Donald Byrd - "The Cat Walk (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition)" [180g Heavy Vinyl] Donald Byrd was deep in a groove in 1960 as the trumpeter turned out one hard bop classic after another, including The Cat Walk, featuring Byrd's quintet with Pepper Adams on baritone sax, Duke Pearson on piano, Laymon Jackson on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. The band struts their stuff on an engaging set of swinging originals by Byrd and Pearson. This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is stereo, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal. Capitol Music Group; Blue Note; Jazz; Catalog.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Miles Davis's birth in 2026, the Centennial Miles Davis SACD Selection presents 3 titles as hybrid SACD editions, each featuring newly remastered audio prepared by renowned mastering engineer Kevin Gray for Blue Note's acclaimed Tone Poet and Classic Vinyl reissue series, and marking the first time these remastered sources have been made available on SACD.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Miles Davis's birth in 2026, the Centennial Miles Davis SACD Selection brings together 3 titles as hybrid SACD editions, each featuring newly remastered audio prepared by renowned mastering engineer Kevin Gray for Blue Note's acclaimed Tone Poet and Classic Vinyl reissue series, and marking the first time these remastered sources have been released on SACD.

PEOPLE IN SORROW

JEFF IS BACK!! And as ever, he's bringing even more friends along for the ride! Night Blooms follows the 2025 album, Still Blooming, and contains 6 new tracks with features from Charlie Puth, Melody Gardot, Cynthia Erivo and Dodie. The album also contains new 'Late Night Sessions' of tracks from Still Blooming alongside "Tattoo" and "Lover" previously released with Haley Reinhart.

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Just Friends is a 1998 jazz album by French pianist Martial Solal, featuring bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Paul Motian. The trio is highly regarded for it's blend of high-energy, straight-ahead swing and avant-garde improvisational complexity. The album features a mix of jazz standards and original compositions by Solal. Critics have noted the trio's remarkable technical facility, harmonic imagination, and ability to navigate both aggressive, complex avant-garde passages and traditional swing.

As keyboard maestro James Taylor arrives at his 40th year leading his Quartet, he has re-signed with his original label Acid Jazz and is embarking on a series of the most radical projects he has ever worked on. Following his first classical album, Shadows and Dreams earlier this year, he brings the Quartet together for a remarkable new album. Te Deum sets the ancient, 4th-entury Christian text to intense jazz, funk, and Latin grooves. The music sees the James Taylor Quartet working alongside the children of the Benenden Chapel Choir, and a guest horn section and legendary Acid Jazz percussionist Snowboy. Lead track, "Have Mercy On Us," mixes Brazilian samba with Gregorian chants, "The Comforter" sounds like a Donald Byrd with voices Blue Note Records experiment, and last year's radio favorite "Wildflower," mixes bossa nova with sunshine pop harmonies and a positive message.

Members... Don't!, the tour-de-force new release by acclaimed drummer and composer Tyshawn Sorey, offers a bold reinterpretation of Max Roach's landmark album Members, Don't Git Weary, connecting it's message of resilience in the face of struggle to the present day. Recorded during the turbulent year of 1968 - after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. And Robert F. Kennedy and amid widespread social unrest - Roach's album served as a call for perseverance in the fight for justice. Sorey approaches this music not as repertory, but as living material: something to reshape and reimagine for our own turbulent time. He expands and reframes the material through a contemporary lens, expanding the music into a sweeping suite that draws inspiration from symphonic works and the extended works of Charles Mingus. Recorded live at the end of a four-night engagement at New York's Jazz Gallery, the group - Adam O'Farrill on trumpet, Mark Shim on tenor saxophone, Lex Korten on piano, and Tyrone Allen on bass - maneuvers through the music's precarious turbulence with virtuosity and inspiration. Over more than ninety minutes, Sorey's ensemble gradually accumulates intensity before arriving at the album's shattering climax, delivered in an ecstatic performance by vocalist Fay Victor; an exhortation that in times of crisis and turmoil, we all must remain resolute and persist "until the work is done."

As keyboard maestro James Taylor arrives at his 40th year leading his Quartet, he has re-signed with his original label Acid Jazz and is embarking on a series of the most radical projects he has ever worked on. Following his first classical album, Shadows and Dreams earlier this year, he brings the Quartet together for a remarkable new album. Te Deum sets the ancient, 4th-entury Christian text to intense jazz, funk, and Latin grooves. The music sees the James Taylor Quartet working alongside the children of the Benenden Chapel Choir, and a guest horn section and legendary Acid Jazz percussionist Snowboy. Lead track, "Have Mercy On Us," mixes Brazilian samba with Gregorian chants, "The Comforter" sounds like a Donald Byrd with voices Blue Note Records experiment, and last year's radio favorite "Wildflower," mixes bossa nova with sunshine pop harmonies and a positive message.

Here is Dizzy Gillespie's complete 1961 Monterey Jazz Festival performance, introduced by Diz as 'A Musical Safari'. This remarkable set reflects the quintet's working repertoire of the period, including a foray into bossa nova and features the superb Leo Wright and Argentinian pianist Lalo Schifrin. The first Monterey Jazz Festival was staged in 1958 and, since then, Jimmy Lyons and musical director John Lewis have traditionally gathered each September under the California sky many of the great names in jazz, along with several thousand enthusiastic listeners.

Aja Monet is a Surrealist Blues Poet in the business of goosebumps and heart-gut-telling truths. Her poems are harmolodic, vulnerable, and insurgent. As the youngest recipient of the Nuyorican Grand Slam Poetry title, she first cut her teeth in New York City's Lower East Side poetry clubs and bars, honing her voice and craft on the storied stages of a burgeoning grassroots poetry movement. She follows in the long legacy and tradition of poets organizing in social movements for change. Her collaborative spirit has seen her shape and shift culture alongside internationally renowned artists, scholars, activists, and organizers. aja's first full collection of poems, my mother was a freedom fighter (2017), is a powerful tribute to women who embody freedom, earning a nomination for a NAACP Image Award for Poetry. Her debut poetry album, when the poems do what they do, was nominated for a Grammy Best Spoken Word Poetry Album in 2024. The album explores themes of resistance, love, and the inexhaustible quest for joy. As a poet and touring bandleader, she has performed at festivals, concert halls, and theaters across the globe including but not limited to, the Guggenheim, Lincoln Center, Newport Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Fremantle Biennele and the Barbican Centre to name a few. Aja Monet's awards include the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award for Poetry (2019), the Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award (2024), The Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award (2024), the EBONY 100 Artist In Residence Award, and the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Vanguard Award (2025). She also serves as the Artistic Creative Director for V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. In 2022, she created "VOICES," an audio play amplifying the stories of Black women across the diaspora and the African continent. Aja Monet's most recent book of poems inspired by several years living and organizing in South Florida is called, Florida water on Haymarket Books. Her sophomore studio album the color of rain, is set to be released in May 2026 with drink sum wtr.

Bay Area guitarist George Cotsirilos returns to the intimate language of solo nylon-string guitar on "In the Wee Hours," illuminating beloved standards and two original compositions with patience and depth. Recorded largely in unedited first takes over several years, his seventh recording on OA2 unfolds with the quiet authority and refined lyricism that have defined Cotsirilos's career-from his celebrated quartet release Refuge to earlier trio and solo recordings praised for their fluidity and swing. Here, classics such as "Come Sunday," "Haunted Heart," and the title ballad are rendered with a meticulous touch and subtle dynamic shadings that reveal the hidden architecture of each melody. Alternating between exquisite instruments by Jos' Ram¡rez and Alberto Morales, Cotsirilos draws out warm, singing tones that blur the line between jazz phrasing and classical resonance. "- an impeccable sense of timing especially in revealing the hidden rhythms of complex melodies. His approach to harmony is whimsical, but patently beautiful at all times." - All About Jazz " - an unerring sense of swing and melody. His solos, while displaying accuracy and technique, are filled with soul." Vintage Guitar Magazine

Aja Monet is a Surrealist Blues Poet in the business of goosebumps and heart-gut-telling truths. Her poems are harmolodic, vulnerable, and insurgent. As the youngest recipient of the Nuyorican Grand Slam Poetry title, she first cut her teeth in New York City's Lower East Side poetry clubs and bars, honing her voice and craft on the storied stages of a burgeoning grassroots poetry movement. She follows in the long legacy and tradition of poets organizing in social movements for change. Her collaborative spirit has seen her shape and shift culture alongside internationally renowned artists, scholars, activists, and organizers. aja's first full collection of poems, my mother was a freedom fighter (2017), is a powerful tribute to women who embody freedom, earning a nomination for a NAACP Image Award for Poetry. Her debut poetry album, when the poems do what they do, was nominated for a Grammy Best Spoken Word Poetry Album in 2024. The album explores themes of resistance, love, and the inexhaustible quest for joy. As a poet and touring bandleader, she has performed at festivals, concert halls, and theaters across the globe including but not limited to, the Guggenheim, Lincoln Center, Newport Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Fremantle Biennele and the Barbican Centre to name a few. Aja Monet's awards include the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award for Poetry (2019), the Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award (2024), The Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award (2024), the EBONY 100 Artist In Residence Award, and the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Vanguard Award (2025). She also serves as the Artistic Creative Director for V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. In 2022, she created "VOICES," an audio play amplifying the stories of Black women across the diaspora and the African continent. Aja Monet's most recent book of poems inspired by several years living and organizing in South Florida is called, Florida water on Haymarket Books. Her sophomore studio album the color of rain, is set to be released in May 2026 with drink sum wtr.

Bassist and composer Gabriel Espinosa's "The Brazilian Project" is the realization of a lifelong devotion to the music that first stirred his imagination in the 1960s, when the sounds of Jobim, Joao Gilberto and Sergio Mendes reshaped the global jazz landscape. Raised in Mexico on boleros and the Beatles, Espinosa later found in bossa nova a language of melodic grace and rhythmic subtlety that would define his artistic path through Berklee, North Texas State, and to his present home in Iowa. For his eighth solo album, his bass is set aside while his compositions are brought vividly to life by a Brazil-based nonet, with scintillating arrangements by trombonist Rafael Rocha and flugel hornist Bruno Santos. Recorded in Rio de Janeiro and enhanced by the Tallinn Studio Orchestra, the album radiates warmth, elegance, and rhythmic vitality. The Brazilian Project stands as a joyful summit in Espinosa's decades-long journey-an inspired cross-cultural collaboration that honors tradition while speaking in a fresh, contemporary voice. "Bossa nova literally means "new tendency" or "new thing". Gabriel Espinosa renews the genre with his imaginative compositions and top-class musicians." Music Web International " - a mellifluous musical expedition led by this mature bassist, who crafts his music with utmost confidence and grace - The depth of emotion of his music is truly touching." - Latin Jazz Net

Charlie Parker's music has been recorded, studied, debated, and canonized for more than seventy years. Which is precisely why paying tribute to Bird still takes a lot of nerve. There is no safe middle ground. You either bring something new to the conversation, or you risk being drowned out by history. On Another Kind of Bird, Richard Baratta does not tiptoe around this dilemma. Joined by arranger and pianist Bill O'Connell, Baratta revisits Parker's music with a clear sense of purpose and a refusal to play it safe, delivering bold reimaginings propelled by a powerhouse ensemble. Baratta anchors the session with his working band, then raises the stakes. On select tracks, saxophonists Eric Alexander, Abraham Burton, and Craig Handy join regular altoist Vincent Herring to form a dynamic horn section that adds muscle and urgency to the music. Parker emerges here not as relic, but as catalyst: energized, expanded, and unmistakably alive.

Pianist & composer Andrew Moorhead offers a strikingly personal suite of etudes-music born of inquiry, discipline, and risk. Conceived as a kind of private journal, these pieces explore phased time signatures, interlocking melodic cycles, and the elusive space between muscle memory and pure spontaneity. Moorhead's long pursuit of "total liberation" at the piano-having reshaped his technique after catastrophic injuries from a 47-foot fall in 2011-yields a language where skeletal gestures bloom into fluid counterpoint. The result is music that feels at once architectural and airborne. Finding the perfect bandmates in the towering bassist Fran‡ois Moutin, and one of the most idiosyncratic drummers in jazz, Ari Hoenig, their deep rapport generates a kinetic, almost telepathic interplay. Mirage stands as a bold trio statement-intellect and intuition in vivid balance, and a compelling new chapter in Moorhead's evolving voice. "I thought I'd heard just about every approach to the piano, then Andrew Moorhead's new album came along - it's a great reminder that true originality is still out there." Scott Kinsey "... The music is exceptional and consistently engaging. A wonderful recording." All About Jazz

'Black Butterfly' is Brooklyn Funk Essentials eighth studio album and includes the bands recent hits 'Never Give Up', 'Bust The Bus Stop' and 'Life During Wartime'. Playlisted on BBC Radio 2 and Jazz FM and supported by Craig Charles and Cerys Matthews at 6 Music as well as many stations across Europe and the Americas. The album was produced and co-written by bassist Lati Kronlund and features Alison Limerick, Ebba Asman and Desmond Foster on vocals. Kronlund and Limerick have been enjoying the recent renewed interest in 'Where Love Lives'. Kronlund wrote and produced it for Limerick in 1990, it was remixed by Frankie Knuckles and David Morales and became a club classic and was featured in this year's John Lewis Christmas TV Ad. Arthur Baker heard the original in a club in 1991 that he contacted Kronlund about working together and they then formed Brooklyn Funk Essentials. Since then, Brooklyn Funk Essentials have built a devoted international following and notched up over 100 million streams. Fusing Soul, Hip Hop, Spoken Word, Jazz, Latin, and, of course, Funk, the band's journey began experimenting with drum machines and loops in Baker's Shakedown Sound Studio in Jersey City-hunting for that perfect beat. The early recordings featured greats such as Maceo Parker, Lenny Pickett, Tower of Power Horns, Michigan & Smiley, and Dizzy Gillespie, leading to the acclaimed debut 'Cool & Steady & Easy' (1994). Fast-forward to April 2024, when Kronlund reunited with Baker in Miami, rediscovering recordings featuring percussion prodigy Bashiri Johnson, which inspired new creative sparks for the next chapter of Brooklyn Funk Essentials. The band's acclaimed catalogue also includes 'In The Buzzbag' (1998), 'Make Them Like It' (2000), 'Watcha Playin' (2008), 'Funk Ain't Ova' (2015), 'Stay Good' (2019) and 'Intuition' (2023).

In 2005, Frederic Galliano, founder of the Frikyiwa label, decided to put it on hold for a few years. In his archives, many albums recorded during his years of travels in Africa remain unreleased. In the context of the reactivation of the Frikyiwa label, the album Lionel and Stephane Belmondo feat. Keba Kebe Diolas Orchestra: "Calypso Diola" is therefore being released today. It was in the heart of Casamance, in the village of Bignona, that this album was recorded, in a house typical of the region, built of earth, with thick walls producing a warm acoustic open to the outside world. Frederic Galliano's idea was to bring together the Belmondo brothers with Diola culture, renowned for it's distinctive percussion combining wood and struck metal, as well as singular instruments such as the ekontine (a four-string guitar) or Diola flutes. The vocal melodies typical of Casamance are also strong markers of this album, recorded over a few days, live and in an improvisational approach inherent to jazz. Often composed as duos, with the exception of "Osoforal," recalling a certain 1960s jazz, the tracks of the album are marked by an artistic direction that presents the Belmondo brothers in a more stripped-down light than usual. Composed of duos or slow tempos, these tracks and their particular recording approach give this album an original colour in which each part expresses it's own specificity of improvised jazz and Diola culture. Sometimes tinged with humour (Bach to Casamance or Calypso Diola) or with greater softness (Casa Sport), what we are given here is a truly original and creative recording. It is also important to place this album in it's context: recorded in 2002, it was at the time quite unprecedented to have this kind of in situ encounter between European and African musicians. It should therefore be listened to in this specific light. It nonetheless remains both contemporary and timeless.

The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band releases Incarnadine, a landmark debut album celebrating the diversity and vitality of Indigenous people in jazz. Led by acclaimed vocalist Julia Keefe (Nez Perce) and featuring a 16-piece ensemble of Native and Indigenous musicians from across Indian Country, the album draws on compositions made famous by 20th-century Indigenous jazz luminaries like Mildred Bailey and Jim Pepper alongside new works by contemporary Indigenous composers. Mali Obomsawin's "Wawasint8da" transforms a Jesuit-translated Abenaki hymn into a haunting exploration of resilience and paradox. Delbert Anderson's three-movement DDAT Suite honors Dine code talkers and sacred tribal landscapes. Rogan Kahale's arrangement of Queen Liliuokalani's "Ku'u Pua i Paoakalani" brings a tender, cinematic sweep to the program. Incarnadine is history, protest, and celebration rolled into one, a necessary and overdue document of a vibrant jazz tradition that has long existed outside the mainstream spotlight. Fans of large ensemble jazz, vocally driven big band recordings, and socially conscious music will find this album both musically thrilling and deeply meaningful.

From Shanghai-born composer and bandleader Zhengtao Pan comes Day by Day, a sweeping nine-track album for jazz orchestra that draws on classical structure, Chinese musical tradition, film scoring, and the full expressive range of the contemporary big band. Recorded in 2025 and featuring guest artists Rufus Reid, Steve Wilson, Itai Kriss, and Sara Gazarek, the album balances orchestral ambition with deeply personal storytelling. Highlights include the patient, folk-like "Childhood" built on a repeating bass foundation conceived specifically for the legendary Rufus Reid; the groove-driven "Wind Dance" featuring Steve Wilson's soprano saxophone over an Afro-Cuban pulse with Celtic melodic fingerprints; the cinematic "Aurora" featuring Grammy-nominated vocalist Sara Gazarek in a Kenny Wheeler-inspired orchestral setting; and the epic title track, a portrait of artistry as persistence, opening with an intricate ostinato in shifting odd meters before building to a fully earned shout chorus. Pan, a graduate of Berklee College of Music and currently pursuing a master's degree at the Eastman School of Music, has drawn on mentorships with Steven Feifke, Miho Hazama, and Gabriela Ortiz to develop a compositional voice that is simultaneously global and deeply rooted in jazz tradition. Fans of Maria Schneider, Darcy James Argue, and Wayne Shorter's orchestral work will find Day by Day both thrilling and deeply humane.

Founded in 2006 by broadcaster, DJ, and cultural tastemaker Gilles Peterson, Brownswood has spent the last 20 years championing forward-thinking artists who sit just left of centre: rooted in Afro-diasporic music but never confined by genre. Twenty Years Deep is a snapshot of that journey: a carefully curated collection spanning the label's early breakthroughs, cult classics, and defining moments. Twenty Years Deep brings together tracks that reflect Brownswood's long-standing commitment to artistic freedom, musical lineage, and future-facing sounds. From deep jazz explorations and dancefloor mutations to global collaborations and genre-defying hybrids, the compilation captures the connective thread that has defined the label since day one: trust in artists and belief in music that lasts. Rather than a greatest-hits exercise, Twenty Years Deep functions as an archive and a statement documenting how Brownswood has maintained it's own point of view. By following a highly instinctive approach to A&R the label has shaped music culture, introduced new voices, and built a catalogue that continues to resonate well beyond release cycles.

Electric is the seventh studio album from 2025 Billboard Artist of the Year and 19-time Billboard #1 guitarist / producer Adam Hawley-a forward-thinking collection that pushes contemporary jazz deeper into the streaming era while staying rooted in melody, groove, and emotional connection.

Alto saxophonist and flutist Alan Braufman first emerged as a singular voice in New York's 1970s loft-jazz scene with his 1975 debut Valley of Search, a record that would later be recognized as a landmark of spiritual and free jazz. After decades outside the spotlight, Braufman returned with a new wave of acclaim, releasing two highly regarded albums in 2020 and 2024 that reestablished him as both an essential elder and a vital contemporary presence-long described as "a legend in free music" (Gilles Peterson / BBC). Recorded in a single day in the fall of 2025, Anthem for Peace is a fully new studio album that captures Braufman in the present tense. Leading a quartet with vibraphonist Patricia Brennan, bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Chad Taylor, he delivers concise, hook-forward compositions that move fluidly between gospel-tinged anthems, buoyant post-bop, and hypnotic, eastern-influenced themes. Brennan's vibraphone-shimmering acoustically and occasionally treated electronically-adds depth and color, while Stewart and Taylor form a deeply locked, responsive rhythm section. The result is music that is "playful and light, yet texturally dense" (NPR): optimistic, focused, and driven by a clear sense of forward motion.

Brownswood Recordings mark two decades of boundary-pushing independent music with Twenty Years Deep, a limited-edition 3xLP vinyl compilation celebrating the label's rich, global catalogue and enduring influence. Founded in 2006 by broadcaster, DJ, and cultural tastemaker Gilles Peterson, Brownswood has spent the last 20 years championing forward-thinking artists who sit just left of center: rooted in Afro-diasporic music but never confined by genre. Twenty Years Deep is a snapshot of that journey: a carefully curated collection spanning the label's early breakthroughs, cult classics, and defining moments. Pressed on 3 piece colored vinyl Twenty Years Deep brings together tracks that reflect Brownswood's long-standing commitment to artistic freedom, musical lineage, and future-facing sounds. From deep jazz explorations and dancefloor mutations to global collaborations and genre-defying hybrids, the compilation captures the connective thread that has defined the label since day one: trust in artists and belief in music that lasts. Rather than a greatest-hits exercise, Twenty Years Deep functions as an archive and a statement documenting how Brownswood has maintained it's own point of view. By following a highly instinctive approach to A&R the label has shaped music culture, introduced new voices, and built a catalogue that continues to resonate well beyond release cycles.