2017 release. A drum solo by Antonio Sanchez, one of the most sought-after drummers of his generation. The four-time Grammy award winning artist describes the experience an "... experimental project in the sense that it is a complete departure from anything I've ever done in the past as a drummer, composer, producer and engineer. Art is a reflection of life so I took a look at what had been happening in the world, realized that a surprising level of anger, frustration and awareness had been growing in me due to the political situation in the United States. I also wanted to have something that represented my Mexican heritage in a very emphatic way at some point in the album. Taking all these feelings and putting them into the creative process is always very cathartic and playing drums has always been a very meditative and healing ritual for me, so I wanted to develop this project starting with the instrument that has been with me since I can remember. The drum set. I found this project to be one of the most liberating endeavors I've ever set myself to do. Almost like having an alter ego. The Bad Hombre." Recorded in New York at Meridian Studios in October 2016, Bad Hombre contains approximately 55 minutes of music; all tracks written, arranged, produced and performed by Antonio Sanchez.

LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD

In July of 1960, in protest against what they considered the failings of the jazz scene and the accelerating commercialization of the annual Newport Jazz Festival, Charles Mingus and Max Roach staged their own "rebel" festival at nearby Cliff Walk Manner, RI. The rebels set up their own tents for sleeping, built their own stage, handled advertising, promotion, ticket taking and MC duties. By all accounts the concert was wholly inspired and a peaceful affair. Meanwhile, what was supposed to be an alternative festival turned out to be the only one in town. Unable to disperse an intoxicated mob of young people seeking access to the sold-out show at Freebody Park, the actual Newport Jazz Festival ended abruptly in a full scale riot. Despite the fact that these sessions were held in the studio, the music reflects the high-spirited freedom of the best jazz played at the original setting with nearly all of it improvised during the recording. Of particular note is the Booker Little track "Cliff Walk," which features both Max Roach and Jo Jones, two of the greatest jazz drummers ever, trading off. The LP includes extraordinary liner notes written by Hentoff himself, giving a context and insight that adds to the experience of hearing these magnificent performances. This recording is remastered by legendary mastering engineer, Bernie Grundman.

OTHER PEOPLE

JAZZ CHAMBER TRIO

ROMANCE IN RIO / VARIOUS

MYSTERIOUS SHORTER

JAZZ MONEY, the 2024 debut album from multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer Zacchae'Us Paul is an irreverent, fresh take on "America's classical music" that speaks to the 24 year old artist's deep-beyond-his-years understanding of Black music and the African diaspora. Paul stretches and bends jazz sounds around the Atlanta hip-hop he grew up with, the gospel sounds and philosophies that have long shaped his music making, and the Caribbean rhythms he learned studying in Puerto Rico. He has created a wholly personal sound that is youthful, and thoughtful all at once. "When you listen to this album, listen to it again," Paul says. "A lot of the songs have multiple meanings, and I'd love for people to have different perspectives on them." Made with a cast of improvising upstarts and veterans that includes the album's executive producer, Terri Lyne Carrington, fellow Atlanta native and Candid recording artist Morgan Guerin and Paul's fianc�e and star vocalist Melanie Charles, Jazz Money is jazz music for this, and future, generations.

As the title suggests, the recording Tenorlee finds Lee Konitz, the great American saxophonist, playing exclusively on tenor. It was a spontaneous decision, and a tribute to his dear friend, Lighthouse All-Star saxophonist Richie Kamuca, who had passed away just days before Konitz entered the studio for these sessions. Konitz classically trained on the clarinet, but switched to jazz saxophone after being enamored by Lester Young. By 1945 the 18 year old Konitz was performing professionally. He made a staggering 150 albums as a band leader over the course of his long and storied career. He played and recorded with everyone from Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, Ornette Colman, Elvin Jones, and Gerry Mulligan, to Elvis Costello, Brad Mehldau and Charlie Haden. Between 1948 and 1950, he was a member of Miles Davis' group, and participated in the recordings that would eventually be collected and released as Birth of The Cool. With a trio featuring Lighthouse All-Star alum Jimmy Rowles on piano and Michael Moore on bass, Kontiz called out old and familiar songs. The intention was to "let the tunes happen" as only finely tuned jazz musicians of certain experience can. Of note is "Lady Be Good" which finds Konitz and Rowles quoting Lester Young's solo from the 1936 recording with Count Basie. From 1978, originally on the Choice label, this album has been remastered and is presented here as the artist intended, with it's original title, track order and album artwork, for the first time since it's original release. Remastered by Alex McCollough at True East Mastering. Vinyl cut by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl.

SO RIGHT

LIVE IN NEW YORK

One of the more difficult aspects of being a modern musician is acknowledging forebears while developing a unique identity. Trumpeter Diego Urcola pays tribute to his heroes and contemporaries on his new recording, APPRECIATION. He shows his recognition not by imitation but through compositions inspired and dedicated to heroes and friends, including Freddie Hubbard, Hermeto Pascoal, Paquito D'Rivera, and Guillermo Klein. Urcola presents his original compositions with the help of an amazing ensemble, featuring pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Eric McPherson.

WORLD SAMPLER / VARIOUS

PHIL WOODS / RIGHTS OF SWING - Rights of Swing (Remastered) Phil Woods - When he first came on the scene, Phil Woods was often referred to as "The New Bird," in a nod to the legendary Charlie Parker. A testament to his genius on the saxophone to be sure. But while obviously indebted to Parker - as all modern jazz saxophonists of a certain era were - there is no question that Phil Woods was an original. After earning a degree in music from Juilliard in the early 1950's, Woods found himself in the orbit of the great Quincy Jones. At Jones' invitation Woods joined Dizzy Gillespie's infamous Jazz Ambassadors - a tour sponsored by the US State Department as part of a global cultural diplomacy initiative - and subsequently became a member of Jones' own touring band. This recording, his 9th album as a band leader, consists entirely of Woods' five-part Rights of Swing Suite. An ambitious large-scale composition based solidly on jazz traditions. A culmination of the influences the then 30 year artist had absorbed. Arguably considered one of Woods finest recordings, the record features a stellar section made up of Wood's fellow Quincy Jones band members. (It should be noted that these same musicians, for the most part, are also the section on Benny Bailey's Candid Records recording, Big Brass, recorded a a few months prior in November of 1960). Recorded at the Nola Penthouse Studios in New Your City on two dates in January and February of 1961, and conducted by Quincy Jones. The LP includes extraordinary liner notes by Candid A&R man and producer Nat Hentoff, and in-depth commentary from Woods himself, giving a context and insight that adds to the experience of hearing these extraordinary performances.

CAMINHO DE CASA

POESIA

FOR ASTOR & ELIS

THEN & NOW

2022 release. For the 2018 opening celebration of the Berklee Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice, Teri Lyne Carrington asked her students to select and perform songs from the famed jazz Real Book - a compilation of lead sheets or scores of jazz standards - written by women composers. When she realized there was only one in the entire book, Carrington, a Grammy Award winning virtuoso jazz drummer, composer, inter-disciplinary artist, activist and educator, who has worked tirelessly over the last decade to advocate for inclusivity and raise the voice of women, trans and non-binary people in jazz, set out to shift the narrative. Over the next several years, Carrington assembled New Standards, a book of 101 jazz compositions written by women. New Standards Vol. 1 captures 11 of these compositions. This star-studded recording features special guests Ambrose Akinmusire, Melanie Charles, Ravi Coltrane, Val Jeanty, Samara Joy, Julian Lage, Michael Mayo, Elena Pinderhughes, Dianne Reeves, Negah Santos and Somi, backed by a core section comprised of Carrington (drums), Kris Davis (piano), Linda May Han Oh (bass), Nicholas Payton (trumpet), and Matthew Stevens (guitar).

PERMUTATIONS is the latest album from Roman pianist, Enrico Pieranunzi.

Diego Urcola's new record, Viva, features the Grammy nominated trumpeter leading an all-star lineup. "I wanted to put together my dream band," said Urcola. The core group of Edward Simon, Avishai Cohen, Antonio Sanchez, and Pernel Saturnino are joined by guests, Paquito d'Rivera, Jimmy Heath, Dave Samuels and Conrad Herwig. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Paquito," Urcola says. "He gave me my first big break, and I got to meet a lot of people through him, including Dave, with whom I've been working in the Caribbean Jazz Project for the last three years." Heath was Urcola's advisor for his master's degree at CUNY/City College-Queens College and later an employer in his big band and quintet, while Herwig is a friend via the United Nations Orchestra. Viva features four Urcola originals; two from fellow Argentine composer/big bandleader Guillermo Klein; a pair from another Argentine composer and one of Urcola's best friends, Juan Raffo; a piece by Heath, and the Astor Piazzola classic, "Adios Nonino," a sublime melody the bandoneon master wrote for his father. "I love this tune," says Urcola. "I wrote this arrangement a few years ago for a concert I did with Paquito." on Viva, a sensibility of experimentation is vibrantly apparent throughout. So too is Urcola's aim to integrate his homeland's voice into the jazz idiom. "I like to bring the tango flavor from my country into the mix," he says, then adds, "But foremost I'm a jazz musician."

Like few musicians in the history of music, Kenny Wheeler has been able to make his music a trademark. An approach to his instrument, the trumpet that has marked artistic events for generations of musicians. A sound that transfixes today as it did yesterday and touches whoever comes into contact with this artist. But Kenny Wheeler is more than that. Music at it's purest, an instrumentalist but also as a composer and arranger. And the Long Waiting is a precious gem inside the corpus of the trumpeter's discography. After having measured his composition for string quartet with the album Other People, Wheeler raises the stakes by facing a much larger format: The big band. The result is amazing, unique. A modern writing that embellishes the history of the jazz orchestra. It seems simple, listening to this work with particular attention to the melody, but in Wheeler's themes there is a compositional complexity that only a great craftsman of music is able to construct.

PRIME

In 1993 Chick Corea - the venerated 27-time Grammy winner and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master - unveiled the second incarnation of the Elektric Band. With the brand new lineup of guitarist Mike Miller, bassist Jimmy Earl and drummer Gary Novak, and saxophonist Eric Marienthtal (the lone holder over from the first iteration of the Elektric Band,) Corea, approached this ambitious outing in the same way he had done everything throughout his career, by pushing the boundaries of what modern jazz is. With material written with these specific players in mind, Corea gathered this group of remarkably flexible musicians into Mad Hatter Studios in Los Angeles. Recorded almost entirely live in first takes, the album is notable for it's "less is more" approach to Corea's particular style of genre bending composition. Though the focus may have been more on acoustic piano than synths, the same proficiency, spontaneity, impeccable execution and jaw-dropping display of chops that characterize the five first Elektric Band albums applies. Of special note here is the inclusion of the track "Final Frontier", originally released exclusively on the Japanese and European editions. This all out burner is the lone tune on the record featuring Corea on a synthesizer. Written as an answer to "Got A Match" from 1986's The Chick Corea Elektric Band album, it's an uptempo showcase for the players to stretch out and the kind of track that exemplifies the jazz fusion that Corea and his groups came to define.

TANGOS & DANCES