John McNeil (March 23, 1948 – September 27, 2024) launched his professional career with debut LP "Embarkation” SCS 1099) on SteepleChase in 1978 a few hours before he turned 30.
Age 30 was his goal to release his first and he remarked “I just made it!”
John McNeil’s There Is No Greater Love (SCCD 34007) unveils a previously unheard 1983 Odense, Denmark session, capturing the trumpeter at a creative peak during his extensive Scandinavian tour. Joined by Danish masters Jesper Lundgaard (bass) and Aage Tanggaard (drums), McNeil delivers a warm, incisive set blending standards, bebop classics, and his own “Out”. His bright, agile phrasing — long praised for its roots in Miles, Hubbard, and the Parker lineage—meets a deeply swinging Nordic rhythm team. This newly discovered trio date highlights McNeil’s lyrical clarity, spontaneous invention, and enduring place in the modern jazz tradition.
‘Lyla’ is Avishai Cohen’s first release with Razdaz Recordz. Piano legend Chick Corea appears as a special guest performing a duet with the leader. Avishai Cohen is an Israeli jazz double bassist, composer, singer, and arranger. He began playing the piano at 9 years old but changed to the bass guitar at the age of 14, inspired by bassist Jaco Pastorius. In 2002, Cohen founded his record label, Razdaz Recordz. "I've always been interested in several genres of music, including jazz, rock, pop, Latin and funk," says Cohen. "I'm always packed with ideas. I decided to start my own label because I'm involved in so many different projects." Cohen's signature sound is a blend of Middle Eastern, eastern European, and African-American musical idioms.
"Every time I listen to the very first tones of Afterglow, I get struck immediately, as if by a force of nature. Suddenly, I am part of a natural phenomenon, that manifests right in front of me. At that very moment, everything else in the world doesn't seem to matter that much. There's only you and the musical synergy of two masterminds, who put their hearts and souls in every detail of their private conversation. Exactly the same feeling hit me over and over, when audio engineer Floren Van Stichel and I were part of the creation of Afterglow, in September2018. The sheer beauty of the music by Enrico Pieranunzi and Bert Joris was present at every single moment. The only thing Floren and I had to do was listen. We simply guarded the entire process. While performing together, Enrico once said: "Sometimes, the moment you don't play adds more significance to the things you do play". The same thing applies to being a producer. Being present was just enough. Nature took it's course and Afterglow saw the light of day." (Jasper Somsen)
The Guesthouse is about collaboration, inclusion, and the essence of welcoming which is the essence of an open door. It's my most ambitious project to date, sonically and compositionally. It involves so many incredibly talented people: some are in the front, playing music together with me, offering their insight, time, effort, and love, and some incredibly talented and hardworking people are behind the scenes, facilitating, allowing, and inspiring me to keep pushing forward. Musically speaking, the color palette on The Guesthouse is huge. It introduces many musical guests that I admire deeply: MARO, Immanuel Wilkins, Michael Mayo, and many more. It includes lyric writing for the first time, electronic instruments, guitars, trumpets, flutes, flamenco musicians, in-depth production work, my quartet, solo piano, odd meter explorations, improvisations, songs with no time, strings, two pianos conversing and more and more and more.. I dove as deep as I could into these deep waters. The result is my attempt to turn the creative chaos that lives in mind mind into one coherent artistic statement, always having a simple melody as a thread that tells the story of this collective. Shai Maestro Shai Maestro (b. 1987) is one of the most inventive and influential pianists of his generation. Since debuting with his own trio in 2011, he has developed a distinctive musical voice that is fluid, expressive, and profoundly lyrical. His artistry has made him a defining figure in contemporary jazz, merging improvisation, composition, and global influences into a sound that is both cinematic and deeply personal. Maestro began studying classical piano at the age of five and discovered jazz at eight through the recordings of Keith Jarrett and Oscar Peterson. At nineteen, he joined bassist Avishai Cohen's trio, co-writing the acclaimed Gently Disturbed and performing worldwide. In 2011, he formed his own trio, recording six albums that solidified his reputation as a singular voice in modern jazz. His years with ECM Records, under the guidance of Manfred Eicher, placed him among the lineage of pianists such as Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, and Chick Corea. With drummer Ofri Nehemya and bassist Jorge Roeder, he recorded his first ECM album "The Dream Thief", later joined by trumpeter Philip Dizack for the second - "Human", both expanding the expressive language of the modern jazz quartet. Today, Maestro continues to evolve artistically with a new quartet featuring keyboardist Gadi Lehavi, drummer Ofri Nehemya, and bassist Jorge Roeder. Gadi, the new wild card in the group, brings a distinctive energy and vision; his presence as another pianist opens fresh possibilities for dialogue, texture, and experimentation between two keyboards. This lineup functions as a powerful, cohesive engine driving Maestro's musical exploration, blending jazz improvisation with modern production into a sound that is organic, cinematic, and forward-looking. In 2025, Maestro signed a long-term partnership with the Paris-based label naive records, a defining milestone that opened an expansive new chapter in his artistic life. The collaboration with naive marked a moment of renewal and bold creative ambition, setting the stage for a period of profound exploration. The first fruit of this partnership was his solo piano album, Solo: Miniatures & Tales. Introspective and deeply personal, it revealed the most intimate side of Maestro's artistry; a work of quiet reflection, nuance, and restraint. This album stands in deliberate contrast to the broader, outward-looking vision of his forthcoming project, The Guesthouse, highlighting the duality at the heart of Maestro's creative world: the tension between introspection and expansion. In March 2026, Maestro will release The Guesthouse, a record that features Portuguese singer MARO alongside Immanuel Wilkins, and Michael Mayo. The album represents a bold leap forward, combining the sensitivity of modern jazz with electronic sound design and the harmonic depth of classical music. The Guesthouse creates a lush, cinematic space where boundaries dissolve, embodying Maestro's exploration of openness and collaboration.
The magic of art needs a frame, a somewhat solid container to hold the freedom that can only be found once we integrate some form of structure. And that also holds in every other area of life. We all need a frame, a structure, a rhythm, or else, we fall apart. This human form needs the body, and yet it transcends the limitations of the body - through art.
Originally released in 1979 and reissued on CD in 1996 with bonus material, G1128 stands as a vibrant snapshot of two masterful trumpeters—John McNeil and Tom Harrell—at a pivotal moment in modern jazz. Now, for the first time, this landmark session returns in stunning 24bit/96kHz remastered fidelity on heavyweight 180g vinyl, preserving the warmth and swing of the original analog tapes.
Backed by a stellar rhythm section featuring Kenny Barron (piano), Buster Williams (bass), and Billy Hart (drums), McNeil and Harrell engage in a spirited, lyrical dialogue that’s as respectful of tradition as it is forward-looking. Their interplay is marked by mutual admiration rather than rivalry—Harrell’s bright, unflappable tone contrasts beautifully with McNeil’s introspective, saxophone-inspired phrasing.
For audiophiles, collectors, and jazz devotees alike, this is not just a reissue—it’s a rediscovery.
“...it’s never a duel of trumpets here but it’s the duet of trumpets...
When the two trumpeters share technique and inspiration, one cannot but enjoy the inevitable result...” (Alain Tercinet, JAZZ HOT).
With Rain, Flowers and New Beginnings, trumpeter, composer and bandleader Maik Krahl presents a deeply personal and beautifully balanced album about growth, change and resilience. Inspired by the idea that no flower blooms without rain, the music reflects the quiet strength that can emerge from difficult seasons, transforming experience into sound with warmth, clarity and lyrical depth. Krahl's trumpet playing is marked by a rich, flexible tone, elegant phrasing and a calm emotional intensity. Across the album, he moves through spacious, melodic landscapes, playful rhythmic passages and moments of reflective stillness, always maintaining a sense of openness and natural flow. His compositions are adventurous yet grounded, shaped by contrast, silence and release. The album features an exceptional ensemble: Constantin Krahmer on piano, Jakob Kuhnemann on bass, Fabian Rosch on drums and glockenspiel, and Tamara Lukasheva on vocals. Together, they bring Krahl's music to life with sensitivity, imagination and a strong collective voice. From the opening 'Blue Dots Descending' to the closing 'The Journey of Serenity,' Rain, Flowers and New Beginnings unfolds like a musical meditation on renewal. It is an album about what is endured, what is absorbed, and what eventually blossoms.
With Rain, Flowers and New Beginnings, trumpeter, composer and bandleader Maik Krahl presents a deeply personal and beautifully balanced album about growth, change and resilience. Inspired by the idea that no flower blooms without rain, the music reflects the quiet strength that can emerge from difficult seasons, transforming experience into sound with warmth, clarity and lyrical depth. Krahl's trumpet playing is marked by a rich, flexible tone, elegant phrasing and a calm emotional intensity. Across the album, he moves through spacious, melodic landscapes, playful rhythmic passages and moments of reflective stillness, always maintaining a sense of openness and natural flow. His compositions are adventurous yet grounded, shaped by contrast, silence and release. The album features an exceptional ensemble: Constantin Krahmer on piano, Jakob Kuhnemann on bass, Fabian Rosch on drums and glockenspiel, and Tamara Lukasheva on vocals. Together, they bring Krahl's music to life with sensitivity, imagination and a strong collective voice. From the opening 'Blue Dots Descending' to the closing 'The Journey of Serenity,' Rain, Flowers and New Beginnings unfolds like a musical meditation on renewal. It is an album about what is endured, what is absorbed, and what eventually blossoms.
A protege of legendary jazz master Dizzy Gillespie, Arturo Sandoval has been awarded 10 Grammy® Awards, and been nominated 19 times. He has also received 6 Billboard Awards as well as an Emmy Award for his composing of the entire underscore of the HBO movie based on his life, "For Love or Country", that starred Andy Garcia as Arturo. Considered one of the world's most acknowledged guardians of jazz trumpet and flugelhorn, he is also recognized worldwide as a renowned classical artist, pianist, and composer.
Over the course of his long and illustrious career, Louis Armstrong visited Scandinavia on no less than nine occasions to both tour and record. Amongst the wealth of fabulous recordings he produced on these vists are six tracks thare said to be the world's first live jazz recordings, recorded in Denmark and Sweden during the 1930's.
These and many other recordings, some previously unreleased, have been meticulously restored for this 4 CD Armstrong collector's set.
Each CD has over 70 minutes of music and is accompanied by a booklet including many unique photographs and comprehensive liner notes from the renowned Armstrong authority, Gosta Hagglof.
