Born out of her time on the road, Samara Joy took her touring band into legendary Van Gelder Studios in February of 2024. This record, appropriately entitled Portrait, is a collection of standards (as well as one original) and features her singular voice, alongside arrangements from this tight-knit young group. The recording tells the story of the community she's created with a new generation of young players and is evocative of the energy of her incredible live show.

Charles Mingus -Changes: The Complete 1970s Atlantic Studio Recordings - The story of a new phase in Mingus' music - his last phase - begins with the recordings in this boxed set. Featuring all of his 1970's output for Atlantic Records, all configurations of the album include previously unreleased outtakes of "Big Alice", "The Call" and "Music For Todo Modo". There is also an extra set of takes of "Big Alice" and "The Call" on an Outtakes disc exclusive to the vinyl format. The sets release Spring 2023, with both an 8LP and 7CD configuration as well as Digital Download and Streaming options.

Acclaimed Grammy-winning musician, singer-songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello makes her Blue Note Records debut with her new album, The Omnichord Real Book. It's a visionary and deeply jazz-influenced work that marks the start of a new chapter in her trailblazing career. Following her 2018 covers album, Ventriloquism, Meshell returns with an album of original material that taps into a broad spectrum of her musical roots.

2023 release. The extended family around London's Total Refreshment Centre (TRC) connects continents and generations, creating the rich relationships on Transmissions From Total Refreshment Centre. It's an eclectic and electric collection drawing on new school jazz, hip hop, dub, soul, funk, and drill. Top players from London, Chicago, and Melbourne seeking out new collaborations, new ways of working, or just new tunes, always coming back to that central truth - that we all need each other.

Vinyl LP pressing. Love In Exile asks you to step inside it's sense of time, to stretch out alongside these delightful & unhurriedly unfolding songs. Profound impact is achieved with minimal instrumentation: Iyer on pianos & electronics, Ismaily on bass & Moog synth & Aftab's exquisite Urdu vocals. Subtle musical interrelationships build into moments of deeply felt drama. Shimmering keyboard melodies & stirring vocals, earthy basslines, & hypnotic drones: together they create an album of stunning gravitas & beauty.

2022 release. Domi & JD Beck release their highly anticipated debut album Not Tight on Anderson.Paak's new label, Apeshit Inc in partnership with Blue Note Records. Featuring special guests Anderson.Paak, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Herbie Hancock, Thundercat, Mac DeMarco, and Kurt Rosenwinkel, the album exemplifies their trailblazing take on jazz. The New York Times hailed them as simultaneously "freakishly complex and virtuosic" and "relentlessly melodic."

Immanuel Wilkins -"Blues Blood" / Saxophonist/composer Immanuel Wilkins' 3rd studio album, Blues Blood, is a meditative offering partially inspired by his childhood, a multimedia performance about the legacies of our ancestors and the bloodlines connecting us. Co-produced by Meshell Ndegeocello and feat. Micah Thomas (piano), Rick Rosato (bass), Kweku Sumbry (drums), and vocalists Ganavya, June McDoom and Yaw Agyeman - with guest appearances by vocalist C�cile McLorin Salvant, Marvin Sewell (guitar), and Chris Dave (drums) - it's his most ambitious LP to date. Blues Blood marks the first time he's included vocalists on an album, with each distinctive voice tapping into different aspects of heritage. Blues Blood feels airy and celestial - a soothing balm for anyone searching for peace, and for Black people trying to reconcile history in a country that tries to erase it. It explores 'blues' as a symbol of radical optimism in the face of adversity and 'blood' as a symbol of all things ancestral and generational.

2024 collection. Louis Armstrong made his first studio records in Richmond, Indiana 101 years ago, recording acoustically because microphones hadn't yet been invented. Microphones eventually allowed Armstrong to begin recording electrically to disc and, later, to tape in the mono and "hi-fi" eras. Beginning in the late 1950s, Armstrong began making records in revolutionary stereophonic sound. He had seen and conquered every trend in recording technology between 1923 and his death in 1971-and he continues to conquer them into the 21st century, over 50 years since he passed away. Today, with the advent of streaming and the resurgence of popularity in LPs, there is more music available to the public to listen to than at any previous time in history. Yet, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, people from around the world still choose to listen to Louis Armstrong, much more so than any other artist born at the turn of the 20th century. The question remains: Why? This new collection helps to provide answers.

2024 release. Saxophonist Walter Smith III pays homage to his hometown of Houston, Texas on his sophomore Blue Note album, three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not, the follow-up to 2023's return to casual. The album's wry title signifies the lineup, which includes fellow Houston natives - pianist Jason Moran and drummer Eric Harland - while bassist Reuben Rogers, who hails from the Virgin Islands, rounds out the quartet. Together they enliven 10 compelling Smith originals and an imaginative rendering of the Sam Rivers composition "Point of Many Returns" - all of which speaks to Smith's ascending status as one of modern jazz's most engaging talents of his generation.

2022 release. Trombone Shorty returns with Lifted, his first album in 5 years and the follow-up to his Blue Note debut, Parking Lot Symphony. Capturing the energy of his live shows, the album combines classic New Orleans sounds (funk, gospel, street rhythms, Mardi Gras Indian chants and second lines) with modern lyrics, melody and beats to create something fresh and unique - part Jimi Hendrix, part James Brown, and all New Orleans. Featuring guest appearances by Lauren Daigle and Gary Clark, Jr.

2024 release. South African pianist, composer, philosopher, and healer Nduduzo Makhathini travels beyond any existing notion of music-making to offer his most profound vision of creative mysticism yet with uNomkhubulwane, his stunning eleventh studio album which is his third to be released on Blue Note Records following 2020's Modes of Communication: Letters From The Underworlds and 2022's In The Spirit Of Ntu. The transcendent three-movement suite-which pays homage to the Zulu Goddess uNomkhubulwane and explores Africa's tragic history of oppression-features Makhathini's trio with bassist Zwelakhe-Duma Bell le Pere on bass and drummer Francisco Mela. The music is both an offering and an invitation to humanity to cultivate ways of being that strive for freedom and balance.

Pianist and composer Aaron Parks returns to Blue Note Records - where he released his influential 2008 album, Invisible Cinema - with Little Big III, the third studio album from his acclaimed band Little Big, featuring guitarist Greg Tuohey, bassist David Ginyard Jr., and drummer Jongkuk Kim. Co-produced by Parks and Don Was, the collective's concise, accessible writing and vibrant, empathetic playing elevate the band's powerfully modern, post-genre concept for improvised music in the 21st century. Throughout, the bandmembers' kinship is palpable. There's a vitality at play on the record that is extraordinary; somehow, it's beautiful and raw in equal measure. "While this record feels the most supple and alive," Parks says, "it also feels like the most focused album Little Big has recorded - the most distilled down to the essence."

Ornithology: The Best of Bird is a new compilation bringing together 11 cuts from legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. Designed as an introduction to this influential artist, it covers Bird's prime years between 1945 and 1953, with cuts including "Ko-Ko," "Billie's Bounce," and "Groovin' High". Included on the back of the newly designed sleeve is a new essay by GRAMMY� award winning writer Ashley Kahn.

Samara Joy -"Linger Awhile" - Samara Joy is a two-time Grammy winner - BEST NEW ARTIST and BEST JAZZ VOCAL ALBUM. At just 23 years old, her Verve debut 'Linger Awhile' shows that with a voice, tone, and phrasing that harkens back to the most legendary jazz vocalists. Samara belongs in the company of iconic label-mates from Ella Fitzgerald to Sarah Vaughan to Billie Holiday. The Deluxe version of this album includes never-before-heard b-sides as well as alternate arrangements of Linger Awhile material.

Shirley Horn's sensitive vocals and sublime yet powerful piano playing attracted the attention of fellow musicians, including early supporter Miles Davis, and numerous in-the-know fans during her decades-long career. This collection of recordings, made for Verve Records during her late-career resurgence, includes performances with small groups and a string orchestra.

Charles Lloyd's new studio album features a newly assembled quartet of four distinctive voices with the legendary saxophonist joined by pianist Jason Moran, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Brian Blade. Recorded around Lloyd's 85th birthday concert, The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow is a majestic body of work that presents Lloyd originals new and reimagined. The double-album finds one of the most significant musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries still at the peak of his powers. 2 CD: Softpak, 8-page booklet

2024 release. Night Reign is the fourth studio album by Pakistani singer and composer Arooj Aftab. Arooj Aftab - "Night Reign" / Night Reign is the new album from GRAMMY-winner Arooj Aftab, an ode to the night as her primary source of inspiration and a vivid reflection of the creative community she has fostered in her home of Brooklyn, New York. Featuring nine original compositions, three English-language tracks, and an array of guest artists, Night Reign is a perfumed, public garden of renewal, desire, shelter, and love guided by Aftab's voice - it's reach and intensity complementing the sun's departure. The album features contributions from musicians including Vijay Iyer, Shahzad Ismaily, Moor Mother, and Thompson's father Chocolate Genius, Inc.

2024 release. Vintage George Benson vocals float over an orchestral reimagining of beloved American Standards & Soul Classics in this incredible collaboration with renowned composer and conductor, Robert Farnon. The brand new 10-track collection, once thought to be lost to history, was recently discovered in Benson's personal vaults and remastered to their original glory. With this new release, Benson also marks a musical return to the Warner Family - where he recorded such classic hits as "On Broadway" and "Breezin".

With her cool, expressive singing style and carefully crafted song selection Helen Merrill has secured a special place in the hearts of fans and other musicians. From intimate ballads to full-band swingers this collection, drawn from her 1950s recordings, provides solid evidence of the unparalleled artistry of one of jazz's must-hear voices.

2022 release. Jazztronica duo Blue Lab Beats make their full-length Blue Note Records debut with Motherland Journey, an album years in the making that celebrates pushing boundaries, taking risks, and overcoming adversity. Following their appearance on 2020's Blue Note Re: imagined project and their 2021 EP, We Will Rise, this new album is a star-studded affair featuring the duo (producer NK-OK and multi-instrumentalist Mr DM) joined by collaborators including Ghetto Boy, Tiana Major9, KillBeatz and more.

Meshell Ndegeocello follows her GRAMMY-winning Blue Note debut The Omnichord Real Book with No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, another visionary album that pays homage to the eminent writer and activist James Baldwin and will be released on his centennial: August 2, 2024. Meshell's transformative music and collaborative spirit ignites this genre-bending work that is at once a musical experience, a church service, a celebration, a testimonial, and a call to action, creating a shared space for reflection, conversation, and social change. Co-produced by Meshell and guitarist Chris Bruce, No More Water also features frequent collaborators Justin Hicks, Kenita Miller, Abe Rounds, Jake Sherman, Jebin Bruni, and Julius Rodriguez, as well as powerful spoken word performances by Jamaican poet and activist Staceyann Chin.

Astrud Gilberto - After making her professional debut as the cool, breathy voice behind the historic 1964 crossover smash "The Girl from Ipanema," Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto became a major force in popularizing the bossa nova sound. Her understated yet magnetic delivery is spotlighted on this collection, showcasing her instantly recognizable approach to songs.

Acclaimed saxophonist Joshua Redman's stunning Blue Note debut where are we is one of his most compelling albums to date. It's a musical journey across the United States of America that also marks Redman's first-ever vocal album with the dynamic young singer Gabrielle Cavassa featured throughout along with a brilliant band comprised of pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Joe Sanders, and drummer Brian Blade. CD Packaging: Softpak CD.

Bill Frisell's expansive double album Orchestras documents two inspired concert-hall engagements arranged by Michael Gibbs for the guitarist's trio with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston. Sweeping orchestration evoking landmark film scores and Gil Evans alike move nimbly within and around the trio's telepathic rapport, and Frisell's shimmering trademark tone melds gorgeously with symphonic strings and brass. CD Packaging: Softpak CD

Julian Lage - "Speak To Me" / Julian Lage returns with Speak To Me, his remarkable fourth release for Blue Note, which finds the guitar virtuoso broadening his sonic palette in collaboration with esteemed producer Joe Henry who enhances Lage's trademark melodic lyricism on this wide-ranging set of compelling new originals. In addition to Lage's longtime trio with Jorge Roeder on bass and Dave King on drums, the album also features contributions from saxophonist Levon Henry, keyboardist Patrick Warren, and Kris Davis on piano. CD Softpak. Capitol Music Group; Blue Note; Jazz