16 recordings featured in the special—now with extended performances that were never available before—plus nine additional bonus or alternate tracks never previously heard.

Guaraldi brought Dixieland jazz, his classic favorites, and even his voice (for the first time in a Peanuts special) to the score for Linus’s campaign for student body president.

Highlights include: the complete, over-five-minute “Joe Cool,” where Guaraldi sings about one of Snoopy’s most famous alter egos; multiple versions of “Incumbent Waltz” written for the special; perhaps his saddest tune, “Deserted Charlie Brown”; an updated 1970s take on the classic “Linus and Lucy”; and several renditions of the titular “You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown” themes. There are bonus tracks for “Joe Cool,” alternate takes of “Blue Charlie Brown,” and a bonus of “African Sleigh Ride,” later re-recorded for another special.

When the session tapes were rediscovered, it became clear that many of the songs had been cut down, edited, or replaced for time and tone in the special’s final edit. This release restores many of these performances to their original full length, allowing them to be appreciated on their own, unobstructed by dialogue or effects.

The recording features Guaraldi (piano, electric piano, vocals, and guitar), Seward McCain (bass and flute), Tom Harrell (trumpet), Glenn Cronkhite (drums), Mel Martin (woodwinds), Pat O‘Hara (trombone), and John Scott Trotter as the music supervisor. The soundtrack was produced by Sean Mendelson and Jason Mendelson, remixed at Bones and Knives by Terry Carleton, and restored and remastered by Vinson Hudson.

The album includes an exclusive Woodstock Yellow LP via Record Store Day Indie Exclusive, available at participating stores for order here.

Also available are a 12” black LP, a CD containing all 25 tracks, and a complete digital release.

The records and CDs are eco-minded: The records are made with BioVinyl, a unique product that replaces petroleum in S-PVC by recycling used cooking oil or industrial waste. This process achieves a 100% CO2 savings compared to traditional PVC vinyl without sacrificing acoustic or optical quality. Each record comes in a reusable, compostable PLA bag made from 99% renewable material, and the jacket, label, and liner notes are made from sustainably forested trees to minimize ecological harm. The CDs are also made from recycled material, and their paper inserts are sourced from sustainably managed forests.

Physical copies include liner notes that provide a track-by-track analysis by Derrick Bang and additional notes from Sean Mendelson, son of Peanuts producer Lee Mendelson and co-producer of the record. The LP liner notes span four pages, while the CD liner notes are eight pages, and all formats feature images from the special. The LP release also includes rare photographs and images from the original tape boxes that led to this release.

Find participating stores and more information about orders here or order from MVDSHOP here.

Available in limited release on Black Vinyl (12” BioVinyl), CD, and digitally: order here

Also available on Woodstock Yellow Vinyl (12” BioVinyl) as a Record Story Day Indie Exclusive: order here

Denver Jazz, a newly formed 501 (c)(3) Colorado nonprofit corporation proudly announces the inaugural Denver Jazz Fest scheduled from April 3-6, 2025. The annual four-day event will engage the front range community through diverse, inclusive regional, national, and international performances and educational programs. Confirmed headline artists include Dianne Reeves in her first Denver public concert since 2018 and the Bill Frisell In My Dreams project, a Denver premiere direct from the highly acclaimed Big Ears Festival. These endearing time-honored icons have deep roots in the Denver community. Also set to appear are Omar Sosa Quarteto Americanos, Ghost-Note, The Headhunters, Isaiah Collier, Garaj Mahal, Rico Jones with additional artists to be announced.

Jazz luminary Charles McPherson with special guest Terell Stafford featuring Ben Markley, Seth Lewis and Dru Heller are also scheduled. McPherson and Stafford will also engage front range university jazz programs and Aurora Public School students and the CCJA (Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts) through masterclasses and workshops. These exclusive outreach events will be held at the Metro State University Kalamath Building, the esteemed program under the direction of Dawn Clement and Shane Endsley. The two-day initiative is sponsored by Temple University and the Boyer College of Music and Dance with additional support through Gift of Jazz, a Colorado education non-profit.

Upwards of 30 Denver Jazz performances will take place in 10 venues during the first weekend of April, in celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month and in recognition of KUVO’s 40th Anniversary year-long festivities. States Denver Jazz Fest co-founder, David Froman, “We have raised the bar high for our first year to unite the jazz community through city-wide partnerships and venue collaborations with the Newman Center for the Performing Arts, Dazzle, Cervantes’ Masterpiece Ballroom and The Other Side, Spangalang Brewery, Nocturne, and the Galleria at the DPAC. Boulder County area shows will be featured at the Boulder and Fox Theaters, and Muse Performance Space in Lafayette.”

Pre-Fest kick off event ahead of the Denver Jazz Fest:

Art Lande - ECM’s Rubisa Patrol Revisited with Mark Isham

Presented by Denver Jazz and Gift of Jazz

Tuesday, November 26, 2024; Dazzle @ 6:30PM

Denver Jazz Fest Schedule, April 3-6, 2025

THURSDAY, April 3

Bill Frisell – In My Dreams featuring Thomas Morgan, Rudy Royston, Jenny Scheinman, Eyvind Kang & Hank Roberts

Newman Center for the Performing Arts @ 7:00PM

Omar Sosa Quarteto Americanos with Sheldon Brown, Ernesto Mazar Kindelán and Josh Jones

Dazzle @ 7:00 and 9:30PM

FRIDAY, April 4

Charles McPherson Quintet with special guest Terell Stafford featuring Ben Markley, Seth Lewis and Dru Heller

Dazzle @ 7:00 and 9:30PM

Garaj Mahal with Fareed Haque, Kai Eckhardt, Oz Ezzeldin, and Hassan Hurd

Cervantes' The Other Side @ 8:00PM

Gregory Goodloe featuring Tony Exum

Spangalang Brewery @ 7:00PM

Ghost-Note with Robert “Sput” Searight and Nate Werth

Fox Theater (Boulder) @ 8:00PM

SATURDAY, April 5

Isaiah Collier

Dazzle @ 7:00 & 9:30PM

Ghost-Note with Robert “Sput” Searight and Nate Werth

Opening: The Headhunters

Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom @ 8:00PM

Rico Jones with Marcus Firillo, Vlad Girshevich, and Aleks Girshevich

Galleria @ the DPAC, time TBD

SUNDAY, April 6

Dianne Reeves with Romero Lubambo

Presented by KUVO Jazz 40th Anniversary Celebration

Newman Center for the Performing Arts @ 4:00PM

Annie Booth

Dazzle @ 7:30PM

From the free-spirited playing of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Lights On A Satellite lands squarely in the groove of swing. This recording is a tribute to the life’s work of Marshall Allen, who celebrated his 100th birthday on May 25, 2024. Recorded in Studio A at New York’s Power Station on June 16, 2024, the album honors this exceptional musician as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, bandleader, teacher, and keeper of Sun Ra’s legacy. Today, the band released the second single from the album, Baby Won't You Please Be Mine, a 1955 Sun Ra composition that Allen discovered in the estate six years ago and recently added to the Arkestra's repertoire. Watch the tracking video from Power Station in New York City HERE.

Allen is one of jazz’s most distinctive voices. His versatile alto saxophone has defined the sound of the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1958. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, the NEA Jazz Master (2025) embodies, like no other, the music that has come to be recognized as America’s classical music. Allen has played an active role in shaping all eras of jazz, and his eloquent tone continues to unfold its radiance and expressiveness to this day. With the Steiner Electronic Valve Instrument (E.V.I.), Allen has created a unique realm of sound that catapults him directly into the 21st century.

Allen has led the Sun Ra Arkestra for over 30 years. Founded by Sun Ra in the early 1950s, the band chose the name Arkestra as a fusion of Noah’s Ark and orchestra. No other ensemble more effectively bridges the past and future, as if operating a time machine. On Lights On A Satellite, we hear pieces from a century of jazz brought to life in astonishing ways. Sun Ra’s reverberations seem to carry on well past his earthly departure in 1993, into eternity, as we experience the world premiere of his composition Baby Won’t You Please Be Mine.

Allen has refused to let the Sun Ra Arkestra atrophy into a mere repertoire band. He has sorted through Sun Ra’s estate, breathed life into it, trained young musicians in its spirit, and added new Sun Ra compositions to the band’s repertoire. Although Allen has not toured internationally since 2021, he remains active. At the “Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra,” the historic Morton Street house in Philadelphia, Allen continues his mission.

In Lights On A Satellite, we experience the master’s virtuosity and the interplay of the Sun Ra Arkestra, a unique sound entity encompassing generations of musicians with a vast repertoire.

Allen discovered Baby Won’t You Please Be Mine in Sun Ra’s estate six years ago and recently added it to the Arkestra’s repertoire. It has the feel of a 1930s Billie Holiday piece, with its charming, era-appropriate instrumental parts that break free into more experimental phrasing. Horace Henderson’s Big John’s Special, originally arranged by his brother Fletcher Henderson, reflects a relaxed, straight-ahead style with restrained tension reminiscent of New Orleans bands. Sun Ra, like Horace, played piano and wrote arrangements under his real name, Herman Poole Blount, in Fletcher’s band.

The million-selling Holiday for Strings (1942 by David Rose and his Orchestra) remains an American classic, featured in Sun Ra Arkestra’s 1960s recording Holiday for a Soul Dance, a solemn, piano-accented piece with rapid tempo changes.

In Lights On A Satellite, Allen unfolds his mastery of the alto saxophone, bursting from exquisite interplay with strings in explosive solos as the reed section joins in. The album closes with Tapestry From An Asteroid, a staple of the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1956, now heard in a fresh arrangement that highlights the rich baritone saxophone of Noel Scott and Allen’s overblown high notes.

The distinctive groove of this remarkable orchestra is captured in its entirety, with 24 musicians recorded in quality that allows each voice to shine. Entering the studio with such a large ensemble was a calculated risk.

With Lights On A Satellite, Frank Kleinschmidt of IN+OUT Records celebrates his 40-year connection to the Sun Ra Arkestra. This release includes sound and film documentation, as well as liner notes and photographs by Allen’s biographer Sibylle Zerr, plus reflections from Allen himself, encapsulating the spirit of this remarkable recording session.

From the free playing attitude of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Lights On A Satellite lands with a full groove right in the heart of swing. The recording is a tribute to the life‘s work of Marshall Allen, who celebrated his 100th birthday on May 25, 2024. Recorded in Studio A at New York‘s Power Station on June 16, 2024, the album honors the mastery of this exceptional musician as a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, bandleader, teacher and keeper of Sun Ra‘s legacy. Today, the band has released the second single off of the record "Baby Won't You Please Be Mine," a Sun Ra composition from 1955 Allen discovered in his estate six years ago and has recently added to the Arkestra's repertoire. Watch the tracking video from Power Station in New York City HERE.

Allen is one of the most distinctive voices in jazz. His versatile alto saxophone has defined the sound of the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1958. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, the NEA Jazz Master (2025) embodies like no other the music that has come to be recognized as America‘s classical music. He has played an active role in shaping all eras of jazz and his eloquent tone continues to unfold its radiance and expressiveness to this day. With Steiner‘s Electronic Valve Instrument (E.V.I.), Allen has created an exclusive realm of sound that has catapulted him directly into the 21st Century.

Allen has led the Sun Ra Arkestra for more than 30 years. Founded by Sun Ra in the early 1950s, the band bears the name Arkestra as a deliberate combination of Noah‘s Ark and orchestra. No other ensemble has more justification for making the past and future happen simultaneously, as if in a time machine. On Lights On A Satellite we hear pieces from a century of jazz, which has become present in an astonishing way. Sun Ra‘s reverberations will probably continue to have an effect beyond his earthly end in 1993 and into eternity, according to the astonishing realization, as we experience the world premiere of the Sun Ra composition “Baby Won‘t You Please Be Mine.”

Allen has not allowed the Sun Ra Arkestra to atrophy into a repertoire band. He has organized and sifted through the estate of his friend and mentor, filled it with life, trained young musicians in his spirit and thus also arranged these new Sun Ra compositions and brought them into the band‘s repertoire. Allen has not toured internationally since 2021. But he has by no means retired. In the “Arkestral Institute Of Sun Ra," the terraced house in Philadelphia‘s Morton Street, which was declared a historical monument in 2022 and has served as the band‘s headquarters since 1968, Allen continues to work on his mission.

On Lights On A Satellite we experience the virtuosity of the master and his satellites, the interplay of the Sun Ra Arkestra as a very own sound entity in the greatest possible expansion, across generations of musicians, and with an all-encompassing repertoire.

Allen discovered Sun Ra’s 1955 composition “Baby Won’t You Please be Mine” in his estate six years ago and recently added it to the Arkestra’s repertoire. It sounds like it was written for Billie Holiday in the 1930s with its charming instrumental parts moving in the playing posture of the 30s but breaking out in favor of free playing, even for just a short phrase.Horace Henderson’s “Big John’s Special’ was originally arranged by his brother Fletcher Henderson during his tenure playing in his big band. Like Horace Henderson, Sun Ra played piano and wrote arrangements under his real name Herman Poole Blout in Fletcher Henderson’s. This showcases a more relaxed, straight-ahead composition style that does not push forward like Benny Goodman, but builds up a restrained tension reminiscent of bands from New Orleans.

The million-selling “Holiday for Strings” (1942 by David Rose and his Orchestra) is still considered a classic of American music and was a signature turn of the popular Red Skelton Radio show in the 1950s and 1960s. It can also be heard on the 1960s Sun Ra Arkestra recording “Holiday for a Soul Dance” as a solemn, piano-accented instrumental piece, albeit with rapid tempo change.

In Lights On A Satellite Allen unfolds his full mastery of the alto saxophone. His distinctive voice bursts out of the exquisite interplay with the strings with all its explosive solo power in the moment the entire reed section kicks in. The album concludes with “Tapestry From An Asteroid,” which has been a part of Sun Ra Arkestra’s instrumental repertoire since 1956 and can finally be heard with a wonderful arrangement particularly highlighting the sonorous baritone saxophone of Noel Scott and Allen’s striking overblowing of the higher registers.

The inimitable groove of this exceptional orchestra can be experienced through the entire orchestration with 24 musicians, recorded in a quality that allows all voices to be savored and thus presents the music in its full beauty. Going into a recording studio as a producer with these specifications and 24 musicians was a risk.

With Lights On A Satellite Frank Kleinschmidt from IN+OUT Records expresses his 40-year connection to the Sun Ra Arkestra. Here we have a compilation of sound and film documents which, in addition to the cinematic and photographic side of the studio day, also provides background information in the form of liner notes and photographs by Allen biographer Sibylle Zerr - and, as a summary of the spirit of the memorable studio day, by Allen himself.

Lee Mendelson Film Productions (LMFP) is thrilled to announce the release – for the first time ever – of the complete Vince Guaraldi soundtrack for Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, the timeless 13th animated Peanuts® special, from writer and creator Charles Schulz, director Phil Roman and producers Bill Melendez and Lee Mendelson. Originally airing on January 28th, 1975 on CBS-TV, it went on to be nominated for an Emmy® for Outstanding Children’s program. The special is currently available for streaming on Apple TV+.

All versions of the album include the original 24 cues that comprise the score of the special – mixed into 22 tracks – most available for the first time – plus another eight bonus or alternative tracks never heard before. This 42-minute soundtrack is the longest individual soundtrack by LMFP to date.

Guaraldi brought original mid-tempo tunes, his classic favorites, and even a mambo to the score for a journey into love with the Peanuts gang. He utilized a new invention called the ARP String Ensemble synthesizer throughout the special to give the score a distinctive string-laced sound.

Some highlights include: the center piece “Heartburn Waltz” with eight dynamic variations; the longing “Jennie L.” and “There’s Been A Change” with their ballad-like sensibilities; the upbeat “Pawpet Overture;” the playful “Woodstock’s Mambo;” and even some classical pieces like “Freddie’s Mood” that covers Chopin for Snoopy’s pawpet show in the special. There are amazing bonus tracks with completely different but equally engaging takes on the themes from the special. “Last Call For Love,” the final track on the album, is an extended jam that the trio laid down and is a true found treasure from the recording sessions – it has never been heard before.

For the first time, these melodies can be fully appreciated, not hidden underneath dialogue or effects from the special.

The recording features Guaraldi (piano, electric piano, clavinet, ARP String Ensemble electric harpsichord and guitar), Seward McCain (bass), Vince Lateano (drums) and John Scott Trotter as the music supervisor. The soundtrack was produced by Sean Mendelson and Jason Mendelson; mixed at Bones and Knives by Terry Carleton and restored and re-mastered by Vinson Hudson.

The album will be available January 17, 2025, including an exclusive variant on Heartburn Red vinyl (12” BioVinyl) as a Record Store Day Indie Exclusive, that will be available at participating stores. Pre-Order here. It will also be available on Puppy Love Pink vinyl (12” BioVinyl) from Barnes and Noble. Pre-Order here.

The 42-minute album will also be available on black vinyl (12” BioVinyl), CD, and digitally released.

Find participating stores and more information about orders here or order from the MVDshop here.

With the release of her aptly named debut album, The Vibe, Japanese-born, Michigan-based Nanami Haruta plants her flag as one of the most thrilling new voices on the jazz trombone in recent memory. Her premiere outing is granted the imprimatur of no less a master of the instrument than Michael Dease, Haruta’s mentor at Michigan State University turned producer and frontline partner for this exhilarating session in the Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson mold.

Out February 28, 2025 via Origin Records, The Vibe also boasts an all-star rhythm section stocked with modern giants of the tradition: pianist Xavier Davis, bassist Rodney Whitaker and drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. Alongside Dease, who switches to baritone sax on two tracks, Haruta feels right at home among these virtuosic veterans, revealing a dexterity and creative imagination far beyond her years.

“Nanami has this ethereal deftness on the trombone that makes you forget how cumbersome and challenging it can be,” Dease says. “Her musical spirit has the fire of Detroit's Curtis Fuller mingled with the pastoral charm of her native Japan's Sapporo countryside. I see her potential to become the leading voice on trombone in her generation, and I know Nanami will play a role in the future of jazz music.”

For Dease to draw comparisons to Curtis Fuller is no small compliment – he has long cited the legendary trombonist as one of his primary heroes and the reason that he initially switched from saxophone to the ‘bone. The pair play direct homage to Fuller on The Vibe with his composition “Algonquin,” originally recorded in 1957 for Fuller’s Bone & Bari with baritone saxophonist Tate Houston. Dease, who recently has been enjoying a parallel career on the low horn, steps into Houston’s role as Haruta ably plays the Fuller part. Whitaker’s own deep connection to the tune is threaded throughout, as he and Fuller both lived on Detroit’s Algonquin Street.

Haruta’s own journey to the Motor City environs (Lansing, to be exact) started in Sapporo, the capital of the Hokkaido prefecture, the largest and northernmost of Japan’s islands. She started out playing classical piano but switched to the trombone at the age of eight to play in her elementary school band. She can’t recall what exactly the initial attraction was, other than the fact that, “the name was kind of funny,” but grew to love the instrument for its ability to parallel the sound of the human voice.

Haruta took to the instrument, and to jazz, almost immediately. “Classical piano was boring to me because it meant practicing exactly the same thing over and over again,” she says. “Everything about jazz is so hip. Even if I play the same tunes, even with the same solo order, it sounds completely different every time. With jazz, I always feel like I'm creating the music.”

By 2019 Haruta’s gifts were being recognized both on bandstands in her native Japan and with honors like the Most Outstanding Student Award at that year’s Seiko Summer Jazz Camp in Tokyo. But perhaps the more important takeaway from the camp was her connection with Dease, who encouraged her to relocate to the States and study with him at MSU.

Haruta was set to make the move in 2020 – but like everything in that lockdown year, those plans were interrupted. Instead, she took the opportunity to leave Sapporo for the more thriving jazz scene in Tokyo as pandemic restrictions eased. “Tokyo has a big jazz community and many great musicians,” she says. “I was gigging almost every day, which really changed my playing.”

With that experience under her belt Haruta was even better prepared to embrace the lessons at MSU, where she finally arrived in the summer of 2023. There she’s been mentored not only by Dease but by Whitaker and Davis, both of whom have enlisted her for their own bands. She’s also continued to garner accolades, including the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Award, the Michigan Jazz Festival Award, top spot at the Carl Fontana Jazz Trombone Soloist Competition, and as part of the Dease-led ensemble that won the Kai Winding Jazz Trombone Ensemble Competition.

One listen to The Vibe will convince any listener not swayed by this growing list of laurels. The album’s carefully chosen repertoire reveals Haruta’s ability to navigate a wide variety of settings. In addition to the Fuller classic, the contemporary jazz canon is represented by two choices by modern masters: pianist Renee Rosnes’ spirited “Girlie’s World,” which opens the album, and bassist Christian McBride’s powerful “Sister Rosa.” There are also two compositions from the pen of co-producer Gregg Hill, whose music Dease has featured on two recent recordings.

Dease himself offers the tender ballad “How It Goes,” highlighted by an elegant Whitaker solo, while the bassist contributes “Jamerson’s Lullaby,” a graceful tribute to Whitaker’s son Jamerson.

The album is rounded out by three of Haruta’s own tunes. The dancing, buoyant “Toshi” is an ode to her first mentor, the late pianist Toshiaki Yamada, who, Haruta says, “showed me how to love the music and find meaning in the music. He told me never to play without thought.” The lovely “Heartstrings” is a serenade to Haruta’s romantic partner, while “Woodpecker” is a jaunty bop number whose insistent rhythm echoes the hammering sound of its avian title.

The Vibe closes with a gorgeous rendition of the Alex North classic “Unchained Melody,” inspired by its inclusion in one of Haruta’s favorite films, Ghost. Here the band is pared down to just Haruta, Whitaker, and guitarist Chris Minami, an MSU peer, fully revealing the nimble control and breathtaking expressive beauty of Haruta’s sound.

When it comes to younger generation musicians dedicated to preserving and advancing the fine art of mainstream jazz guitar culture, Pasquale Grasso has become part of the upper echelon of living practitioners. Through his precision-geared, clean-toned and tradition-steeped legacy in progress, the virtuosic Italian-born and NYC-based guitarist has gained due respect in the guitar scene--including high praises from Pat Metheny--and beyond.

After establishing himself through work with celebrated vocalist Samara Joy and a series of recordings dedicated to such jazz icons as Bud Powell (one of his heroes), Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and 2022's genre tribute Be-Bop, Grasso comes out swinging in a more varietal way on his bold new trio album Fervency, available now on Sony Music Masterworks.

With his empathetic trio-mates, bassist Ari Roland and drummer Keith Balla, together since Grasso's first arrival in NYC in 2009, the repertoire spans hallmarks of jazz history, while selectively avoiding common standards. Grasso extends his masterful fretboard flights and elaborate arrangements with his custom ax by the France-based Trenier Guitars, on tunes by established bygone jazz titans, two originals (including the title track "Fervency"), and check-ins with such jewels of the jazz realm as “Cherokee” and “Milestones.”

Fervency was recorded in 2021 as part of several recording projects. The concept being musical choices that blended lesser-known tunes and a few classics. “I didn't really want to play the normal tunes,” Grasso says, “like ‘Confirmation,’ because I had already done a record with a lot of the traditional songs, the ones everybody knows. I picked a little bit from composers that I like.”

Fervency kicks off with a Powell favorite of Grasso’s, “Sub City,” from the pianist's 1958 album Time Waits. “I always loved that recording,” says Grasso. “I don't play that song too often now, but I used to play that every Monday to start every set at Mezzrow,” he says, referring to the Greenwich Village club he has regularly performed in and honed his chops and tried out new arrangements.

Also on the song list are three pieces by Tadd Dameron while his mentor and employer Barry Harris is represented by the elegant medium swing tune “And So I Love You.” Grasso burns with a particular clean heat and propulsion on the up-tempo workouts of Coleman Hawkins’ “Bean and the Boys,” Miles Davis’ “Little Willie Leaps” and “Cherokee.” Grasso’s tune “A Trip with C.C.” is another fast journey of a tune, dedicated to his girlfriend, while his ballad “Fervency” was so named after happening upon the word in an open dictionary and relating to its description as “a very strong emotion.”

Grasso had Roland open with an arco bass prelude, leading into a heartfelt balladic mode graced by “very strong emotions.” “They're very strong,” Grasso explains, “in the way when you hear Bird play a ballad, or when you hear Powell play a ballad, you get a very strong feeling. If you hear Bud play ‘Spring is Here’ or 'Moonlight in Vermont,’ with every chord, it's such a different emotion.”

Such is the nature of the tracks on Fervency, another bold example of this artist’s reverence for jazz history and interest in pushing that tradition forward. “Musically, I always feel I have work to do, so many things to practice and to learn," Grasso says. "But I have a nice life.”       

FERVENCY

RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 7, 2025

TRACKLIST:

1.    Sub City

2.    A Trip with C.C.

3.    Milestones

4.    Cherokee

5.    If You Could See Me Now

6.    Focus

7.    Bean and the Boys

8.    Lady Bird

9.    Bag's Groove

10. And So I Love You

11. Little Willie Leaps

12. Fervency

13. Jahbero              

ABOUT PASQUALE GRASSO

Pasquale Grasso was born and raised in the Italian Campania region town of Ariano Irpino, in a country which has long avidly supported jazz and produced important jazz musicians. He would hear jazz of an international sweep at the famed Umbria Jazz Festival and elsewhere. But as he got serious about jazz guitar, Grasso knew a pilgrimage to New York City was inevitable, after studying with Agostino Di Giorgio and in an influential Swiss workshop with jazz piano legend Barry Harris.

“I met Barry Harris and he lived in New York,” Grasso notes. “Since I heard the first recording of jazz, every recording that I like was made in New York City, so I always wanted to come here.”

Early in his career, there was also a barrier he faced given his passion for traditional jazz. “It was hard there to be there (in Italy) as a jazz artist, especially for the music that I like, you know--the ‘40s and ‘50s and ‘60s. When I grew up, the fashion in Italy was very modern jazz, fusion jazz and very free jazz. People didn’t care too much about Charlie Parker or Louis Armstrong. But now it seems to be coming back because everything starts here in New York.”

Ironically, one of the significant taste-changers was Samara Joy, who he met while teaching at SUNY Purchase when she was only 16 and established a friendship and musical bond. He toured with her for three years and appeared on her ground-breaking multi-Grammy winning 2022 album Linger Awhile and her 2021 self-titled debut.

As Grasso points out, “Samara put that traditional jazz a little bit more in fashion when we did that recording that she got so famous with. Then, it went everywhere in Italy. It seems that in all Europe, the traditional jazz is taking place again.”

As he remembers, “I never listened too much to guitarists when I was growing up because my brother is a saxophone player, so we were listening a lot to the recording of Charlie Parker and Gillespie, and there's never a lot of guitar on those recordings. So I transcribed the piano parts. I really love the piano players—Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, Elmo Hope, Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum…”

Grasso has often been praised and singled out for his uncanny ability to translate the complexities of pianistic influences to the guitar. “It wasn't too complicated for me,” he says of the skill, “because I didn't really think about it. I was a kid that started so early, and I was just trying to imitate whatever I would hear. One of my best qualities as a musician is that I have a great ear,” he laughs. “I have a perfect pitch. That’s what God gave me. It is very easy for me to replicate what I hear. I just try to replicate what I was hearing and the sound that I liked."

Grasso says it's not all inspiration by piano players. He loves horn players as well. "One of my favorite musicians when I was a kid was Dizzy Gillespie," Grasso says." In fact, my dad wanted me to play trumpet. But I didn't want to--I liked the guitar better. I played trumpet a little bit. I still play, but just in my house, never outside,” he says with a laugh. “There's a lot to do with the guitar.”

One of the prominent votes of support for Grasso’s strong musical voice as a guitarist came in 2016, when Metheny sang his praises in an interview with Vintage Guitar magazine, calling Grasso “the best guitar player I’ve heard in maybe my life.” Metheny was led to listen to Grasso at the urging of Pasquale’s producer Matt Pierson, “because they worked a lot together. One day, Metheny called me up and invited me to his apartment. And we played, we talked, I stayed there the whole day. We had a nice day together. He was always very supportive, writing me emails and saying he appreciates what I do. Of course, I'm very happy with what he said.”

2025 TOUR DATES

Grasso has several upcoming shows at Birdland and performs regularly at Mezzrow, Saint Tuesday and Tartina in New York City, plus he can be seen at SF Jazz in April and will perform at various festivals this summer. Please check his calendar for more information

Denver Jazz, a newly formed 501 (c)(3) Colorado nonprofit corporation has added headliners Joe Lovano’s Paramount Quartet, Indian trace singer, Ganavya, and the Colorado Mambo Orchestra to its inaugural Denver Jazz Fest lineup scheduled from April 3-6, 2025.

The celebrated tenor titan and multi-Grammy Award winning artist, ECM recording artist Joe Lovano will debut his latest Paramount Quartet with Julian Lage, Asante Santi Debriano and Will Calhoun. "My new Paramount Quartet places an emphasis on polytonal, polyrhythmic explorations," Lovano says. The Indian Trance singer Ganavya whom the New York Times states, “The singer whose work feels like prayer” will be joined by harpist Charles Overton and bassist Maxwell Ridley. Her recent album, Daughter of a Temple features, esperanza spalding, Vijay Iyer, Immanuel Wilkins and Shabaka Hutchings. The Colorado Mambo Orchestra Latin Dance Party presented by Denver Jazz and CALDAC will feature Raul Muciano, Cian Kreuger, Stafford Hunter, Cynthia Casaňas, Peter Huffaker and Leo Corona.

The inaugural four-day Denver Jazz Fest will engage the front range community through diverse, inclusive regional, national, and international performances and educational programs. Confirmed headline artists include Dianne Reeves in her first Denver public concert since 2018 and the Bill Frisell In My Dreams project, a Denver premiere direct from the highly acclaimed Big Ears Festival. These endearing time-honored icons have deep roots in the Denver community. Also set to appear are Omar Sosa Quarteto Americanos, Ghost-Note, The Headhunters, Isaiah Collier, Garaj Mahal, Rico Jones, Art Lande, The Colorado Mambo Orchestra, Ken Walker, among others.

Jazz luminary Charles McPherson with special guest Terell Stafford featuring Ben Markley, Seth Lewis and Dru Heller are also scheduled. McPherson and Stafford will also engage front range university jazz programs and Aurora Public School students and the CCJA (Colorado Conservatory for the Jazz Arts) through masterclasses and workshops.

These exclusive outreach events will be held at the Metro State University Kalamath Building, the esteemed program under the direction of Dawn Clement and Shane Endsley. The two-day initiative is sponsored by Temple University and the Boyer College of Music and Dance with additional support through Gift of Jazz, a Colorado education non-profit.

Upwards of 30 Denver Jazz Fest performances will take place in 12 venues during the first weekend of April, in celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month and in recognition of KUVO’s 40th Anniversary year-long festivities.

Denver Jazz Fest Schedule, April 3-6, 2025

THURSDAY, April 3

Bill Frisell – In My Dreams featuring Thomas Morgan, Rudy Royston, Jenny Scheinman,

Eyvind Kang & Hank Roberts

Newman Center for the Performing Arts @ 7:00PM

Omar Sosa Quarteto Americanos with Sheldon Brown, Ernesto Mazar Kindelán and Josh Jones

Dazzle @ 7:00 and 9:30PM

Rico Jones Quartet w/ Marcus Firillo, Vlad Girshevich, and Aleks Girshevich

Nocturne, 6:30 and 8:45PM

Ken Walker Sextet w/ Jeff Jenkins, Peter Sommer, Paul Romaine, Brad Goode,

and Dave Corbus

Muse Performance Space @ 7:00PM

Blue Sky Jazz Collective

Bar 404 @ 7:00PM

FRIDAY, April 4

Charles McPherson Quintet w/ special guest Terell Stafford featuring Ben Markley,

Seth Lewis and Dru Heller

Dazzle @ 7:00 and 9:30PM

Ghost-Note w/ Robert “Sput” Searight and Nate Werth

Fox Theatre (Boulder) @ 8:00PM

Ganavya w/ Charles Overton and Maxwell Ridley

Boulder Theater @ 8:00PM

Garaj Mahal w/ Fareed Haque, Kai Eckhardt, Oz Ezzeldin, and Hassan Hurd

Opener: True Loves w/ Skerik, Gordon Brown, Greg Kramer, Jimmy James, Bryant Moore and David McGraw

Cervantes' The Other Side @ 8:00PM

Animal Liberation Orchestra w/ opener Cris Jacobs Band

Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom @ 8:00PM

The Gabriel Mervine Quintet

Nocturne @ 6:30 and 9:00PM

Art Lande Trio & Future History w/ Aaron Lande, and Tim Wendel

Muse Performance Space @ 7:00PM

Gregory Goodloe Band featuring Tony Exum Jr.

Spangalang Brewery @ 7:00PM

Danette Hollowell & The DJF All-Stars

Mississippi Boy Catfish & Ribs @ 7:00PM

SATURDAY, April 5

Isaiah Collier: The World is On Fire

Dazzle @ 7:00 & 9:30PM

Joe Lovano’s Paramount Quartet w/ Julian Lage,

Asante Santi Debriano and Will Calhoun

Boulder Theater @ 8:00PM

Ghost-Note with Robert “Sput” Searight and Nate Werth  

Openers: The Headhunters and Superimposition

Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom @ 8:00PM

Colorado Mambo Orchestra

Mercury Café from 8:00-11:00PM

Animal Liberation Orchestra w/ opener: Plain Faraday

Fox Theatre (Boulder) @ 8:00PM

The Marion Powers Quintet Honors Billie Holiday

Nocturne @ 6:30 and 9:00PM

Mary Louise Lee and Robert Bernard Johnson

Muse Performance Space @ 7:00PM

Linda Theus Lee

Mississippi Boy Catfish & Ribs @ 7:00PM

Galleria @ The DPAC - Free Stage Presented by Gift of Jazz

12:00PM-1:00PM  CCJA Jazz Messengers

1:30PM-2:30PM    Rico Jones Quartet

3:00PM-4:00PM    Erica Brown with the Delta Sonics

SUNDAY, April 6

Dianne Reeves with Romero Lubambo

Presented by KUVO Jazz 40th Anniversary Celebration

Newman Center for the Performing Arts @ 4:00PM

Muse All-Stars w/ Greg Gisbert, Gabe Mervine, Pete Lewis, Peter Stolzman,

Gonzalo Teppa and Clare Church

Muse Performance Space @ 7:00PM

Annie Booth Trio: The Beatles Songbook w/ Patrick McDevitt, Alejandro Castaňo

Dazzle @ 7:30PM

The Eric Gunnison Trio

Nocturne @ 6:30 and 8:45PM

Additional events may be added. All events subject to change.

As European settlers moved westward from the Atlantic coast of North America, the Mohawk people – the easternmost tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy – became known as “Keepers of the Eastern Door” for their role as guardians against invasion from the encroaching colonizers.

The outcome of that battle may seem inevitable from the historical perspective, but the tension at its heart, between those who respect and live in harmony with the land and those who view the Earth from a more rapacious perspective, persists. In “The Kutenai Duck Hunter,” the image by photographer and ethnologist Edward Curtis that graces the cover of his breathtaking new album, Keepers of the Eastern Door, acclaimed saxophonist and composer Chris Cheek sees those two parallel mindsets represented in the reflection of a canoe in the river as its occupant looks to the horizon – and an uncertain future.

These ideas lend richness and depth to Cheek’s stunning music throughout Keepers of the Eastern Door, out May 23, 2025 via Analog Tone Factory. The album features a remarkable all-star quartet, with Cheek joined by revered guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Rudy Royston for a wide-ranging but harmonious repertoire including captivating originals and covers by everyone from The Beatles to Henry Purcell, Olivier Messiaen to Henry Mancini.

The idea for Keepers of the Eastern Door was born when Cheek was fascinated by another Curtis photograph, featuring a line of Native Americans on horseback dwarfed by the rock formations of Arizona’s Canyon de Chelly, at the St. Louis Art Museum. Cheek had grown up in the city, enjoying nature with his family. He realized that the same year that the sepia-tinged photo had been taken, the building in which he was viewing it had been built for the 1904 World’s Fair, aka the Louisiana Purchase Exposition – a celebration of the massive land acquisition that doubled the size of the United States.

“Having spent a lot of time in the outdoors growing up and then having lived in Boston and New York for many years, I found a schism between the natural world and the highly industrialized society that we live in,” Cheek says. “I started thinking about Keepers of the Eastern Door as a metaphor for people that try to preserve a way of life based on traditional values that are less materialistic and more respectful of our surroundings.”

These concepts were already stirring when Cheek was approached by fellow saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh and pianist/recording engineer Pete Rende, who had launched their new analog-focused label Analog Tone Factory in 2024 with Sabbagh’s Heart. Sabbagh and Rende suggested the idea of recording with Frisell, with whom Cheek shared a bit of history dating back to his years playing with the legendary drummer Paul Motian.

“When I discovered Bill as a student at Berklee,” Cheek recalls, “his sound and approach were so different that it changed how we heard and conceived of music. I still love Bill for how musical and honest he is. Everything he plays is an idea, never a lick or a riff. I think that's what makes his playing so fascinating and engaging.”

With Frisell in mind Cheek invited Scherr and Royston to complete the line-up for the session. Both share storied histories with the guitarist, together and as members of two of Frisell’s longstanding trios – Scherr with drummer Kenny Wollesen, Royston with bassist Thomas Morgan. “There's been a long tradition of horn players working with famous rhythm sections,” Cheek points out. “I wanted to play with people that were comfortable together, musically and personally, so there would be an immediate chemistry.”

Frisell, who met Cheek many years ago on a gig with Paul Motian, says,"There was a sound happening. I knew then that we had to play more. We did. And now, years later, it’s been wonderful to reconnect with him and two of my closest musical brothers. Tony Scherr and Rudy Royston. Thanks so much to Chris for bringing us all together with this beautiful music."

The quartet convened at New York’s famed Power Station studio last November, with an approach suggesting the audiophile version of the modernist/traditional dichotomy that inspired the recording: an essentially live recording, with the band together in one room recording to analog tape, the philosophy behind Analog Tone Factory. For ultimate fidelity, the album was recorded live to two track on 1/2 inch tape at 30 ips on a custom tube Ampex 351 tape recorder, by famed engineer James Farber. It was mastered in the analog domain by the legendary Bernie Grundman.

“I think it's a great idea,” Cheek says. “Recording to tape just sounds so much better; there's a warmth and a depth that you just don't get in a purely digital realm. I really admire Jerome and Pete for undertaking this.”

One of the master saxophonists of his generation, Cheek pairs strikingly with Frisell throughout Keepers of the Eastern Door. Both are melodically focused players and virtuosos who never feel the need to display their estimable chops. Their directness of expression and ability to coax vivid emotions from any material is brilliantly showcased, creating a cohesive sound even as Purcell’s 17th century art song “Lost Is My Quiet” leads into the ‘60s pop of The Beatles’ “From Me To You.” They’re ably supported by the sensitivity, deftness of touch and infallible instincts of Scherr and Royston.

Cheek’s three original compositions for the album sit comfortably alongside these masterful classics. In keeping with the “mirrored realities” notion of the album’s theme, for opener “Kino’s Canoe” the saxophonist made use of a technique that he has drawn from in the past: mirroring the melody and harmony of a popular song, then using that reversed material as the leaping off point for a new work built on unexpected phrases. An equally intriguing process rests underneath “Go On, Dear,” for which Cheek wrote a new melody based on the lyrics of a familiar standard.

Without being explicit, the music on Keepers of the Eastern Door beautifully captures a spiritual communion with the natural world and the possibility of a life in harmony with the planet that surrounds and nurtures us. “I'm reluctant to use the term spiritual,” Cheek concludes, “but that's the term often used to describe a realm that exists but that we can't see or quantify.” Native and traditional cultures acknowledge that dimension of reality that we've lost touch with today. Seeing that figure sitting in the canoe suggests to me a parallel world that supports the one that we can put our finger on, but is hard to talk about.”

About Chris Cheek

Originally hailing from St. Louis, Missouri, Chris Cheek, born in 1968, is one of the most sought after saxophonists in the jazz world today, having played in the groups of legends such as Paul Motian, Charlie Haden, Steve Swallow and Bill Frisell. Known for his lyricism, and a warm, distinctive sound, he is a refreshingly individual musician, whose albums Saturday Songs (Sunnyside), I Wish I Knew, A Girl Named Joe, Vine, and Blues Cruise (Fresh Sound) have all received rave reviews internationally, and become favorites among players and listeners alike. He is also co-leader of the bands Rudder, the Bloomdaddies and Reeds Ramble. A long time member of Guillermo Klein’s Los Guachos, Chris has also recorded and performed with the big bands of Dafnis Prieto, Alan Ferber and Miguel Zenon.

Chris' music encompasses a wide vista, firmly rooted in the jazz tradition with a foot towards the unknown. As Steve Swallow and Carla Bley put it: "On the one hand, he's the very embodiment of gentle, graceful lyricism. But he's unable to resist the urge to subvert. He's a master of the sucker punch; just when he's convinced you that things couldn't be sweeter, he'll play something that jolts you right back to real life, something as direct and succinct as an uppercut." His colleague, composer Guillermo Klein says of Cheek: “[Chris] is one of my favorite people in this world. An amazingly gifted musician in constant communion with sound. For more than 20 years I've been blessed to share music with him, and I have to say that every note and phrase he played to date has been beautiful and meaningful.”

About Analog Tone Factory

Analog Tone Factory is a new label that records exclusively to analog tape. Founded by saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh, and pianist and recording engineer Pete Rende, Analog Tone Factory uses the best of the technologies of today and yesterday alike to make great sounding records with some of the best musicians alive. Albums are available on all analog vinyl and reel to reel tapes, as well as CD and digital formats, including streaming. All AAA vinyl albums come with a download card for an uncompressed hi resolution 192/24 download.

In his sixth and latest album “New African Orleans”, released by ENJA and Yellow Bird, bass guitarist and composer Alune Wade explores the multiple junctions between his native West African rhythms, the Afrobeat and juju rhythms from Lagos and the brass band repertoire immortalized in New Orleans. “I’m exploring a world that goes from my roots to the lost branches on the other side of the Atlantic,” explains the musician from Senegal. He has whittled down around 50 compositions – both original and standards - to a dozen which Alune recorded in Paris, Dakar, Lagos and New Orleans. “The idea first came to me during the Jazz à Gorée festival I organized back in 2014,” he explains. “It had me reflect on the notion of reversing the musical trip most people take from the United States to the African continent. I wanted to set out westward and begin a musical conversation with the best artists, both in Nigeria and the US.”

To achieve this, Wade has invited top artists from both sides of the Atlantic, including the Nigerian talking drummer Olaore Muyiwa Ayandeji, the percussionist Weedie Braimah and the jazz drummer Herlin Riley from New Orleans. The musical inspirations are equally transatlantic, ranging from Dr. John to Manu Dibango and Charlie Parker. But Alune also pays homage to his father who was a brass band star in his native Senegal back in the Sixties.

THE COMPOSITIONS

Alune Wade begins this exploration with three new versions of global standards. This features a biting reinterpretation of Watermelon Man by Herbie Hancock. Alune transforms this 1962 hard bop standard into a vibrant song dominated by his Afrobeat bass drive and sharp guitar solos. “The song also pays homage to Manu Dibango and the huge legacy he left behind.” This is followed by an energetic version of Jimi Hendrix’ classic Voodoo Child which Alune sings in his native Wolof. It takes a degree of audacity to tackle this 1968 standard from Jimi Hendrix, featuring fast-driving arrangements that turns Voodoo Child (Slight Return) on its head. This version sparkles through the driving rhythms of Cyril Atef and a strong brass section of saxophones and trumpets led by the masterful Victor Ademofe. This song honors the crossover passions Hendrix upheld, as describes by English journalist Charles Shaar Murray: “With 'Voodoo Child' - and, most specifically, with the West African even-before-Bo-Diddley beat he percussively scratches from his guitar and wah-wah pedal at the beginning of 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)' – (Hendrix) is announcing as explicitly as possible that he is a man of the blues, and one who honours, respects and understands its deepest and most profound traditions".

And, precisely, the latter sees a homage to his song Water No Get Enemy in which Alune slows down the tempo and makes it a dreamy version of this standard which underlines the power of nature. The lyrics also suggest that if a country’s political opposition works with nature, its victory is guaranteed.

After these standards, the West African bass player focuses on several original compositions which explore the New Orleans sound, with its brass front line of trumpet, clarinet and trombone allying itself with syncopated rhythms and a strong backbeat. These sounds complement lyrics about the universality of food (Same Foufou), hospitality on both sides of the Atlantic (Three Baobabs) and the perils of travel (Taxi Driver).

The boogie woogie and juju styles from the east and west coasts of the Atlantic Ocean are like a brother and sister torn apart by the vicissitudes of History. In composing this song Boogie & Juju, Wade conjured up pictures of, on the one hand, Little Richard fusing boogie-woogie, New Orleans R&B and the gospels. And, on the other, the Nigerian juju of King Sunny Ade and the Assiko rhythms from Cameroon, played on a bottle with metal. These harmonize seamlessly to evoke the chanting at football matches in Senegal which echo into the samba from Salvador de Bahia. The song features a strong brass section led by New Orleans trumpeter Andrew Baham.

And Alune returns to the underlying theme of the album with the song From Congo to Square, ft the Afro American singer Somi, which recounts the odyssey of brass band music, how its kernels were shipped across the ocean from the west African coasts and grew under oppression and violence. The clarinet, bass, saxophone and voices featured describe this odyssey which began in the square in 1724.

Arguably one of the most touching illustrations of this cross-Atlantic reflection is Alune’s interpretation of Gris Gris Gombo Yaya. This 1968 underground classic by Dr. John captures the mystique of swampy South Louisiana and the Senegalese bass player delivers a powerful Afrobeat version of this ageless New Orleans standard. Dr John Rebbenack announced himself to the world with this haunting song. As writer Richie Unterberger put it: “The blend of druggy deep blues, incantational background vocals, exotic mandolin and banjo trills, ritualistic percussion, interjections of free jazz, and Dr. John's own seductive-yet-menacing growl was like a psychedelic voodoo ceremony invading your living room.” The New Orleans icon is known for having resuscitated a mysterious 19th century artist who signed his compositions ‘Dr. John Creaux’ (hence Dr. John’s stage name). Unconfirmed rumors claim that Creaux was a Senegalese prince reduced to enslavement in Cuba! Creaux went on to gain his freedom as a sailor who settled in Congo Square.Once again, we see an intriguing possible link to Alune Wade’s native homeland.

These are some of the featured songs Alune Wade includes in an album he will be releasing in early 2025. They are a powerful tribute to the resilience and impact of songs rooted in Africa which survived the horrors of the Middle Passage and gave birth to some of the most important music our societies know, sounds which bathed Alune’s musical education from the start. Indeed, there is a more personal reason for this album. His father, Serigne Fallou Wade, played the French horn and was one of the stars of the Senegalese Army brass band. After studying in the Paris Conservatoire, he became a key member of the band, composing music which mixed traditional Senegalese sounds with classical brass band fanfares. The band was founded in 1961 for the nascent nation and Alune’s father shared his love for brass band compositions with his family throughout his upbringing.

BACKGROUND

We only have a partial idea of the birth and remarkable development of the music born of the transatlantic slave trade. From Malinke ballads to Cuban son, from call-and-response patterns to field hollers and hip-hop, Yoruba rhythms to Argentinian tango, from Angolan percussions to the New Orleans brass band sounds… all have roots in Africa and a shackled migration that lasted four centuries. No more so than Congo Square in the Louisiana capital. In 2024, we mark the 300th anniversary of the implementation of the Code Noir which “gave enslaved Africans Sundays off to dance”. A drop in the ocean, but one which shows the importance of culture as a lifebuoy against this barbaric trade. As the Guadeloupian writer Daniel Maximin once claimed: “Our music guided us from the scream to the song, from dragging our chains to dancing.”

Recordings for this unique album begin in Saint-Louis, Senegal, and Lagos, Nigeria, around the month of May 2024

New York City is famed as the proving ground for aspiring jazz musicians, but the metropolis boasts unique challenges as well as singular delights for anyone who braves its bustling thoroughfares and soaring high rises. Trombonist Michael Dease and composer Gregg Hill both served their time in the urban jungle, formative years that provide the patchwork of colors and emotions that make up Dease’s latest album of Hill’s compositions, the multi-faceted City Life.

“We all become New Yorkers once we spend some time in the city,” Dease says. “Of course there’s that element of sophistication that we all rise to meet, but no matter how cultured you become, you can't get away from the grit and the rawness that New York exhibits.”

Available June 20, 2025 via Origin Records, City Life is the third album that Dease and Hill have crafted together – this one staggering double album primarily focused on the compositions of the prolific Mr. Hill. Both feature the stellar rhythm section of bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, a first-time pairing whose bristling chemistry was a keen stroke of intuition on Dease’s part. For the second album they form the core of a remarkable quintet with pianist Geoffrey Keezer and tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover. Special guests include the trombonist’s daughter, Brooklyn Dease, and his former student, bassist Jared Beckstead-Craan.

These collaborators, and the carefully selected repertoire, bring out a different side of the acclaimed trombonist than many listeners might be used to. Dease is revered as one of the most versatile voices of his generation, but he’s best known as a modern-day torchbearer for the jazz tradition. City Life doesn’t deviate from that tradition so much as detour into some of its more adventurous pathways, with Dease displaying a more rough-hewn and fiery approach while maintaining his virtuosic agility.

“This project feels a bit like taking the gloves off,” Dease says. “It’s all based on that unpolished, risky feeling that you encounter in the city. These days I go back with much more money than I had when I lived there, but you still get sideswiped by a car, you still step in a puddle at the curb, you still get told to go to hell. There's no way to escape that power that New York City possesses.”

Dease spent more than a decade as a New Yorker, though he’s now lived in Michigan, where he’s a professor at Michigan State University, even longer. It’s there that he met Hill, a native of central Michigan whose diverse career paths have led him across the country. The composer turned his attention to writing music relatively late in that eclectic life, but has chalked up an impressive catalogue of tunes in an incredibly short time, partially documented on nine albums between Dease, bassist Rodney Whitaker, and guitarist Randy Napoleon.

In addition to a dozen new Hill compositions, Dease contributed a pair of his own contributions to the mix, both complementing the mood of the session. He also chose a pair of lesser-known pieces by one of his musical idols, J.J. Johnson, one by the late guitarist Emily Remler, another by saxophonist Greg Tardy, and one by his frequent collaborator, composer Sharel Cassity.

A longtime admirer of Watts’ playing, Dease knew that Tain was the perfect drummer for the session; the two had gotten to know one another during the trombonist’s six-year stint in David Sanborn’s band. While he considered a number of veteran bassists who shared proven chemistry with the drummer, he ultimately chose Oh for her profound gifts as well as the element of the unknown that the pairing brought. Dease and Oh met while attending the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program, and the bassist later appeared on Dease’s 2014 big band album Relentless.

“Tain is sort of a musical representation of New York City because the city has so many sides to it. You need somebody that is fully dedicated to their art and open-minded enough to join different musical situations. Linda shares that compatibility, and she's one of my favorite bass players, with such a deep sound.”

Keezer is another veteran of the Sanborn band, who Dease describes as, “another musical chameleon, who has a vast repository of urban experiences from Tokyo to New York to Los Angeles.” Glover, meanwhile, has rapidly established herself as one of the most vital saxophonists on the contemporary scene, as a leader, as a frequent performer with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and as a member of the supergroup Artemis. “Nicole’s sound and intensity are very commanding,” Dease continues. “She's one of the leading voices on tenor of our times, and I knew she would capture the musical message of the record.”

That message comes through loud and clear, sophisticated and gritty, hectic and elegant, throughout these two wide-ranging albums. In other words, it vibrantly captures the kaleidoscopic colors and multifarious flavors of City Life.

ECM’s audiophile vinyl-reissue series Luminessence continues with Chick Corea's Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 and Bennie Maupin's The Jewel in the Lotus.

The Luminessence series is a kaleidoscope, shedding light on the jewels of the label’s deep catalogue in elegant, high-quality editions. The hallmarks of the series: original and evocative music, imaginatively played and sensitively produced. The recordings underline the scope and variety of ECM’s world of sound and the LPs are presented in different formats.

ECM’s pioneering documentation of solo piano music was one of the genre-changing experiments of the early 1970s, and this beautifully recorded session, capturing Chick Corea in Oslo’s Bendiksen Studio in April 1971, marked the beginning of this new development. Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 has long since acquired the status of a classic. It includes, in “Sometime Ago”, a foretaste of the richly melodic and Latin-tinged music Chick would introduce a year later in the first Return To Forever band, but most of the pieces here were simply pulled from the aether. Corea, it transpired, had the uncanny ability to shape fully formed compositions in real time. Corea: “This was an intense period of discovery for me. The Piano Improvisations recordings were made spontaneously in the studio. I took the next idea that came to mind and played it down – then titled it later. This was a new way to create for me at the time. I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be – but just got into the joy of trying it out to see what would happen…” That sense of joy is palpable in the recording, produced by Manfred Eicher. The Luminessence vinyl edition of Piano Improvisations Vol. 1 adds a gatefold sleeve with Chick’s performer’s note and a text by Neil Tesser reflecting on the impact of the music in its historical context.

Bennie Maupin has been an inventive contributor to iconic records including Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew, Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi and Headhunters and Marion Brown’s Afternoon Of A Georgia Faun. His recordings under his own name have been infrequent but his leader debut, is indeed a jewel. “A more selfless album is hard to imagine”, said DownBeat in 1975. “On The Jewel In The Lotus, the sound is supreme, and all the players strive to achieve a thorough blending”. Recorded in New York in 1974, the disc’s personnel is drawn from the circle around Herbie Hancock in the period, but the music has a character all its own.

The Scandinavian project Arcanum brings together four artists all well-known to followers of music at ECM: Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin and Markku Ounaskari. They’ve played together in many permutations over the years, but this is their first album as a quartet. Already hailed as a “Nordic supergroup” in some quarters, the designation hardly conveys the thoughtful, reflective quality of the improvising and the sensitivity of the interaction here, whether playing music composed in real time or taking a written theme to new places.

Ounaskari, Jormin and Seim were all working with folksinger and kantele player Sinikka Langeland when the idea of a new band was first raised: “We’d often play as a trio during soundchecks, which was always very enjoyable, so I proposed booking a couple of concerts in Finland….”, Markku recalls. Trygve felt Arve Henriksen also had to be in the line-up, a suggestion easily agreed to. All four of the musicians had played together on Langeland’s Starflowers album in 2006 and on her later recordings including The Land That Is Not and The Magical Forest, and the Seim/Henriksen association stretched back still further, with Arve already a significant presence on Trygve’s ECM debut Different Rivers, recorded in 1998 and 1999. From the earliest days it was evident that there was something special in the way that Seim and Henriksen were able to bend and intertwine their sounds on saxophone and trumpet.          

What, then, are the roots of Arcanum’s approach to music-making? Tryge Seim’s opening composition “Nokitpyrt” offers one clue. Anders Jormin calls it “a respectful bow to Scandinavian role models.” Read the song title backwards and you get close to Triptykon, Jan Garbarek’s seminal 1972 recording with Arild Andersen and Edward Vesala, which opened new perspectives for free balladry and found a spiritual affinity between post-Ayler improvising and Norwegian traditional music. The Arcanum quartet are similarly looking, through the prism of jazz creativity, at a broader scope of music and meaning.

This is evidenced in, for instance, their interpretation of the Finnish traditional tune “Armon Lapset”. Arve Henriksen: “This western Læstadian hymn was widely used in North Troms, Norway in the past. It helped to keep the Kven language alive, as a part of the Tornedal dialect and Finnish church language from the 1860s. We used this psalm as a starting point for a very free interpretation, quite far away from the original habitat.”

Anders Jormin’s tune “Koto” was composed in 1999 as part of a commission for Swedish Radio originally featuring Arve Henriksen and guitarist Marc Ducret, among others. Jormin’s fascination for Japanese traditional music was later intensified through his work with koto player Karin Nakagawa on albums including Trees of Light and Pasado en claro.

Jormin wrote “Elegy” with Arve, Trygve and Markku in mind “on the first day of the war in Ukraine”. It leads into a brief account of “What Reason Could I Give”, which Anders describes as “my favourite of Ornette Coleman’s many expressive and iconic pieces”. The beautiful ballad was included on Dona Nostra, Don Cherry’s final album – and the first ECM album on which Jormin appeared – in 1993, where it was played as a duet by Cherry and Bobo Stenson.

Collectively improvised pieces on Arcanum reveal an uncommon feeling for form. Exploration here is always highly focused, the musicians keeping things concise and to the point.

The band takes its musical concept to the road this autumn with concerts including Krokus Jazz Festival, Poland (October 23), Jazz In Bess, Lugano, Switzerland (November 27), Paradox, Tilburg, Netherlands (November 28), Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands, (November 29), LantarenVenster, Rotterdam, Netherlands (November 30).

Recorded at Village Recording Studio, Copenhagen, and mixed in Munich in January 2025, the album was produced by Manfred Eicher.

Joe Lovano and his Polish conspirators from the Marcin Wasilewski trio are in an especially adventurous spirit on their second joint endeavour for ECM. Building on the lyrical strengths that inhabited the group’s previous recording (Arctic Riff, 2020), on Homage the quartet moreover investigates the type of free-flowing interplay and expansive passages of improvisation that have become a staple in Lovano’s ventures with his trio tapestry group and elsewhere. The album was recorded at a studio session in the midst of the group’s Village Vanguard residency in late Autumn 2023, revealing fluent structures as they’re being developed. A rare sense of expressivity and spiritual affinity grace the session.

Clocking in at over ten minutes each, two long-form compositions and the title track “Homage” – all Lovano originals – make up the bedrock of the album and find the players at their most exploratory, with Joe frequently swapping out his tenor and tárogató for a variety of percussion instruments - “Just a handful of gongs and some light percussion sounds,” notes Lovano. “It’s so nice to communicate with Michael [Miskiewicz] on drums – in the studio it felt like we were one!”

Reigniting the spark in the studio was no difficult task for the quartet, as they’d toured extensively since their first album. “We connected with Joe right from the start,” the trio recalls. “It was natural. He’s the kind of musician who jumps into the moment and plays along with whatever he hears, which matches how we approach music. Touring together over the years only made this connection stronger, both on and off stage. His openness and spontaneity allowed real musical dialogue to happen.”

Joe originally wrote “Homage”, the title track, for the 2023 ECM celebration at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, celebrating Manfred Eicher’s 80th birthday alongside A-listers Dave Holland, Anouar Brahem, Ralph Towner, Norma Winstone and many more. There, Lovano performed the composition in quartet with Avishai Cohen, Tigran Hamasyan and Nasheet Waits. “The piece is dedicated to Manfred and the label’s history. I grew up listening to ECM recordings, because those were the cats that I wanted to play with, and it turned out to be the music that gave me a lot of direction.” In putting the score together, Lovano “used no notes – just feelings written in a sequence of events”. Not strictly tonal, Lovano and Marcin’s trio shift between different keys throughout the song, alternating pulse and rhythm in the process and revealing Lovano’s deep connection with the music of conductor and composer Gunther Schuller, and by extension of Jimmy Giuffre and George Russell.

“Golden Horn”, one of the two lengthier pieces, is a modal meditation that finds the tides shifting smoothly between the players. Miskiewicz’s pulse is elegantly uncompromising, as he and Slawomir Kurkiewicz on bass keep a steady backdrop against Wasilewski and Lovano’s dauntless explorations through the bars. The interaction is reminiscent of what the trio used to sound like accompanying the great late Tomasz Stanko on the trumpeters ECM recordings in the early 2000s (the archival live recording from 2004, September Night was just released in 2024).

Even more spontaneity and freedom grace the twelve-minute cut “This Side – Catville”, as the quartet embarks on a freewheeling blowout through swinging bars and again modal harmonic shifts – exemplary of each players heightened intuition for responsive interplay. Wasilewski’s keyboard flights move like ripples in the water, his soft-spoken action shaping an effective contrast against Lovano’s sharply overblown and melodically intricate jabs. “We really love to follow Joe’s spontaneous free approach in playing,” says Marcin, also speaking for his bandmates. “But it’s always rooted in the tradition at the same time. Combining these two elements in our own sense of music became more expressive recently.”

The group’s pass at “Love In The Garden”, a composition by the Polish violinist Zbigniew Seifert, embellishes the evocative ballad with fluid harmonies, wrapped in a rubato pulse. Marcin: “It was a spontaneous choice – no discussion about how or what to play. We just went for it, and the music unfolded naturally.” It’s a surprising and tasteful take on the rather electric original from the 70s, but, as Joe notes, “the thing is to not play something the way it looks but to try and create it as you play, you know. And playing ballads, that’s the heart and soul, really, of the music.”

Improvised miniatures complete a programme that proves Wasilewski and his trio cohorts to be the ideal match for Lovano’s singular musings and the group’s flawless chemistry is more apparent than ever on Homage. Recorded at the Van Gelder studio in New Jersey and mixed at Bavaria Musikstudios in Munich, the album was produced by Manfred Eicher. 

Through a recently announced partnership with Strata-East Records, Mack Avenue Music Group releases audiophile quality reissues of Charles Tolliver & Music Inc.’s Live at Slugs’, Volume I & II, and Stanley Cowell’s Musa: Ancestral Streams, and Charlie Rouse’s Two Is One. The three albums are available today on 180-gram vinyl, CD and digital platforms. Pharoah Sanders’ Izipho Zam (My Gifts), which was released on vinyl for Record Store Day on April 12, 2025, is also available today on CD and digital.

Pressed at Record Technology Inc. (RTI) on 180-gram vinyl and mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio with audio cut directly from the original analog tapes, the vinyl editions come in high-quality, glossy tip-on gatefold jackets.

Also available today, for the first time ever, are 32 albums from the Strata-East catalog on all digital platforms, in the highest-resolution available for these releases.

    Charles Brackeen | Rhythm X
    The Brass Company & Bill Lee | Colors
    Stanley Cowell | Regeneration
    Stanley Cowell | Such Great Friends (feat. Billy Harper, Reggie Workman, Billy Hart)
    The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe & Bill Lee | A Spirit Speaks
    Shamek Farrah | First Impressions
    Shamek Farrah, Sonelius Smith | The World of the Children
    John Gordon | Step by Step
    Billy Harper | Capra Black
    The Heath Brothers | Marchin’ On! (feat. Stanley Cowell)
    John Hicks | Hells Bells
    John Hicks | Steadfast
    Clifford Jordan | Glass Bead Games
    Cecil McBee | Mutima
    The New York Bass Violin Choir & Bill Lee | The New York Bass Violin Choir
    Billy Parker | Freedom of Speech
    Cecil Payne | Zodiac
    The Piano Choir | Handscapes
    The Piano Choir | Handscapes 2
    Charles Tolliver | Charles Tolliver All Stars: Right Now…And Then
    Charles Tolliver | Live in Berlin at the Quasimodo
    Charles Tolliver & Stanley Cowell | Music Inc
    Charles Tolliver & Music Inc | Compassion
    Charles Tolliver & Music Inc | Live at the Loosdrecht Jazz Festival
    Charles Tolliver & Music Inc | Live in Tokyo
    Charles Tolliver & Music Inc Orchestra | Impact
    Various Artists | Strata-East: The Legacy Begins
    Harold Vick | Don’t Look Back

ABOUT THE ALBUMS

For the first time ever, Charles Tolliver and Music Inc’s Live at Slugs’, Volume I & II is released together in one set, presenting the full power of these historic performances in a unified collection. Recorded live in 1970 at the legendary Slugs' in New York City, the albums feature Tolliver’s fiery trumpet alongside an all-star lineup: Strata-East co-founder Stanley Cowell on piano, Cecil McBee on bass, and Jimmy Hopps on drums. These high-energy recordings capture the raw intensity and innovation of the Music Inc quartet, showcasing their technical brilliance and cohesive interplay. Remastered in stunning detail, this release unites two of the most celebrated live albums in jazz history for the first time on CD and digital platforms, as well as on 180-gram vinyl. The digital release features 3 never-before-released bonus tracks, totaling 41 minutes of unreleased music. The vinyl release also includes new liner notes by Marcus J. Moore and never-before-seen photos, making this release a must-have for jazz enthusiasts and collectors alike.

Featuring stunning solo piano work by Strata-East co-founder Stanley Cowell, Musa: Ancestral Streams is a landmark album in jazz, celebrated for its intimacy and innovation. Recorded in 1974, it stands as one of the most significant solo piano albums of its time, blending jazz with classical, African, and Eastern influences. Cowell’s pioneering use of both electric and acoustic piano expands the expressive range of the instrument, creating a deeply personal and spiritual experience. Musa: Ancestral Streams is a cornerstone of the Strata-East discography, reflecting the label’s commitment to artistic freedom and genre-defining works. It not only highlights Cowell’s extraordinary vision as a musician but also exemplifies Strata-East’s role in championing boundary-pushing, artist-produced records. For the first time ever, this pioneering solo work from the famed pianist will be available on CD and digital platforms, as well as on 180-gram vinyl. The digital release features an alternate take on the classic “Travelin’ Man” as well as 3 additional never-before-released bonus tracks. The vinyl edition also includes new liner notes by Nate Chinen and never-before-seen photos, making this release a must-have for jazz enthusiasts and collectors alike.

Charlie Rouse’s groundbreaking album Two Is One is a funk-infused exploration of jazz that embodies the innovative spirit of Strata-East Records. Originally recorded in 1974 and transferred from the original analog tapes, Two Is One fuses sophisticated soul jazz with post-bop and spiritual influences while highlighting stellar collaborations with guitarists George Davis and Paul Metzke, Cal Scott on electrified cello, and the incomparable Stanley Clarke on electric bass. For the first time ever, this classic from a saxophone legend will be available on CD and digital platforms, as well as on 180-gram vinyl. It also includes new liner notes by Syd Schwartz and never-before-seen photos, making this release a must-have for jazz enthusiasts and collectors alike.

Izipho Zam (My Gifts) is a groundbreaking jazz masterpiece. Recorded in 1969, two years after John Coltrane's passing, and released in 1973 on Strata-East, the album features a 13-member ensemble, including Sonny Sharrock, Lonnie Liston Smith, Cecil McBee, and Leon Thomas. Blending Eastern influences with expansive jazz, Sanders’ genius is highlighted with "Prince of Peace,” showcasing Thomas' unique vocals, and the 28-minute title track, offering an exploration of dissonance and harmony with West African percussion and meditative chants. For the first time ever, this seminal work from a legendary saxophonist will be available on CD and digital platforms as well as on 180-gram vinyl, which features new liner notes by Syd Schwartz.

When Taiwanese-born pianist Jo-Yu Chen moved to New York to study at Juilliard, she had every intention of continuing on the classical career path she’d followed as a student of both piano and oboe. It wasn’t long, however, before she detoured into the world of jazz, continuing her studies at the New School and falling under the influence of adventurous pianists like Jason Moran, Sam Yahel and Kevin Hays.

Within a few years Chen embarked on an ambitious series of collaborations, recording dazzling jazz albums with such modern greats as drummer Tyshawn Sorey (her 2009 debut, Obsession), guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel (Stranger, 2014) and saxophonist Mark Turner (Savage Beauty, 2019) – all on Sony Music, making Chen the first and only Taiwanese jazz artists signed to a major label.

Returning to her native Taiwan while the pandemic raged brought Chen full circle in other ways as well. She found herself reconnecting with fellow classical musicians, many of them also recently returned Juilliard alumni. But she had no intention of leaving her newfound passion for jazz behind.

The result is a deeply personal hybrid of classical and jazz traditions. Chen’s first full-length excursion into this distinctive fusion is Rendezvous: Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More. Out May 2, 2025 via Sony Music, Rendezvous is just that – an intimate meeting, two individual styles converging on common ground. The album features reimagined works by five iconic composers, including pieces from three ballet masterpieces. As she has been on every one of her releases to date, Chen – who also produced the album – is joined by the outstanding New York-based rhythm section of bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Tommy Crane.

Two teaser tracks from the album – the trio’s interpretations of the Tchaikovsky classics “The Nutcracker Suite, Opus 71: Dance of the Reed Flutes” and “Swan Lake” – are available now on all digital streaming platforms.

“The Nutcracker Suite, Opus 71: Dance of the Reed Flutes” LISTEN HERE

“Swan Lake” LISTEN HERE

Chen resists the term “crossover” to describe her music, implying as it does the encroachment of one style into another. Having spent significant portions of her musical life immersed in both the classical and jazz realms, finding a meeting point for the two comes naturally to the pianist. “I disconnected from the classical world when I moved to New York, but the sound always stayed inside me,” she explains. “I felt it was about time to integrate them.”

She made her first foray into that integration in 2023, composing a piece called “Walking Through Fear” for piano and string quartet, releasing the new work as a single. Driven by striking contrapuntal writing for string quartet and bold, electrifying piano improvisation, the piece earned a nomination for Best Instrumental Composer at Taiwan’s 35th Golden Melody Awards. “It reminded me how much fun it is to work with top-notch string musicians,” Chen says.

She followed that effort by taking on two of classical music’s most iconic composers through a jazz lens with the 2024 EP Schubert & Mozart: ‘Round Midnight. The four-track release grew out of an invitation to perform at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts’ 2022 24-Hour Schubert Festival. Chen’s trio was slated for the midnight hour.

“I was worried that people wouldn’t come out because it was so late,” she recalled. “But the concert hall was full of people. It’s a unique opportunity – could you imagine having the chance to sleep over in Carnegie Hall?”

Chen returned the following year, when the composer of choice was Mozart, after which she put four of her arrangements together for the ‘Round Midnight EP. In 2024 the marathon was dedicated to Beethoven, and again Chen returned and was inspired.

Rendezvous begins with a mash-up of two Beethoven classics: “Symphony No. 5” and the “Moonlight Sonata.” Together they meet on a grand, increasingly intense scale that supports Chen’s contention that the composer was “a rock star in his era, with his powerful sonics and rebelliousness.” On the opposite end of the spectrum is Chen’s solo rendition of the second movement of “Sonata No. 8,” the “Pathétique,” sounding spacious and hushed. The unaccompanied turn spotlights the pianist’s ability to delve deep into the emotional core of a piece of music, wringing profound feeling from the piece in a way that bridges the centuries since its writing and reframes it in a moving and captivating form.

Looking for some respite from this oppressive Germanic thunder, Chen turned for contrast to the Russian canon. Throughout the album’s first half, Beethoven alternates with Tchaikovsky, beginning with the “Dance of the Reed Flutes” from “The Nutcracker Suite,” built on the foundation of Tordini’s insistent pulse. The bassist also states the indelible melody of “Swan Lake” in Chen’s graceful arrangement.

Continuing with the Russian oeuvre, Chen also arranged a pair of pieces by Sergei Prokofiev, transforming “Piano Concerto No. 2” into a sensual tango and adding a dose of swing feel to the “Dance of the Knights” from “Romeo & Juliet.” “The Old Castle,” from Modest Mussorgsky’s oft-reinterpreted “Pictures at an Exhibition,” is offered as an Old World counterpart to the contemporary feel of Chen’s own “Castle,” recorded with Kurt Rosenwinkel on Stranger.

The final selection is “Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte,” in honor of the 150th anniversary or composer Maurice Ravel’s birth on March 7. Chen had originally planned the piece as another solo piano outing, but Tordini urged her to try it with the trio. The elegant take on Rendezvous is a testament to the trio’s deep chemistry, achieving stunning effect on the spur of the moment, drawing to a whispered close with the rattle of Crane’s brushes.

Innovation ultimately becomes tradition, only to be challenged anew by innovation. Jo-Yu Chen exemplifies that cycle brilliantly on Rendezvous: Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More, interweaving two stellar traditions in heartfelt and innovative fashion to create something uniquely her own.

Rendezvous: Jazz Meets Beethoven, Tchaikovsky & More

1. Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 / Piano Sonata Moonlight

2. Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker: Dance of the Reed Flutes

3. Beethoven - Sonata No. 8, Pathétique 2nd Movement

4. Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake

5. Prokofiev - Romeo and Juliet: Dance of the Knights

6. Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition: The Old Castle

7. Prokofiev - Piano Concerto #2

8. Ravel - Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte

As European settlers moved westward from the Atlantic coast of North America, the Mohawk people – the easternmost tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy – became known as “Keepers of the Eastern Door” for their role as guardians against invasion from the encroaching colonizers.

The outcome of that battle may seem inevitable from the historical perspective, but the tension at its heart, between those who respect and live in harmony with the land and those who view the Earth from a more rapacious perspective, persists. In “The Kutenai Duck Hunter,” the image by photographer and ethnologist Edward Curtis that graces the cover of his breathtaking new album, Keepers of the Eastern Door, acclaimed saxophonist and composer Chris Cheek sees those two parallel mindsets represented in the reflection of a canoe in the river as its occupant looks to the horizon – and an uncertain future.

These ideas lend richness and depth to Cheek’s stunning music throughout Keepers of the Eastern Door, out May 23, 2025 via Analog Tone Factory. The album features a remarkable all-star quartet, with Cheek joined by revered guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Rudy Royston for a wide-ranging but harmonious repertoire including captivating originals and covers by everyone from The Beatles to Henry Purcell, Olivier Messiaen to Henry Mancini.

The idea for Keepers of the Eastern Door was born when Cheek was fascinated by another Curtis photograph, featuring a line of Native Americans on horseback dwarfed by the rock formations of Arizona’s Canyon de Chelly, at the St. Louis Art Museum. Cheek had grown up in the city, enjoying nature with his family. He realized that the same year that the sepia-tinged photo had been taken, the building in which he was viewing it had been built for the 1904 World’s Fair, aka the Louisiana Purchase Exposition – a celebration of the massive land acquisition that doubled the size of the United States.

“Having spent a lot of time in the outdoors growing up and then having lived in Boston and New York for many years, I found a schism between the natural world and the highly industrialized society that we live in,” Cheek says. “I started thinking about Keepers of the Eastern Door as a metaphor for people that try to preserve a way of life based on traditional values that are less materialistic and more respectful of our surroundings.”

These concepts were already stirring when Cheek was approached by fellow saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh and pianist/recording engineer Pete Rende, who had launched their new analog-focused label Analog Tone Factory in 2024 with Sabbagh’s Heart. Sabbagh and Rende suggested the idea of recording with Frisell, with whom Cheek shared a bit of history dating back to his years playing with the legendary drummer Paul Motian.

“When I discovered Bill as a student at Berklee,” Cheek recalls, “his sound and approach were so different that it changed how we heard and conceived of music. I still love Bill for how musical and honest he is. Everything he plays is an idea, never a lick or a riff. I think that's what makes his playing so fascinating and engaging.”

With Frisell in mind Cheek invited Scherr and Royston to complete the line-up for the session. Both share storied histories with the guitarist, together and as members of two of Frisell’s longstanding trios – Scherr with drummer Kenny Wollesen, Royston with bassist Thomas Morgan. “There's been a long tradition of horn players working with famous rhythm sections,” Cheek points out. “I wanted to play with people that were comfortable together, musically and personally, so there would be an immediate chemistry.”

Frisell, who met Cheek many years ago on a gig with Paul Motian, says,"There was a sound happening. I knew then that we had to play more. We did. And now, years later, it’s been wonderful to reconnect with him and two of my closest musical brothers. Tony Scherr and Rudy Royston. Thanks so much to Chris for bringing us all together with this beautiful music."

The quartet convened at New York’s famed Power Station studio last November, with an approach suggesting the audiophile version of the modernist/traditional dichotomy that inspired the recording: an essentially live recording, with the band together in one room recording to analog tape, the philosophy behind Analog Tone Factory. For ultimate fidelity, the album was recorded live to two track on 1/2 inch tape at 30 ips on a custom tube Ampex 351 tape recorder, by famed engineer James Farber. It was mastered in the analog domain by the legendary Bernie Grundman.

“I think it's a great idea,” Cheek says. “Recording to tape just sounds so much better; there's a warmth and a depth that you just don't get in a purely digital realm. I really admire Jerome and Pete for undertaking this.”

One of the master saxophonists of his generation, Cheek pairs strikingly with Frisell throughout Keepers of the Eastern Door. Both are melodically focused players and virtuosos who never feel the need to display their estimable chops. Their directness of expression and ability to coax vivid emotions from any material is brilliantly showcased, creating a cohesive sound even as Purcell’s 17th century art song “Lost Is My Quiet” leads into the ‘60s pop of The Beatles’ “From Me To You.” They’re ably supported by the sensitivity, deftness of touch and infallible instincts of Scherr and Royston.

Cheek’s three original compositions for the album sit comfortably alongside these masterful classics. In keeping with the “mirrored realities” notion of the album’s theme, for opener “Kino’s Canoe” the saxophonist made use of a technique that he has drawn from in the past: mirroring the melody and harmony of a popular song, then using that reversed material as the leaping off point for a new work built on unexpected phrases. An equally intriguing process rests underneath “Go On, Dear,” for which Cheek wrote a new melody based on the lyrics of a familiar standard.

Without being explicit, the music on Keepers of the Eastern Door beautifully captures a spiritual communion with the natural world and the possibility of a life in harmony with the planet that surrounds and nurtures us. “I'm reluctant to use the term spiritual,” Cheek concludes, “but that's the term often used to describe a realm that exists but that we can't see or quantify.” Native and traditional cultures acknowledge that dimension of reality that we've lost touch with today. Seeing that figure sitting in the canoe suggests to me a parallel world that supports the one that we can put our finger on, but is hard to talk about.”

About Chris Cheek

Originally hailing from St. Louis, Missouri, Chris Cheek, born in 1968, is one of the most sought after saxophonists in the jazz world today, having played in the groups of legends such as Paul Motian, Charlie Haden, Steve Swallow and Bill Frisell. Known for his lyricism, and a warm, distinctive sound, he is a refreshingly individual musician, whose albums Saturday Songs (Sunnyside), I Wish I Knew, A Girl Named Joe, Vine, and Blues Cruise (Fresh Sound) have all received rave reviews internationally, and become favorites among players and listeners alike. He is also co-leader of the bands Rudder, the Bloomdaddies and Reeds Ramble. A long time member of Guillermo Klein’s Los Guachos, Chris has also recorded and performed with the big bands of Dafnis Prieto, Alan Ferber and Miguel Zenon.

Chris' music encompasses a wide vista, firmly rooted in the jazz tradition with a foot towards the unknown. As Steve Swallow and Carla Bley put it: "On the one hand, he's the very embodiment of gentle, graceful lyricism. But he's unable to resist the urge to subvert. He's a master of the sucker punch; just when he's convinced you that things couldn't be sweeter, he'll play something that jolts you right back to real life, something as direct and succinct as an uppercut." His colleague, composer Guillermo Klein says of Cheek: “[Chris] is one of my favorite people in this world. An amazingly gifted musician in constant communion with sound. For more than 20 years I've been blessed to share music with him, and I have to say that every note and phrase he played to date has been beautiful and meaningful.”

About Analog Tone Factory

Analog Tone Factory is a new label that records exclusively to analog tape. Founded by saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh, and pianist and recording engineer Pete Rende, Analog Tone Factory uses the best of the technologies of today and yesterday alike to make great sounding records with some of the best musicians alive. Albums are available on all analog vinyl and reel to reel tapes, as well as CD and digital formats, including streaming. All AAA vinyl albums come with a download card for an uncompressed hi resolution 192/24 download.

New Vienna is the fourth concert recording to be released from Keith Jarrett’s final European solo tour. It follows Munich 2016, Budapest Concert and Bordeaux Concert. Why New Vienna? As Jarrett aficionados will know, his discography already includes a legendary Vienna Concert (recorded at the Vienna State Opera) whose music, he once claimed, spoke “the language of the flame itself," after long years of “courting the fire." Keith Jarrett’s 2016 return to the Austrian capital brought the flames of inspiration to another historic location with lively acoustic properties, the Golden Hall of the Musikverein, where, at the start of the previous century, Schoenberg, Berg and Webern had premiered works that challenged and changed the course of modern music.

New Vienna, shaping its new music in the moment, is near-encyclopedic in scope. The long forms that typified Jarrett’s early solo concert journeys – from Bremen/Lausanne and Köln to the first Vienna Concert and beyond – had given way, in this concluding phase of his performing life, to shows comprised of shorter, self-contained and contrasting pieces which, in their totality, frequently attained an impromptu suite-like character. And so it was at the Musikverein on July 9, 2016. Part I – the first of nine parts – is a spontaneous whirlwind of sound, swirling, dense and complex – Impetuous as force of nature. Part II floats chords in silence, and slowly draws out a plangent melody. Rhythm is to the fore in Part III, an outstanding instance of Jarrett’s capacity to develop separate and interweaving patterns with each hand.

Part IV is hymnic, trailing clouds of glory, Part V pure balladry channelled from the ether. Part VI refracts the lyrical impulse, rendering it more abstract, and Part VII is a tender song one might imagine rescored for the Belonging quartet. Part VIII gets down to basics with the blues, and Part IX, with its hints of both gospel and country, reminds us of how all-embracing Jarrett’s musical visions could be. With “Somewhere Over The Rainbow," a favorite encore choice, phrased a little differently from the splendid versions heard on La Scala, a Multitude of Angels and Munich 2016, Jarrett concludes another exceptional performance.

New Vienna is issued as Keith Jarrett turns 80. Although he has not played live since 2017, public interest in his solo music remains high, with this year’s 50th anniversary of The Köln Concert also generating worldwide media attention.

Jarrett’s association with ECM dates from November 1971, when he and producer Manfred Eicher first collaborated on the hugely influential solo piano album Facing You, eight short pieces which, in Eicher’s words, “hold together like a suite." The album also prefigured the solo piano concerts which would be such a defining aspect of Jarrett’s career.

In 2016, Keith Jarrett’s final European solo piano tour took place. To date, four concert recordings have been released from the tour: Munich 2016, Budapest Concert, Bordeaux Concert and most recently, New Vienna. Each of them shows Jarrett at the peak of his powers, creating new music in real time, continuing to develop the solo piano idiom that he had initiated in the early 1970s.

In 2018, health issues brought Jarrett’s performing life to a premature end. In consultation with him, ECM has continued to release some very remarkable albums by the great pianist, drawing on a treasure trove of recordings made over the decades, and spanning a wide range of genres.

These have included more music from the Deer Head Inn, the intimate venue in the Pocono Mountains which, back in 1961, had given Keith Jarrett his very first gig as leader of a piano trio. The Old Country features Jarrett with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian, conveying– in a 1992 show - “what jazz is all about”, in Keith’s words. In 2025, the inspired Deer Head performance was reprised on the vinyl box set At The Deer Head Inn – The Complete Recordings.

In 2025, the 50th anniversary of The Köln Concert generated a new wave of worldwide media attention on Jarrett’s unique achievements. And, as he turns 80, the release of New Vienna reconfirms that there is, still, nothing else in jazz or contemporary music that resembles a Keith Jarrett solo concert. As the committee citation for the Polar Music Prize (one of Jarrett’s many awards) noted, “Through a series of brilliant solo performances and recordings that demonstrate his utterly spontaneous creativity, Keith Jarrett has simultaneously lifted piano improvisation as an art form to new, unimaginable heights.”

While in the studio wrapping up sessions for the Fervency trio album, guitarist Pasquale Grasso found himself with two extra days booked and no fixed plan. At the suggestion of his producer, Grasso sat down alone with his guitar and let the music flow. The result is Solo Be-Bop!, a virtuosic, deeply personal solo guitar album that honors the complexity, soul, and swing of Bebop’s piano greats. Listen Here.

Grasso grew up studying the left-hand swagger and right-hand fireworks of Art Tatum, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Fats Waller, and Earl Hines. On Solo Be-Bop!, he channels their spirit into his own singular six-string language, swinging unaccompanied with total command and creativity. “Whether you’re alone or in a band, you’re supposed to swing by yourself anyway if you want to play this music,” Grasso says. And swing he does.

One of the many highlights on Solo Be-Bop! Is a dazzling version of Charlie Parker’s “Chasin’ the Bird,” which Grasso approaches as a technical etude, pushing the independence of all his fingers to new extremes.

“As a guitar player, I like to take challenges to get better technically,” Grasso says, “and this song was one song that helped me a lot to achieve independence between all my fingers Not an easy task, but very rewarding.”

Grasso’s take on “Salt Peanuts,” a song he normally plays with his trio, bursts with rhythmic vitality even in the absence of a band. The album also includes heartfelt nods to his personal influences: “Stella by Starlight” evokes warm memories of studying with Barry Harris, while the ballad “Pannonica” pays tribute to his mother’s favorite Thelonious Monk tune.

On “Sid’s Delight” (written by Tadd Dameron, one of Grasso’s favorite composers), the guitarist tried to mimic the original 1949 recording, which he says has a fantastic arrangement and a great solo by trumpeter Fats Navarro.

Grasso, who was raised on a farm in Ariano Irpino in Italy, offers a tender dedication to his family on “Time Waits,” capturing the emotional gravity of distance with striking nuance.

“It’s hard to be far away from your home and I’m so glad to have a great family that I can talk to every day and share my life,” Grasso says.

Grasso took some liberties with Bud Powell’s “Monopoly” by modifying the rhythm changes somewhat. “Bud had a different way of playing rhythm changes throughout his career, even all the songs with different chord changes,” Grasso says. “This one in particular is very hard to play.”

Not long after to moving to New York City in 2012, Grasso would see performances by pianist Sasha Perry, who would often talk about pianist Elmo Hope’s compositions and the way he played piano. Grasso got inspired to study Hope’s music and fell in love with “Stars Over Marrakech,” which he renders brilliantly on Solo Be-Bop!, alternating bass lines with the chordal melody on the verses.

With Solo Be-Bop!, Grasso doesn’t just reinterpret these pieces he inhabits them fully, creating an album that’s as daring as it is heartfelt. This is Bebop guitar at its most exposed and expressive: a masterful conversation between past and present, with no one else in the room.

SOLO BE-BOP!

RELEASE DATE: JUNE 13, 2025

TRACKLIST

1. Chasin' the Bird

2. Salt Peanuts        

3. Sid's Delight

4. Time Waits          

5. Manhattan

6. Monopoly 

7. Stars Over Marrakech   

8. Stella by Starlight

9. Happy Hour

10. Sure Thing         

11. Pannonica

12. Yeheadeadeadee

The nominees for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance category at the Grammy Awards in 1998 included a nonet album from a talented young guitarist and arranger, catapulted into the limelight by the honor. By the time he recorded his fourth nonet album in 2006, The Power of Nine, Anthony Wilson was well-known as the guitarist for Diana Krall and lauded as one of the most outstanding jazz musicians on the West Coast. After nearly two decades, Wilson returns to what first ushered him into the public eye, releasing a brand-new nonet album, House of the Singing Blossoms, performed live and recorded for a boisterous audience at Sam First in Los Angeles.

"I've been feeling for quite some time that I wanted to revisit that instrumentation, the whole ethos of the larger ensemble," Wilson explains; an ethos whose father, bandleader Gerald Wilson, understood very well. "I'd heard people like B.B. King, or Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, T-Bone Walker, those kinds of guitarists centered in a group with a horn section," he continues. "And, over a period of years it kind of opened up, and I learned to have less of a hold over what we were doing, turning it into the kind of ensemble that incorporated improvisation in a more open, natural way."

Wilson returns from his previous nonets with the twin veterans, drummer Mark Ferber and trombonist Alan Ferber, complementing them with other established artists: tenor saxophonist Bob Reynolds, whom Wilson lauds as the "ultimate team player with a responsibility to the music as well as a sense of freedom and energy," and pianist Gerald Clayton, a constant musical companion of Wilson's. "I've come to depend on the beauty of what he provides, what he embodies as a musician – both a real, abiding interest in all the traditional elements of what we love, and then a look forward and outward that isn't super contained by a traditional identity," says Wilson of his friend.

Then there are emergentists who have redefined the creative music scene in Los Angeles: alto saxophonist Nicole McCabe, baritone saxophonist Henry Solomon, bassist Anna Butterss, and trumpeter and French horn player CJ Camerieri. Wilson says of his crew, "I like to be surrounded by people whom I trust for their musicality, but who most of all make me feel inspired by their presence and energy."

Wilson's recent output includes a turn towards singing and songwriting, and these arrangements similarly have a song-like quality to them. Take the swampy saloon number "Bordertown" by saxophonist Bennie Wallace, who played on Wilson's first two albums and was influential in his textural approach to horn-writing. Wallace also harkens back to Wilson’s history, having first recorded the Lennon/McCartney classic on his third album, Adult Themes. He conjoins two Joe Zawinul compositions, prefacing the groovy Cannonball Adderley-era boogaloo "Walk Tall" with an elaborated "In a Silent Way" from Miles Davis' foray into fusion. Two pieces resound from Keith Jarrett's album Treasure Island: The tender "Introduction & Yaqui Indian Folk Song," and "Le Mistral," which Wilson characterizes as "a rollicking piece that captures the spirit and energy of this band beautifully." And saxophonist Ben Wendel's "Simple Song" has long been a favorite of Wilson's. "I thought I could combine some songs like this with some new pieces that I was writing," he summarizes.

The name for the title track came to Wilson while perusing some photographs specially for album artwork taken by Paul Solomon, founder of Sam First.  Wilson discovered "a nightscape of a building with a door opening out onto a field of glowing purple blooms... House of the Singing Blossoms seems to transport us to an enchanted, almost supernatural location, full of mystery and wonder." Another original, "Blues for Wandering Angels," is a classic minor blues. Wilson ruminates, "I am often thinking of those guardian angels who seem to aid and protect us during the course of our lives and this title expresses the thought that some of those spirits might yet be unattached to their destined beings on the ground – and wandering themselves – until they finally make their connection."

The album begins with a final tribute. Wilson explains, "'Triple Chase' is a song of my father's from the 1980s that was a staple of his orchestra’s live sets until the end of his life." Gerald Wilson's composition exemplifies how Anthony Wilson's biography is quintessentially a part of the music he is making. Regarding his return to nonet, he concludes: "It feels like it opens the door again to developing things with this type of ensemble for the future, in ways that might integrate all the things that I've done along the way. I feel like I'm looking at this as an opportunity to embrace this ensemble again and to begin to explore all the possibilities that might be there..."