Unknown Rivers is bassist Luke Stewart's debut for Pi Recordings. An omnipresent and galvanizing force on the music scene, Stewart is a leader or co-leader of such bands as Irreversible Entanglements, Exposure Quintet, Blacks' Myths, Heart of the Ghost, and Remembrance Quintet. He is also among the most in-demand collaborators, having performed with the likes of David Murray, Nicole Mitchell, Moor Mother, Jaimie Branch, Nate Wooley, Ken Vandermark and countless others. Stewart is also a curator and presenter of multiple concert series in New York and Washington, D.C., a writer, activist, producer and D.J. Featuring his long-running Silt Trio, with Brian Settles on tenor sax, and drummers Trae Crudup on four studio tracks and Chad Taylor on three live ones, Unknown Rivers sees the band pushing towards greater emphasis on rhythmic acuity, highlighting the different approaches to the music of the two drummers. Settles - a stalwart of the fertile Washington DC jazz scene - plays with a quiet intensity, possessing a sound that reminds of players from a distant past set against a modernist's vocabulary. Stewart is the master of a deep, wide groove that cushions and propels, making every musical situation he finds himself in sound good. The Quietus has called the band "gripping... relies on subtlety and insinuation to register it's uncanny power." The Silt Trio is that magical juxtaposition of playing with raw spontaneity while maintaining the music's intent and purpose.

Cereal Music is bassist-composer-leader-poet William Parker's first spoken word album -observations from a profound life devoted to the path of finding truth in beauty & speaking truth to power. Parker's words are further illuminated by deeply sensitive sound design created by likewise devoted artist on the same path, producer and singer Ellen Christi. William Parker's music -in it's vast scope & range of form- has been an elemental nutrient of countless listeners lives for nigh on five decades. William's words -whether published on page or spoken from the stage- are part of that music. They speak on the beauty of life itself, amplifying the light of life ever-present, even in exceptionally difficult circumstance. As his first artistic expression, Parker began writing as a young person growing up in the South Bronx projects, presenting an alternate perception of often bleak surroundings and living conditions in the neighborhood. This early awareness that there was another way of being in the world, has suffused his development into a singularly generous artist and human being. Ellen Christi's singing brings that same affirmation in the beauty of life. She & Parker's previous work together, The Majesty of Jah, is a tremendous feature for her voice. That album also includes the track, "Baldwin", w/ his ever-powerful words and voice resonating even more profoundly within the sonic architecture created around them by Christi. Here, she does the same for the words & voice of William Parker. Jacket printed on reverse board. Includes insert w/ illuminating notes & full-res download card w/ 3 bonus tracks.

Echolocation is the astonishing debut album from Mendoza Hoff Revels, an electric & formidable new unit led by Ava Mendoza (electric guitar, compositions) & Devin Hoff (electric bass, compositions) and featuring James Brandon Lewis (tenor sax) & Ches Smith (drums). A super-group of our time, all profound creative artists in their own right, rocking mightily together, in their prime. 21st Century progressive rock played by punk rockers with serious improv skills & jazz feel. And non-stop wicked catchy tunes, riffs & grooves. Strong sonic references are The Stooges' Funhouse, rendered by a band readily adept at rapidly swinging rhythmic & harmonic shifts, plus tenor sax on every track! -&- Minutemen, both their whole body of music & their fundamental egalitarian punk ethos.

Emergency Exit reunites Throttle Elevator Music with legendary saxophonist Kamasi Washington and virtuoso trumpet player Erik Jekabson for an outstanding sixth recording on Wide Hive Records. Mostly recorded between 2001 and 2014 Kamasi's tone is young and hungry and the band is awesome with songwriters Matt Montgomery and Gregory Howe on many instruments, Mike Hughes and Lumpy on drums, Ross Howe on guitar, Kasey Knudsen on alto saxophone and Mike Blankenship (Spearhead) on organ.

Phil Ranelin Collected 2003-2019 features songs with Pharoah Sanders, Kamasi Washington, Donald 'Duck' Bailey, Henry Franklin, Big Black, Calvin Keys, Roger Glenn and many, many more. Phil founded cult label 'Tribe Records' in 1973 then went on to perform with artists such as Max Roach, Gary Bartz, Freddie Hubbard, the Temptations and even the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Here in this collection of 16 years of Phil's work, his 'Tribe' spiritual root continues to grow into greatness and his is assisted along on his path with a cast of some of the greatest players in this genre. This album encompasses 15 remastered songs, one new released alternate version and two new compositions.

Throttle Elevator Music featuring Kamasi Washington returns for it's fourth album of eleven new outstanding compositions. Kamasi's saxophone sound is modern yet reminiscent of Pharoah, Kirk, and Coltrane. Joining Kamasi is virtuoso trumpet player Erik Jekabson, Mike Hughes on drums and Wide Hive writers Gregory Howe and Matt Montgomery. This record is sizzling and moving with soaring horns. Vinyl version!

Vinyl includes 4 of the 6 CD tracks & includes download card featuring all 6 tracks. Following the release of Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World: Volumes 1-10 (Centering Records) and his first book-length biography, Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker (Duke University Press) earlier this year, composer, multi-instrumentalist, poet, griot, improviser and community leader William Parker will present a pair of brand new trio albums which further expound on his vision. One of the iconic and enduring music leaders to emerge in the world over the last half century, William Parker continues to raise the bar higher.�Mayan Space Station is his first electric guitar trio album, and features Ava Mendoza - electric guitar, Gerald Cleaver - drums, and Parker on bass. Cosmic multi-hued blues, perfect for space and time travel. The unparalleled rhythmic firmament created by Parker & Cleaver is matched by Mendoza in full flight. All of the promise imagined by a trio recording of these musicians with compositions by Parker is delivered to the fullest. �� Regarding the album title, Parker offers: "Mayan Space Station�is a conduit for peace and inspiration. It is an oasis where sound and silence navigators stop for sustenance to replenish their imaginations. It is a fictional reality that is important to the myth structure of the Tone World chronicle. In a way, musicians, and definitely these particular musicians, Ava Mendoza and Gerald Cleaver, belong to the blood line of sonic travelers who, as Sun Ra described it, 'travel the space ways.' Re-inventing the process, allowing music to flow through their instruments."

LIFT

BREAKTHROUGH

Calvin Keys Blue Keys (Black Jazz Records, Ray Charles) is a new record on Wide Hive Records with saxophone icon Gary Bartz (Milestone Records, Miles Davis), trombonist Steve Turre, Henry Franklin, Babatunde Lea, Gregory Howe, Mike Hughes, Thomas McCree and more. Blue Keys is nine new classic songs with beautiful horns and Calvin's ferocious guitar soloing. Limited 180 Gram foil Numbered Pressing!

Featuring emerging saxophone giant Kamasi Washington (touring with Chaka Kahn and Stanley Clark) and written by bassist Matt Montgomery and producer Gregory Howe, Throttle Elevator Music's 'Jagged Rocks' is their best record to date. Throttle Elevator Music combines instrumental music with the uptempo energy of ska and punk to make uniquely intelligent grooves with an incredibly heavy feel.

I Plan To Stay A Believer is the definitive document of William Parker's The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield project, featuring fully charged extensions & expansions - both music & text - of selections from the soul music legend's immortal songbook by an equally mighty & masterful 8-piece band. Gospel-tinged uplift, luminous swing, tight soul grooves, and wholly lit free jazz are rousingly delivered with clear-eyed joy and righteous purpose. This work brings Mayfield's and Parker's positive messages of hope and fortitude in the face of seemingly endless tribulation firmly into the present moment, exultantly so and with total commitment. * This first time on vinyl limited edition features all new cover art & insert, a previously unreleased exclusive to vinyl (and astonishing) version of "People Get Ready / The Inside Song", along with a download card for full-resolution/lossless download of 7 additional tracks / 80 minutes of this profound music.

LP includes 4 of the 5 CD tracks & includes download card featuring all 5 tracks / stickered noting this. Painters Winter features the trio of William Parker - bass, trombonium, shakuhachi; Daniel Carter - reeds, trumpet, flute; and Hamid Drake - drums. Carter & Parker have been perpetual space-ways traveling companions since first meeting & immediately beginning to channel music together in early 1970s NYC. Their work together in Other Dimensions In Music with Roy Campbell & Rashid Bakr for well over two decades manifest in bountiful music for the ages. They have recently been featured together in similar majestic open form on the album, Seraphic Light. Here, Carter again brings the full assembly of instruments he has for decades been a master of: trumpet, alto & tenor saxophones, clarinet and flute. Likewise, Hamid Drake is a musician's musician; one of the most in-demand drummers in the world. He is in command of a vast lexicon of drum languages, learned and absorbed directly. Drake & Parker launched their devoted "two-man big band" partnership in 2000 and haven't stopped since. In trio with Daniel Carter, they've created one previous album together, Painters Spring, released that same year. Regarding this album's title, Parker elucidates, "It speaks to those who paint with sound, in different landscapes, to celebrate the coming of the seasons: winter spring summer and autumn. Acknowledging the entire universe of world jazz music. Discovering the undiscovered." And from his liner notes, "The music on this album is a tribute to the flow of rhythm as melody and pulsation. Laced with the joy and the bounce, the dance and the heartbeat. Giving a nod to all the music that has ever passed through us. Sounds we both listened to while breezes and big green kites we called leaves sailed above the trees."

The Messthetics/James Brandon Lewis - "The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis" / On their Impulse! Debut album, Washington DC's experimental jazz punk trio the Messthetics (guitarist Anthony Pirog with drummer Brendan Canty and Joe Lally of iconic band Fugazi) join forces with acclaimed jazz tenor saxophonist, composer and bandleader James Brandon Lewis. Together, they widen the reach of decisive instrumental music through their overlapping of jazz, punk, funk, aggression and innovation.

This rare and underappreciated 1973 Impulse! Title features a host of influential L.A. musicians and was an important element in the label's 'West Coast contingent' of the early 1970s. The album's distinct L.A. sound and energy continue to resonate in modern music circles, from the West Coast Get Down to Carlos Gabriel Ni�o to Mark de Clive-Lowe. Saracho became disillusioned and left the music business not long after this album was released. Now, his remarkable story and music are re-emerging, ripe for re-evaluation. 180-gram LP.