Petra Haden shines in Love Songs Live-an exciting concert version of the new musical from the songwriting team of John Zorn and Jesse Harris. Presented at National Sawdust in September 2023 as part of the Zorn@70 NYC concert series, the music is beautiful, lyrical, with heartwarming lyrics about a love lost and found. Accompanied by the soulful trio of Brian Marsella, Jorge Roeder, and Ches Smith, this is a dynamic concert performance that pushes musical theatre forward with a creative Downtown edge. Touching upon the languages of the 20th century's most creative musical songsmiths-Sondheim, Weill, Bacharach, and the Tin Pan Alley tradition-Love Songs Live is an absolute delight!

INANA

Stella Nova is the first solo recording by pianist Esa Helasvuo one of the trailblazers in Finnish improvised music in over 20 years. The recording comprises ten delicate improvisations with emphasis very much on ballads. Three are based upon earlier compositions by Helasvuo himself and one on a classic Finnish tango Satumaa, by Unto Mononen whereas the other six were created in the moment at the M2 (YLE) Studio in Helsinki Finland. Esa Helasvuo belongs to the same first generation of Finnish improvising musicians as saxophonists Juhani Aaltonen Eero Koivistoinen and Seppo Paakkunainen bassist Teppo Hauta-aho and drummer Edward Vesala among others with whom he often performed particularly earlier in his career in the late 1960s and the 1970s. Stella Nova also marks the 40th Anniversary of the publication of Helasvuo's first recording as a leader in 1973.

PANOPTIC MODES

(2-CD set) Conversations presents two Finnish jazz icons, saxophonist Juhani Aaltonen and pianist Heikki Sarmanto, in an extended musical conversation - an open dialogue. It is a collection of 16 improvisations either created spontaneously in the studio or by using Sarmanto's compositions and even two standards as a launching pad - nearly two hours of improvised music altogether. Conversations is not their first duo album but it is without a doubt one of their very best, reflecting nearly five decades of shared musical history and their love for improvisation. CD-1 1. When I Was with You (Heikki Sarmanto)2. So Much Happened. (Juhani Aaltonen and Heikki Sarmanto)3. What We Cannot Imagine (Heikki Sarmanto)4.. It Happened Today (Juhani Aaltonen and Heikki Sarmanto)5. Le Petit Soldat (Heikki Sarmanto)6. Just Like a Dream (Juhani Aaltonen and Heikki Sarmanto)7. You and the Night and the Music (Arthur Schwartz - Howard Dietz)8. Evening Prayer (Heikki Sarmanto)CD-2 1. from Nothing (Heikki Sarmanto)2. No Work Bound Me (Heikki Sarmanto)3. Free Souls (Juhani Aaltonen and Heikki Sarmanto)4. The Sea in the Moonlight (Heikki Sarmanto)5. War Trane (Heikki Sarmanto)6. Peace Talks (Juhani Aaltonen and Heikki Sarmanto)7. Alone Together (Arthur Schwartz - Howard Dietz)8. Evening Haze (Heikki Sarmanto)

RADIF SUITE

Olavi Trio's Teppo Olavi Hauta-aho (bass), Jari Olavi Hongisto (trombone) and Niilo Olavi Louhivuori (drums) share the same middle name and a mutual love for free improvisation. All three Olavi's are well-respected members of the Finnish improv and jazz scenes. The trio's senior Teppo Hauta-aho has been active since the early 1960's and has been heard in Edward Vesala's, Anthony Braxton's and Cecil Taylor's many ensembles, among others. Trombonist Jari Hongisto paid his dues with Edward Vesala's Sound & Fury and performs with the Iro Haarla Quintet. The youngest of the three, drummer Olavi Louhivuori, first became known through Ilmiliekki Quartet and is currently a member of Tomasz Stanko's quintet and Sun Trio.With the help of guests Verneri Pohjola (trumpet), Juhani Aaltonen (saxophone) and guitarist Kalle Kalima, Olavi Trio is constantly on the search of the holy trinity of the wisdom of improvisation, reaching for the moment and obtaining collegial harmony.

TWO RIVERS

BUNUEL DE JOUR

TRAVAIL TRANSFORMATION & FLOW

Some Kubrick's of Blood is the first recording of K-18, an ensemble led by Berlin-based Finnish guitarist Kalle Kalima. Inspired by the work of director Stanley Kubrick, the albums tracks refer to different locations found within the auteur's celebrated films, rather than scenes or films per se. The quartet's personal touch and a remarkable sense of unity create a sonic entity well suited for representing the moody and immensely surprising world of Kubrick. Kalle Kalima electric and acoustic guitars, Mikko Innanen alto, soprano and baritone saxophones, Veli Kujala quarter-tone accordion, Teppo Hauta-aho double bass.

STREAMING

MANCY OF SOUND

(2-CD set) Occupy the World features the legendary composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith together with Tumo, a new improvising orchestra that is assembled specifically for each project, in it's first appearance. The 22-piece orchestra performs five extended compositions by Smith, including "Occupy the World for Life, Liberty and Justice", his most extensive recorded composition to date, that was originally inspired by the Occupy movement. The four other compositions included on this double-CD were also recorded here for the first time. TUMO is made up of leading improvisers in Finland and the Nordic region, many of whom have recorded for Tum Records with various groups before. In addition to the principal soloists, Wadada Leo Smith on four compositions and bassist John Lindberg on one, featured are trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, trombonist Jari Hongisto, saxophonists Mikko Innanen and Fredrik Ljungkvist, flutist Juhani Aaltonen, pianist Seppo Kantonen, harpist Iro Haarla, accordionist Veli Kujala, guitarists Kalle Kalima and Mikko Iivanainen as well as drummers Mika Kallio, Stefan Pasborg and Janne Tuomi, among others.

VISION TOWARDS ESSENCE

Conclusions can be seen to reflect the long career of the Finnish tenor saxophone giant Juhani Aaltonen through ten new compositions by members of the quartet that also include pianist/harpist Iro Haarla, bassist Ulf Krokfors and drummer Reino Laine, who are all masters in their own right. On Conclusions, Aaltonen takes stock of his musical past while moving to a new, more mature level, still always placing a strong accent on free improvisation.

DEMIAN AS A POSTHUMAN

March of the Alpha Males is the first recording of the Ilmiliekki Quartet. Founded in early 2002, the group won the Young Nordic Jazz Comets competition just months later in the summer of 2002. Strong, beautiful melodies and boundless improvisation ready to break conventions while simultaneously embracing a broad variety of musical influences are what Ilmiliekki Quartet is all about. March of the Alpha Males includes an eclectic mix of the members' own compositions as well as tunes by Ornette Coleman, Kenny Wheeler, Bj�rk and Radiohead.

SIMULATED PROGRESS

(3-CD set) Trumpet is a unique three-CD boxed set of solo trumpet music recorded over one week in the beautiful natural acoustics of St. Mary's Church, the medieval stone church in the Town of Pohja on the Southern Coast of Finland. All compositions are by Wadada Leo Smith. Trumpet represents a culmination of Smith's recorded solo trumpet work that has comprised a total of six albums before Trumpet, starting with his very first album as a leader, Creative Music - 1: Six Solo Improvisations, in 1971 and ending with his dedication to Thelonious Monk, Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk, in 2015.

YOUR LIFE FLASHES

Duo Nueva Finlandia is pianist Eero Ojanen and bassist Teppo Hauta-aho, who have both represented the top of Finnish modern Jazz since the early 1960s. After often playing together during the 1960's and 1970s, they went their separate ways for many years, but started again playing together first as Trio Nueva Finlandia (with saxophonist Seppo Paakkunainen being the third member) and more recently as a duo. Short Stories is the result of an impromptu session from June 1998. It is improvised music at it's purest: no recording engineer, no written music, no preconceived notions of what the music is going to be. Just two musicians with their instruments, a recording device and two microphones ready to capture the magic.

CODEBOOK

Delirium is a quartet made up of Finnish saxophonist Mikko Innanen and his three Danish compatriots, including Kasper Tranberg on cornet, Jonas Westergaard on bass and Stefan Pasborg on drums. Eclexistence, the second album of Delirium, is characterized by a sense of musical adventure. Combining the tradition of modern jazz with their own fresh take on that tradition, there is a definite joy of freedom and will to experiment that guide the quartet's approach. New elements, such as increased ethnic influences, enrich the music even further from their debut recording.

This fifth CD by the Chaos Magick band is one of Zorn's greatest recent achievements. Three extended compositions that run the gamut from Funk, Metal, Contemporary Classical, and more blended into a dramatic narrative that is constantly surprising and yet deeply inevitable. Featuring four of the most accomplished performers in Zorn's inner circle, this is a mind blowing document of Zorn's kaleidoscopic compositional vision. Astonishing and utterly essential! John Medeski, Brian Marsella, Matt Hollenberg, Kenny Grohowski.