SPIN is the 9th release of the working band RONIN since it's foundation in 2001. Since the last release AWASE (ECM 2018) the band has developed the repertoire continuously further.  SPIN shows the phase in which the band is now: looking back and forward at the same time. The RONIN rhythm culture based on pattern, cycle and groove developments and refined beats is still presented and combined with playfulness and the consciousness for freedom within the clear structures.

When the bassist Mike Richmond utters the magic line “Spot on!” at the ending of the recording of track 5 of this album, the album title was decided. You can actually hear it on the disc. This is Andy LaVerne’s 36th outing as leader on this label. Our collaboration goes back to 1977 when he was touring Europe with Stan Getz. Since then he has been presenting uniquely creative albums. This new release starts with a homage to McCoy and ends with one to Chick both of whom passed away last year.

This 1998 recording of Paul Bley is here as 180g audiophile LP for the first time. It wholly dedicated to the music of Ornette Coleman, with whom Paul was the major participant of that exciting musical experimentation some 60 years ago. “…here is an intriguing and most stimulating date that does full justice to the writing of Ornette while showcasing the vitality and virtuosity of the creative Paul Bley in full flow with two top notch companions with him all the way…” (Mark Gardner) “…anyone who has ever enjoyed the pianist should seek out Notes on Ornette. Bley still enjoys throwing seemingly unrelated bits of improvised melody together, but here he often goes to the other extreme, spinning out lines that seem endless in which a few simple ideas continually transmogrify.” (Baker, D. – JazzTimes) 180g Audiophile Vinyl

One of the most original musicians of our time pianist Paul Bley passed away in 2016 at the age of 83. He left immeasurable influence on the generations of piano players behind him. He was married to Swedish-American pianist/composer Carla Bley in the 50s. Carla’s compositions occupied larger part of his repertoire then. “ …(This CD) features ten pieces by Carla Bley, his former wife, that he has been playing for thirty years but he’s still finding new things in them. Some of these tunes are surprisingly frisky given Bley’s austere reputation…this is another 180g Audiophile Vinyl

Legendary American piano player/composer Andrew Hill (June 30, 1931 – April 20, 2007) lived an active and fruitful life leaving us a legacy of unique, enigmatic music. Hill, however disappeared from the scene for about a decade in the late 60s. This album and its predecessor SCCD 31026 “Invitation” released in the mid. 70’s paved his way back to the limelight he deserved. Andrew Hill received numerous awards including Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Foundation of America (1997). “... Divine Revelation certainly earns its title, for it reveals to any newcomer to his music… Hill at his most inspired, and most enigmatic ....” (Simon Adams, Jazz Journal International, March 1995) 180g Audiophile Vinyl

Kenny Drew (August 28, 1928 / New York – August 4, 1993 / Copenhagen) spent the last three decades of his life in Copenhagen as a stalwart of vibrant European jazz scene. He left quite a number of outstanding recordings both as leader and sideman on SteepleChase. Here on his first trio recording for the label, Kenny Drew is backed by – to quote Melody Maker – Danish bass wizard Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and intelligent purveyor of rhythm Albert “Tootie” Heath. Dark Beauty whose album cover is graced by a portrait photo of his daughter Sabrina is one of the most popular albums of his recording career. “...extremely charming main stream jazz..” (Swing Journal) “...brilliant!” (Jazz Magazine) “Kenny has a relaxed, attractive style, free from embellishments or dramatic devices, but capable of generating happy swing…” (C.W. Meloday Maker on SCS 1016) 180g Audiophile Vinyl

“Frozen Music” was recorded in New York City 32 years ago and like most of Andy LaVerne’s releases this album has not lost its original energy and charm. Tenor and soprano saxophonist Rick Margitza was then a young rising star under contract with Blue Note. Andy was already a prolific composer who penned all the tunes of this album. Bassist Marc Johnson who was a member of Bill Evans’s last trio gave graceful and subtle coloring to LaVerne’s compositions. “Frozen Music, Andy LaVerne’s third album for SteepleChase, is a solid, modern blowing session...he makes skilful use of suspensions, pedal points, and ostinatos, which along with the music’s floating harmonies, give the soloists a wealth of elbow room...” (Mark Stryker, Cadence) “un disque du plus haut niveau musical.” (Henri Marchal – Spectacles)

William Parker's Universal Tonality documents an epic performance which brings his titular concept to full, vibrant life. An exquisite example of this system in practice, it features a truly once-in-a-lifetime assembly of creative music luminaries and legends. Clocking in at nearly two hours and featuring six extended pieces flowing across two discs, this Universal Tonality happening took place in December 2002. Parker invited 16 musicians of various ages, cultures and musical backgrounds - to join him in an experiment of "breathing together." Many of them met on stage for the first time that evening. While he provided a score (wonderfully illustrated pages from same are included in the package), all were advised that there need not be adherence to it. Parker's hope with this approach is that each musician will trust their own instincts - and those of the musicians around them - enough to let the sound find it's shape in real time. Ranging from roof-raising big band to intimate cross-cultural exchanges, that constant current of inspiration, and open, receptive communication was wholly present at Roulette that night, and is on full display on this magical recording. Lyrics and personal writings by Parker - which Leena Conquest sings, recites, or dramatically interprets - also play a key role in this work. Parker gave Conquest the same freedom of choice he afforded the instrumentalists, supplying her with materials to draw on as she saw fit. When discussing or writing on his Universal Tonality concept as a whole (as on the enclosed, extensive liner notes), Parker can sound like he's outlining a life philosophy. It is both telling and fitting that author Cisco Bradley chose to title his 2021 biography of William Parker after this concept. The results of this one-night-only communion can now take their place among Parker's many landmark works spanning the past three decades, including previously released Universal Tonality-driven pieces like Double Sunrise Over Neptune, and Red Giraffe with Dreadlocks (released on the box set For Those Who Are, Still).

For his fifth Criss Cross recording, Alex Sipiagin assembles a top-shelf quintet of generational peers, all colleagues who rank at the top of the pack on their respective instruments, to play a program of original music. The mood is melodic, polyphonic, rhythmically intense, more simmering than fiery, defined by Sipiagin's burnished, golden sound, the individualistic voice-like statements of tourist Seamus Blake and guitarist Adam Rogers, and the intuitive accompaniment of bassist Scott Colley and drummer Antonio Sanchez.

As he has done on his three previous Criss Cross dates, Russian trumpeter Alex Sipiagin brings together a cohort of New York's finest - here reedmen Chris Potter and David Binney, keyboardist David Kikoski, bassist Scott Colley, and drummer Gene Jackson - to perform on "Equilibrium." Comprising seven stimulating Sipiagin originals, a Monk tune and a bossa, the album features not only the ensemble interplay and virtuosic soloing we've come to expect from Sipiagin's albums, but also several tunes on which the trumpeter brings his rich imagination and ravishing tone to the forefront.

This is Russian trumpet star Alex Sipiagin's third outing on Criss Cross. This time, as before, in the company of a group of New York jazz greats: tourist Seamus Blake and guitarist Adam Rogers plus a rhythm section consisting of piano star David Kikoski, bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Jonathan Blake. Listen to the beautiful rendition of "Holland," a piece composed and arranged by Sipiagin and dedicated to bassist Dave Holland. The CD offers five Sipiagin originals and one Charles Mingus composition, "Tijuana Gift Shop".

On his Criss Cross debut, 29-year-old Detroit-born saxophonist J.D. Allen brings his own perspective to the aesthetic rumblings that stamped middle '60s jazz music. Boasting an open, richly textured tone, a meticulous, thoughtful approach, and a definitive sense of time, Allen interacts continuously with pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Gene Jackson over a stimulating hour of original music. On three titles as guest, the great new trumpeter Jeremy Pelt.

Between 2004 and 2016, alto saxophonist David Binney made nine albumsfor Criss Cross as either leader or co - leader, presenting predominantly his distictive original music. The tenth Criss Cross album with Binney's imprimatur, A Glimpse Of The Eternal, is, Binney says, completely different than anything I've ever done - chilled out, an honest and pleasant vibe, nothing too complicated or intense. The album was recorded June 29, 2021 at the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio and mixed and mastered by Mike Marciano at the Systems Two Recording Studios.

Lifted Land, David Binney's sixth recording for Criss Cross, is also his third wholly original program for the label (after Cities and Desire (CRC 1285) and Barefooted Town (CRC 1325). One of the most gripping and distinctive alto players and composers of his generation, Binney leads a powerfully expressive quartet with longtime allies Craig Taborn on piano and Eivind Opsvik on bass. Drummer Tyshawn Sorey, an acclaimed leader and composer in his own right, makes his first Criss Cross appearance here, in place of Binney's go-to drummer for previous releases, Dan Weiss.

For his eighth date for Criss Cross as a leader or co-leader, alto saxophonist-composer David Binney documents the quartet with which he most frequently works in New York City (pianist Jacob Sacks, bassist Eivind Opsvik, and drummer Dan Weiss) for the first time since the 2009 recording Aliso. It's an episodic, thematically cohesive, 65-minute suite on which Binney and his upper echelon bandmates solo through the shifting moods and environments, tracking his responses to the diurnal cycle, with characteristic inspiration and derring-do.

Moments Captured is trumpeter Alex Sipiagin's third Criss Cross date to feature a three-horn lineup, after Equilibrium in 2004 and Destinations Unknown in 2011. While the earlier discs featured David Binney on alto, here it is the fiery Will Vinson displaying his prodigious talents alongside the leader and master tenorist Chris Potter. Rounding out the lineup on this exploratory all-original session are the players from Sipiagin's 2015 album Balance 35/58: John Escreet on piano and keyboards, Matt Brewer on bass, and Eric Harland on drums. The intricate, polyphonic aspect of Sipiagin's writing continues to flower and grow, but it is Escreet's extensive use of the Prophet 6 synthesizer that marks this album's biggest departure. Wringing a seemingly limitless array of tonal colors from the instrument, Escreet gives Sipiagin's music a refreshing and wholly unpredictable edge.

For his fourth Criss Cross leader date, alto saxophonist-composer David Binney convenes his primary New York working quartet of the 2000's (pianist Jacob Sacks, bassist Eivind Opsvik, and drummer Dan Weiss), adds to the mix guitar hero Wayne Krantz, with whom he works frequently in an electronica-oriented group, and augments the proceedings with several appearances by British pianist-composer John Escreet, a frequent partner in recent years. The leader plays with deep emotion and the concision of an old master; it's as strong a date as any in Binney's now sizable discography.