Colombian-born, NY-based pianist Hector Martignon introduces his "Banda Grande" in daring, visionary arrangements quoting classical composers (Bach, Mozart), iconic jazz and Brazilian songwriters (Bill Evans, Hermeto Pascoal), and six colorful Martignon originals.

CRIES FROM THA GHETTO

Mesmerism is drummer and MacArthur Fellow Tyshawn Sorey's critically-acclaimed program of jazz standards featuring his swinging trio with pianist Aaron Diehl (C�cile McLorin Salvant) and bassist Matt Brewer (SF Jazz Collective). Originally self-released in 2022 by Sorey in a small pressing, the album nonetheless gained wide critical acclaim, with rave reviews in Pitchfork, NPR, Downbeat, JazzTimes and The Wall Street Journal, who called it "far more than an exercise in nostalgia; it advances contemporary trends." The release was voted #4 album of the year in the influential Francis Davis Jazz Poll of over 150 critics. Quite unlike Sorey's other works, which tend towards the cutting-edge, Mesmerism is a happy return to his musical roots: the joy of improvising over songs from the Great American Songbook as well as by some of his other favorite composers and practitioners of the art, including Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Horace Silver, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Paul Motian.

Continuing is Tyshawn Sorey's highly-anticipated follow-up to Mesmerism and The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism, his two critically-acclaimed 2022 releases that were voted #4 and #5 best albums of the year, respectively, in the annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll of over 150 jazz critics. Continuing features the same musicians as on Mesmerism - Sorey on drums, pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Matt Brewer - with four long tracks allowing the musicians to explore crevices and possibilities while keeping the emphasis on melody, groove, swing, and the blues. The languorous pace taken on the standard "Angel Eyes" requires a rare intensity of concentration from the trio, but they dig deeply into the feeling of all of the songs, including compositions by Wayne Shorter and Ahmad Jamal, who both coincidentally passed away recently, and Harold Mabern, a mentor to Sorey. The performances are masterful and unforced, played with an honesty and spontaneity that get at the music's emotional core.

TRICKSTER

IN FOR A PENNY IN FOR A POUND

Ex Machina is a collaboration between saxophonist/composer Steve Lehman, whom the New York Times has called "a state-of-the-art musical thinker," and Orchestre National de Jazz (ONJ) that goes far beyond anything attempted before by a jazz big band. Featuring compositions by Lehman and Fr�d�ric Maurin, ONJ's artistic director, the work incorporates elements of French spectral harmony into it's compositional framework while also integrating live, interactive electronics developed at IRCAM in which abstract electronic sounds react to soloist improvisations in real-time. The new work is inspired by Lehman's Octet, whose groundbreaking work were the first to utilize spectral harmony's complex sonorities within a jazz context. Their critically-lauded releases Mise en Abime (Pi 2014) and Travail, Transformation and Flow (Pi 2009) were voted the #1 album of the year in the NPR Jazz Critics Poll and the #1 jazz album of the year in The New York Times, respectively.

IN CONVERGENCE LIBERATION

VERISIMILITUDE

The Santiago Big Band & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra - Santiago Brooklyn Santiago. O'Farrill, the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra pair up with Cuban pianist Marcos Fern�ndez and Cuba's Santiago Big Band in a historic collaboaration. Santiago, Cuba, is a place where folks know their local culture, lore, and history. A place where buildings have etched brick detailing and names like "Casa Lescay". A place where the arts are beloved, and the Corneta China leads throngs of revelers. A place where young filmmakers, dancers, musicians, writers also begin their careers. A place where your soul is fed by knowledge, community and maduros. Santiago is where I met the Master musician Marcos Fern�ndez (also known as El Brujo Del Tumbao), at his home. He had a piano and we immediately started playing for each other, together and in a round robin frenzy of pure music bonding. He also gave me a reading with the shells and told me stuff about myself that you could not possibly know unless you were me. Often Santiago is called "the real Cuba". This is probably because it is closer to Cuba's African roots than Havana. The music here is profound and profoundly loved. This is the home of Son, and the practitioners are the originators. La Familia Varela, El Quarteto de Saxofon de Juan Chacon, La Conga de Los Hoyas, these are profoundly gifted, deeply rooted musicians with a command of the most authentic of Cuban musical languages. Rumba, Guaganco, Comparsa, Son, Cha Cha, Mambo, Timba, it's all here and in it's greatest expression. These are the waters in which Marcos swims and in which he excels even beyond what one could expect from a people that excel in all things artistic. This record began as a phone conversation between Marcos and I in which we were looking for ways to collaborate, not an easy thing for two people who play the same instrument. Marcos and I shared musicians from of each of our groups and a true collaboration was given birth. Marcos and his musicians recorded in Santiago and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra recorded in their homes. Guest soloists from each group played on each other's recordings and finally after many months a unique recording was produced. Arturo O'Farrill

Hailed by The New York Times as "a state-of-the-art musical thinker with a reputation for sure-footed futurism," and "one of the transforming figures of 21st-century jazz" by The Guardian, saxophonist/composer Steve Lehman has built a career creating innovative new music that packs the visceral wallop of live performance. Acclaimed for his groundbreaking work of melding spectral harmonies with modern jazz, he was voted the "#1 Rising Star Jazz Musician" in the 2015 Downbeat International Critics Poll and his prior album Mise en Ab�me the #1 Album of the Year in the NPR Jazz Critics Poll. Lehman continues his boundary-breaking work in a different vein with S�l�b�yone. The powerful new album draws from modern jazz, the rapping of Senegalese artist Gaston Bandimic, the underground hip-hop of HPrizm (aka High Priest of Antipop Consortium) and live electronics to create a dynamic form of urban experimentalism. Shifting rhythms, otherworldly electro-acoustic harmonies, contemporary sound design, and vocal gymnastics abound. And rather than simply co-existing and accommodating one another, the lyrical and the musical elements of S�l�b�yone are entirely integrated in exciting new ways. Add to that the unique juxtaposition of English and Wolof and one senses the unveiling of an entirely new musical realm.

The Other One, the latest from Henry Threadgill, is the musical component of a large multimedia work performed and recorded live at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, New York in 2022. The recording is comprised of a three-movement composition entitled "Of Valence," which was inspired by the percussionist and theorist Milford Graves, in particular, his integration of the human heartbeat into his musical works, and is performed by a 12-piece ensemble. All the hallmarks of Threadgill's music are here: unpredictable forms, unusual instrumental combinations that create surprising timbres, percolating rhythms, interwoven melodic strains, and masterful interlacing of composition with improvisation. The New York Times described the performance as possessing "a galvanic sense of swing," and "in lock-step with his every surprise rhythmic feint - producing an obliquely danceable, straightforwardly joyous Threadgillian energy." There is nothing else like it.

CONTINUUM

RADIATE

LEGEND OF E'BOI (THE HYPERVIGILANT EYE)

SIXTEEN

VISTA ACCUMULATION

Zealous Angles is the first documentation of pianist/composer Matt Mitchell's long-running trio featuring bassist Chris Tordini and drummer Dan Weiss. Mitchell has been called by The New York Times "a pianist of burrowing focus and an indispensable fixture of the contemporary vanguard." He is an anchor member of several significant and acclaimed creative music ensembles such as Tim Berne's Snakeoil, Dan Weiss's Starebaby, Miles Okazaki's Trickster, Ches Smith's We All Break, Kate Gentile's Find Letter X, Jon Irabagon's Outright!, Anna Webber's Simple Trio, John Hollenbeck's Large Ensemble, Linda Oh's Aventurine, Caroline Davis's Alula, Jonathan Finlayson's Sicilian Defense, and the Dave King Trio. He also performs regularly with many of the foremost musicians and bandleaders in improvised music, including Steve Coleman Dave Douglas, Rudresh Mahanthappa, John Zorn, Darius Jones, among many more.

The compositions on Zealous Angles represent Mitchell's explorations into the simultaneous use of polymetric and polyrhythmic music in a group context. Composed elements featuring phrases of different lengths are played simultaneously by each musician, resulting in a wobbly rhythmic tension with pulses locking in in surprising ways. The musicians also have the freedom to direct their interaction by playing any of the lines at any time, with a goal towards playing with maximum improvisational freedom while achieving heightened levels of rhythmic fluidity. Despite the teeter-tottering nature of the music, there is a palpable sense of swing and groove, completely shattering the notions of what is possible within the jazz piano trio tradition.

Find Letter X, the eponymous release from the Brooklyn-based band led by drummer/composer Kate Gentile, features saxophonist Jeremy Viner, pianist Matt Mitchell, and bassist Kim Cass. Gentile's 2021 release Snark Horse - co-led with Mitchell - was a gargantuan six-volume set that Downbeat called "Monumental... Creating an abstract galaxy from scratch, they sound like they know every black hole and supercluster in the place." The similarly-ambitious new work - across three densely-packed CDs housed in a custom-designed package - bursts with inventive details and dramatic arcs. Each disc contains a distinct thematic identity while simultaneously contributing to a larger narrative trajectory. Meticulously-constructed and highly intentional, Find Letter X is a wide-ranging exploration of diverse sonics and contrasting forms: a vibrant feedback loop of virtuosic improvisational and compositional ingenuity entirely unified by Gentile's singular musical aesthetic.

BOOK OF MAE'BUL: ANOTHER KIND OF SUNRISE

Roscoe Mitchell - One Head Four People - Roscoe Mitchell (Art Ensemble Of Chicago) was 2023's recipient of an American Society of Arts and Letters award which let to the creation of this work. Mainly a trio and quartet work Roscoe plays Bass saxophone as well as his percussion array.

The David S. Ware Archive Series was launched in November 2015 with the expanded & definitive release of Birth of a Being, and AUM Fidelity has marked the anniversary of his birth - November 7, 1949 - with a new edition therein every year since. David S. Ware was a master saxophonist of the highest order, and an unparalleled sonic alchemist of the modern jazz era. Following David's untimely passing in October 2012, it was understood necessary to continue releasing singular works of great magnitude in order to further radiate his distinctly potent sound and vision. As he and his work were an integral inspiration toward the creation of AUM Fidelity, that mission continues strong with this essential DSW-ARC series. Th��tre Garonne, 2008 presents a luminous concert from a transitional period in David S. Ware's ever-creative life. His 17-year-longstanding Quartet with Matthew Shipp and William Parker, which had achieved a naturally ascendant and well-earned worldwide acclaim, performed their final concerts on a triumphal European tour in March 2007. Knowing that this end was coming, David had already begun writing new compositions and conceptualizing what would become his new quartet. The first iteration of this group, foundationally with guitarist Joe Morris, debuted at New York's Iridium jazz club in mid-July. The group was made whole with Ware's stalwart musical companion William Parker back on bass and fellow master musician Warren Smith on drums. As had been Ware's method with his Quartet, the group worked the new material live on stage together toward a studio recording thereof. That session took place in May 2008, and Shakti [AUM052] was the gorgeous result. The change from Shipp's 88 keys to Morris' cleanly articulated lines on 6 strings played a substantial role in the resulting sound. The density of much of Ware's classic Quartet work gave way, allowing a more ready hearing to the nuance & focus on melody which is part of all his work. As AUM Fidelity wrote on it's release: heavyweight as ever yet light as a feather.

Alto saxophonist Steve Lehman has arrived. The New York Times described his 2009 release Travail, Transformation and Flow as a breathtaking accomplishment and it's #1 Jazz/Pop CD of 2009. That album solidified Lehman's status as a young visionary composer with powerful new ideas about the future of jazz. On Dialect Fluorescent, Lehman defies his reputation as a future-fixated modernist and combines his own state-of-the-art compositions with a program of compositions by jazz legends like John Coltrane and Jackie McLean. But this album isn't just about paying homage every piece is treated as an opportunity to demonstrate a broad continuum of possibilities within the jazz tradition.

A seed is a star, a star is a seed. Stevie Wonder's cosmically aphoristic title could also describe pianist and composer Eri Yamamoto's Goshu Ondo Suite. "About two years ago," she writes in the liner notes accompanying her momentous seven-part opus, "I was vacuuming my apartment, and with the rhythm of the movement, I began singing "Goshu Ondo," a traditional circle dance song from Shiga, near Kyoto, Japan." This is how the prolific musician channeled deeply felt resonances with various traditions, birthing her most significant and thoroughgoing work to date. The November 2018 premiere concerts were recorded, and now, thanks to Yamamoto's long-standing relationship with AUM Fidelity, we can all participate in the transcultural celebration.

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