NEW SPRING - LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD

COOL SOUNDS IN MODERN VOICES / VARIOUS

IN AN AMBIENT WAY

URBANICITY

SONGS FOR LOVERS

This is the Chesky Records debut of Cuban vocalist Xiomara Laugart. Xiomara is already well-known to Latin Jazz and world music aficionados for her association with the acclaimed Yerba Buena. On XIOMARA this superb vocalist fuses the essence of Cuba, with it's rhythmic folks ongs, to a sophiscated contemporary sound, buoyed by the participation of her Yerba Buena colleagues such Andres Levin and Descemer Bueno.

NEW YORK BLUE

ON THE WAY TO TWO

BLACK COFFEE

JVC JAZZ FESTIVAL PRESENTS A NIGHT OF / VARIOUS

STORIES

SECOND SET

THE MUSIC OF CHICK COREA'S LEGENDARY GROUP, RETURN TO FOREVER... REIMAGINED THE LATEST COLLABORATION BETWEEN MULTIPLE GRAMMY�- WINNER BEASLEY & THE TWICE-NOMINATED FRANKFURT RADIO BIG BAND "Chick gave me his blessings and offered his original handwritten charts. He asked me to share my arrangements with him. I was amazed by how open-minded he was." -JOHN BEASLEY As a pianist/keyboardist, arranger, composer, conductor, record producer, music director, and educator, John Beasley has contributed to countless memorable, critically-acclaimed projects. Returning To Forever, with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, is a standout achievement in his illustrious career. Return To Forever, led by Chick Corea and featuring bassist Stanley Clarke, was one of the great fusion bands of the 1970s. Now, Beasley has rearranged and reimagined RTF's music for the GRAMMY�-nominated Frankfurt Radio Big Band. Before starting the project, Beasley reached out to Corea for his blessing. Excited by the idea, Chick sent Beasley handwritten charts, but passed away before he could hear where Beasley and the Big Band would take them. With a dozen Grammy� nominations and two wins, Returning To Forever is the latest milestone in Beasley's career. In his twenties, he worked as a keyboardist with both Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard. He has had a long-time association with Dianne Reeves and has collaborated with Christian McBride, Chaka Khan, Dave Grusin, Lee Ritenour, Steely Dan, Queen Latifah, Somi, and Chucho Vald�s, among others. He's worked behind the scenes on countless film & TV scores and released over a dozen albums as a leader. The Frankfurt Radio Big Band (aka hr-Bigband) is a 17-piece jazz orchestra currently led by 12-time Grammy�-nominee Jay McNeely. 1. Captain Sen~or Mouse 2. Space Circus 3. No Mystery 4. Vulcan Worlds 5. Medieval Overture 6. You're Everything / La Fiesta 7. Return to Forever

FANTASIES

MERIDIAN SUITE

With this beautifully recorded Live CD, Swing Live, the listener is transported into the intimate atmosphere of a Manhattan Jazz club. With all the accompanying crowd interaction, come join US for an excited re-creation of this epic, live jazz performance.

2017 release. Two absolutely superb piano players from different musical worlds: Bruno Canino, as a representative of art music, and Enrico Pieranunzi, as a representative of jazz. Two Americas, the Northern one and the Southern one, and some of the greatest composers from both. The Americas project has been conceived for two pianos intertwining like cultures and musical worlds do. Here, between Canino and Pieranunzi, it matters little who is playing "what" and "when". Listening to Americas one is again led to realize that apparent contrasts are actually bonds consisting of irresistible mutual attractions, common points, osmotic relations. Whatever the image this record conjures up in listeners' minds, Americas is definitely great music, confident that culture is not entrenching in what one already knows but breaking conventions, boundaries, mutual inflexibility. Like Bruno Canino and Enrico Pieranunzi did by playing face to face, each backed up by his own strong cultural background and, for this very reason, splendidly creative and versatile.

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).

CHESKY WOODWINDS COLLECTION / VARIOUS

A Singular Blend of Dynamic Post- Pop & Electronic Production Featuring The Vibraphonist's Remarkable Quartet Special Guests Gerald Clayton and Marquis Hill Named One Of Downbeat's 25 For The Future "His music is fresh, it speaks to everyone. Never heard anyone play vibes like that before." - Herbie Hancock "Best vibes player I've heard..." - Quincy Jones In discussing Elements of Light, his fifth album as a leader, the vibraphonist- composer Simon Moullier often returns to a specific term: unfolding. "This is an important word - the unfolding of a song," says Moullier, who was born in France and lives in New York. "It's something I'm very attached to, and something I'm always working on." Even the most serious intellectual musical concepts are rendered with a directness, a simplicity that can captivate a general audience. "For me, no matter how complex an idea can get," he says, "clarity is always key." That's a mature, evolved outlook for a millennial jazz musician to embrace, and it's shared among Moullier's youthful quartet featuring pianist Lex Korten, bassist Rick Rosato and drummer Jongkuk "JK" Kim. What's more, these musicians of astonishing technical facility interact with the selflessness and good taste that Moullier's song- focused music requires; to say it another way, they use their virtuosity to make the bandleader's compositions sound as human and affecting as possible - never to preen.

PROXIMITY

2018 release. After reaching the bar setting artistic peak with "Bad Hombre" in 2017, the multifaceted Antonio Sanchez continues his evolution with "Channels of Energy", featuring the WDR Big Band with arrangements by world renowned great Vince Mendoza, to satisfy the aspect of his musical personality that is a forum for his astute compositional panache. This album should be thought of as a trio in a sense between Sanchez, the scope of Mendoza's arranging and the WDR Big Band. Vince Mendoza for decades has been one of the most in demand arrangers and composers whose stylistic brush is incredibly wide from pop to jazz.

MAIDEN VOYAGE

Legendary saxophonist Lee Konitz, has led an extensive reocrding career that spans six decades. This recording marks the manifestation of Lee's desire to represent the "possibilities to be creative" in the organic, improvisational nature of jazz.

LIVE FROM STUDIO A / VARIOUS