After a miraculous triumph over a four year battle with a rare form of misdiagnosed Cancer that had him at death's door, internationally renowned pianist/composer Michael Wolff continues to celebrate his incredible recovery and life on "Memoir, " his first studio album in four years, set for release August 2, 2024 on Sunnyside Records. The highly anticipated collection will be available on Amazon, Spotify, iTunes, and Wolff's website (www. Michaelwolff. com) or wherever you purchase your music. Wolff is known for playing with a Who's Who of jazz legends from Cal Tjader, Cannonball Adderly, and Sonny Rollins, to his mentor and friend, Bill Evans, to Herbie Hancock, Nancy Wilson, (he was also her musical director, ) Sheila E. , Christian McBride and so many more. In pop culture he's best known for his five-year run as the musical director and bandleader for Arsenio Hall on the star's award-winning, late night TV talk show. "Memoir" features Wolff in his trio with longtime collaborators bassist Ben Allison and drummer Allan Mednard, the 11-track collection is a deeply inspired compilation of new music and fresh interpretations of some of Wolff's favorite unreleased original compositions he decided to revisit. True to it's title, "Memoir" is a rhythmically dynamic, yet simultaneously soulful exploration that showcases the rich, intricate quality of Wolff's playing and the musicianship of all three artists. With over 21 solo albums to his credit, "Memoir" is one of Wolff's most personal and significant records to date. "I wanted every note and song to resonate emotionally with the listener and reflect the journey of my experiences. This album conveys a feeling that's very personal and thoughtful, but still has great energy, " stated Wolff. That 'personal feeling' is expressed in several ballads reflective of Wolff's more contemplative playing and composition, most notably on the charming and seductive "Afternoon" written spontaneously at the piano while his wife, actress/writer/director Polly Draper was busy in the kitchen on a sunny New York afternoon. A melancholy feeling is also expressed in another reflective piece, (and the album's sole cover, ) "You've Changed. " Originally popularized by Billie Holiday, Wolff's interpretation evokes an emotional and tactile feeling, motivated by his memory of finally waking up after so long and beginning the process of exploring his inner self. The record is a musical expression of Wolff's amazing life story and how his experiences have impacted his evolution as a musician whose fresh perspectives continue to move his music forward. "Memoir" follows the publication of Wolff's recent Amazon best-selling autobiography, "On That Note: A Memoir of Jazz, Tics and Survival, " which chronicles his life and musical career from his unique roots growing up in the segregated south, his lifelong struggle with Tourette's Syndrome, to his rise to fame in the jazz world and pop culture, and ultimately his amazing conquest over the grueling, life-threatening battle with the rare cancer that almost stole his life. "The pieces on 'Memoir' truly reflect who I am today as an artist and person, " he adds. "Having gone through the frightening cancer battle and facing my mortality has made me a more mature artist. Writing the book was like finding myself and this music reflects and builds on my personal story of struggle and ultimately triumph over the odds. " Wolff explains. "My intention was to create an album that would be an important testament to my life and music. I wanted to make everything as meaningful as I could, not pushing for anything specific, but simply going with the feeling. With this material I was a musical explorer, able to find the melody within the melody, always at the mercy of inspiration.. " Wolff expressed.

The past three years have been indispensable in pianist �lvaro Torres's musical development. The essential ingredient being his adoption of New York City as his home and source of inspiration. Torres's investment in the deepest jazz scene in the world has allowed him rare opportunities to know and perform with his musical heroes, as he does on his new recording, Iris, which features the legendary drummer Barry Altschul and bass great John H�bert. Originally from Madrid, Spain, Torres sought out musical inspiration all over the globe. Having completed his studies at the Manhattan School of Music, Torres became addicted to New York City and all it has to offer. He finds inspiration everywhere, from his musical associates to the sounds of the city's bustling streets. Long before he moved to New York, Torres had discovered and fell for the playing of Altschul, who had the distinction of being a member of the collective improvising group Circle and trios led by two of the most advanced pianists in jazz: Chick Corea and Paul Bley. Having attempted to meet Altschul in person but never managing to find him, Torres finally wrote the drummer to see if he would be willing to meet. Altschul proved to be very approachable and invited the young pianist over for a session. An opportunity for a gig at the Mezzrow Jazz Club appeared and Torres invited Altschul and bassist H�bert to form a trio. Since then, the trio has appeared regularly over the past two years, including at the venerable Jazz Gallery and Smalls jazz clubs. Naturally, the ensemble has continued to evolve. Initially, they performed original compositions by Torres and loose standards, allowing the pieces to blossom into improvisatory explorations. Now, Torres provides pieces with more structure, though the openness remains, the group ever able to go off into any musical direction. When Torres brought the trio to Trading 8s Recording Studio in July 2023, the trio recorded a collection of the pianist's improvisatory leaning pieces and a beloved bebop standard The past few years have been good ones for �lvaro Torres. He found a home in New York City, one that provides inspiration, activity, and a spirit for adventure. Torres's enthusiasm and appreciation can be heard on his new recording, Iris.

In contemporary music, the divide between composition and improvisation has become blurry over the generations. Twentieth and twenty-first century composers have stretched the boundaries of melodic and harmonic structure, leading to pieces that challenge listeners and performers alike. Hoping to work along these lines, pianist and composer Jake Hart immersed himself in the worlds of jazz and contemporary music. For his debut recording, Collage, Hart has woven together musical ideas from contemporary classical music into a through-composed piece that sounds like an improvised piece of music. It was during his formative studies on piano that Hart discovered his love of solo playing. He knew that when he recorded his first album it would be solo piano. Though he started playing solo piano in the jazz vein while a teenager, Hart's study of modern composition led him to incorporate the sounds of 20th and 21st century composers into his improvisations. By the time he finished his degrees, Hart had discovered a new method of composing that suited his particular style. Hart's long study and absorption of an encyclopedic list of composers, including those as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg, Toru Takemitsu, and Morton Feldman, gave him access to myriads of musical ideas that he began to incorporate into his composing process. These internalized ideas were then arranged and memorized to form a through composed piece without notating. The effect of the performance is to sound like a long solo piano improvisation that sounds as contemporary as any improvising artist. The resulting composition, Collage, is a nearly hour long piece that is a cornucopia of musical ideas expertly arranged into an intriguing performance. Having begun the composing process in 2021, Hart has internalized Collage, a piece that has solidified his unique style and voice. The creation of Collage has led to Hart's decision to create a collection of twelve collage pieces, which will utilize the same concept of creative borrowing from composers but will engage with a wider variety and from farther back in the music's development. On his debut album, Collage, Jake Hart has composed an intriguing and singular piece of music for solo piano, one that breaks the boundaries of classical and jazz form in it's own kaleidoscopic musical universe.

For most musicians, Covid changed everything. With no live performances in sight and not knowing what the future would hold, I dove into composing head first. What else could I do, sequestered in a 500 square foot apartment in Hell's Kitchen, NYC? I began writing new music for my Septet+ for what would become our fifth recording. Contemplating what my focus would be for this next project, I wanted to try something new, become submerged, distracted, anything to escape everything going on around me! While spending more time than usual online, I stumbled across Bill Moyers' new website posting entitled "A Poet A Day." His daily posts began with: "During these trying days of social distancing, self-isolating and quarantines, days rife with fear and anxiety, my colleagues and I thought you might like some company. So each day we will be introducing you to poets we have met over the years. The only contagion they will expose you to is a measure of joy, reflection and meditation brought on by "the best words in the best order." Enjoy. - Bill Moyers." I was hooked! Admittedly never a huge poem person, I was comforted and inspired by these writings. And then the proverbial "light-bulb" turned on in my head. It just seemed like the right time and opportunity, since I'd be confined at home for an unknown length of time, to compose music using these poems as lyrics for vocalists, something I'd never done. And here we are! All of the poems on this recording were chosen during those first few months in the spring of 2020, and I'm excited to finally present them to you. It has been quite a journey, beginning with choosing poems that would express not only my feelings during that time, but what we were all experiencing socially, politically and emotionally. I wanted to pick poems that I thought I could work with musically, that would inspire me. I wanted to compose music that would do justice to what the poets were communicating, and feature the right vocalists and soloists to amplify, express and represent those ideas. Of course, it was impossible to know at that time if the music and concept would remain relevant by the time the recording would come out... but, for good and for ill, the messages of these poems remain as current and unresolved today as when they were written. -Jamie Baum

There is something timeless in the performance of a jazz ballad. By nature, they are very open to unique interpretation. Drummer Tony Moreno inherited an appreciation for ballads from his mother, a professional harpist, which eventually led to Moreno regularly performing them with his Trio. After twenty years of leading the group, Moreno has compiled some of his mother's favorites to record with the trio on their debut album, Ballads Volume 1. Moreno grew up in New York City under the sway of his mother Nina Dunkel's musical lead. Dunkel garnered rave reviews for her debut concert at Carnegie Hall at 19 years old and went on to study with Nadia and Lili Boulanger in Paris. Regardless of her pedigree, Dunkel found it difficult find a regular position in the orchestras of 1950s United States. She was relegated to playing restaurant and hotel gigs, adding a bit of elegance for tourists on their stays in New York City. Rather than be discouraged, Dunkel developed a love of the jazz canon and invented a unique way of pedaling her harp to allow herself to play jazz changes. She was especially fond of a regular gig performing at the VIP lounge at the Charles French Restaurant where she met many of legends of the music, including Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, and Alec Wilder. Dunkel passed her love of jazz to her son. Upon his request, she escorted Moreno to hear drumming legend Elvin Jones at the La Boheme Club. Meeting Jones set Moreno in motion on his life's journey as a professional jazz drummer. Moreno also caught Dunkel's appreciation for ballads, as their lyricism and transparency drew his ears. Flashing forward, Moreno found a home for his musical experiments with his trio of pianist Frank Kimbrough and bassist Fran�ois Moutin at the 55 Bar in the West Village. Their group's monthly residency allowed the trio to get progressively freer with their playing, stretching standard material farther and farther. Some of their favorite pieces to perform were standards that Moreno had first heard under the fingers of his mother on her harp. After Kimbrough passed away in 2020, Moreno enlisted his occasional substitute Gary Versace to fill the vacancy permanently. Though 55 Bar closed in 2020, primarily due to the negative effects of the Covid pandemic, and performance opportunities in New York have become more limited in general, the trio still performs often and with incredible, spontaneous results. In the fall of 2022, Moreno, Versace, and Moutin decided to finally document their special group. For their recording, they pared their sixty pieces from Dunkel's regularly performed repertoire to a more manageable number for an album. Versace lent his talents toward reharmonizing many of the pieces, which that and the group's effortless reinterpretations made the pieces they recorded at Oktaven Studios a fascinating collection of reimagined standards.

On his new recording, Outing - Road Trip II, Mike McGinnis and his 10-piece jazz ensemble pay tribute once again to the legendary clarinetist and composer Bill Smith whose commissioned piece "Transformations" is debuted and featured along with McGinnis's dynamic recent works. The music that McGinnis began to create for his "Road*Trip" band mirrored the aesthetics of composers for similarly sized ensembles that he most enjoyed, most notably Django Bates and Carla Bley, whose work was not only drawing from a wide variety of influences but always full of surprise. So, when setting out to write new works for his group, McGinnis thought it would be exciting to feature and challenge the musicians in his group, which includes trumpeter Jeff Hermanson, alto saxophonist Caroline Davis, tenor saxophonist Peter Hess, baritone saxophonist Barry Saunders, trombonist Brian Drye, French horn player Justin Mullens, pianist Jacob Sacks, bassist Dan Fabricatore, and drummer Vinnie Sperrazza.

Greenfield first met bassist Johnson while they were both studying at the Berklee College of Music in the mid-1970s. It took them another decade to begin playing together regularly in different configurations in New York City. Their work in quartets and trios helped the two develop a conversational style of play. They soon found that they really didn't need other musicians to enhance what they already had as a duo, a formation that they have been revisiting for nearly 20 years. Naturally, Greenfield and Johnson's musical connection was deep. Their duo allowed for an openness in their playing, allowing them to stretch and push one another. Johnson's bass approach maintained the outline of their material perfectly and provided jumping off points for improvisation for the two of them. Hayes Greenfield and Dean Johnson have found that their duo is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding musical pairings in their careers.

New York-based vibraphonist Yuhan Su, a Taiwanese native, has built a reputation as "among the most prominent contemporary voices" (Jazziz) on her instrument. Liberated Gesture, her second release for Sunnyside (and fourth album overall), follows up City Animals from 2018 with a new set of original compositions, a new band of heavyweights and a renewed outlook on art and possibility. Joined by altoist Caroline Davis, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Marty Kenney and drummer Dan Weiss, Su brings to life an ambitious set of music with the common theme of finding freedom. "Throughout the years," she says, "I've come to realize that to be free, to break from all constraints and preconceived notions, is what I've been chasing all along. I felt a weight lifted from my shoulders, and as I opened my eyes again, I found nothing but wild and eerily beautiful things on the road in front of me. This album represents the freedom that I've been searching for.

Frank Carlberg has explored the music of Thelonious Sphere Monk in many contexts: as a seasoned and highly acclaimed pianist, noted for his work in duo, trio and other small groups, but also as leader and orchestrator of an adventurous large ensemble. His 2017 release Monk Dreams, Hallucinations and Nightmares was big-band Monk in all it's glory, rated five stars in DownBeat and hailed as "stunning and original" by The Buffalo News. Carlberg played piano on the earlier date, which had J.C. Sanford conducting. But on the new Elegy for Thelonious, Carlberg takes up the baton and does not play, leaving that to the brilliant Leo Genovese (effortlessly at home in mainstream and avant-garde jazz settings). "Thelonious Monk remains as vital and relevant as ever," says Carlberg, "and we are very happy to share this offering inspired by the Master and created through our personal prism.

Pianist and composer, Andy Milne is thrilled to present Time Will Tell, a new album recorded with his trio Unison dropping April 26, 2024, on Sunnyside Records. Milne's latest collaboration with bassist John H�bert and drummer Clarence Penn is a sparkling exploration of identity and destiny, showcasing Milne's ever-evolving craft. It follows the trio's The ReMission (2020), winner of Jazz Album of the Year: Group at the 2021 Juno Awards. As with it's predecessor, Time Will Tell is Milne's artistic response to life-changing circumstances. Whereas The ReMission was inspired by his cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, Time Will Tell chronicles his lifelong efforts to uncover his birth family history. Adopted as an infant, his efforts to connect with his birth family proved fruitless - until 2018, when the gift of an Ancestry. Com DNA test from his wife, singer La Tanya Hall, changed everything. A DNA match led him to his first cousin, Marc, with whom he discovered he shared a mutual friend. Ironically, just as world events collided with the COVID-19 lockdowns, the profound mysteries of his biological family began to rapidly reveal themselves. "In 2022, my voyage eventually received an unimaginable upgrade when I finally met my birth mother, " he recounts. "This recording reflects part of my expedition navigating the mixed emotions associated with this identity paradox. How we move through life, and the lives we will touch, is unknown to us, despite our best efforts to chart a path. " While he says the new album shouldn't be taken as a pound-for-pound musical account of these experiences, the journey inspired and informed his process. "I realized my compositions were a subconscious reflection of my experience, " says Milne, who is also an assistant professor of music at the University of Michigan. "I met my birth mother days before I composed a lot of this music, and quickly recognized that this would be a significant throughline in those pieces. I essentially allowed it to flow and envelop my process. " The notion of "family" extends to Milne's artistic approach, in terms of his commitment to honoring relationships, building community and blending musical languages. This is heart-wrenchingly expressed in the track "Lost and Found. " It reveals his personal mission - both in title and his plaintive performance - and introduces a new texture to Unison's soundscape in the koto of virtuoso Yoko Reikano Kimura. She can be heard on three other tracks on Time Will Tell. Milne's interest in Asian culture dates back to his student days, when he also became curious about Zen Buddhism. A decade ago, he fell in love with the string universe of the Japanese koto and created the multidisciplinary project Strings & Serpents, which featured a piano duo, a koto duo, and an animated film. This led to him inviting Kimura to join Unison for a gig. "That set the wheels in motion, " he recalls. "I like the koto for it's soulfulness and because it can express opposite and complementary sonic qualities to the piano. It's quite flexible - it can be delicate but it can also be really ferocious. The similarities and differences between these two iconic string instruments really appeal to me. " Also bringing considerable chops to four tracks is tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, with whom Milne recorded the 2022 album Fragile. Their interplay on opening track "Purity of Heart" lends a sense of urgency to the proceedings, and after their previous collaboration the ease of their give-and-take is apparent. "Ingrid and I have known each other for years, and in 2012, we had a transformative experience training together at the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute at UCLA, " Milne explains. "Then, during the pandemic, she reached out and invited me to make a duo recording. It was challenging, inspired, and a lot of fun, and we realized we had forged a very good musical connection. "

The true magic in jazz and other improvised music comes from pairing the right musicians with the right musical circumstances. On his new recording, Live In Red Hook, bassist/composer Gui Duvignau took advantage of an ideal performance space in Brooklyn and the brilliance of two outstanding musicians that he knew would provide a performance worthy of posterity. Duvignau was born in France and lived in Morocco as an infant. His family moved to Minas Gerais, where he spent his youth, and then S�o Paulo, Brazil, where he spent his teenage years. His studies led him from Paris to Portugal and, finally, to New York City, where he has been based the past six years. The lands that he has lived in and the musical cultures and influences of each have informed his musical landscape. Duvignau's last two recordings on Sunnyside Records are ripe with tributes to his mentors and heroes, including music and/or performances by Ron Carter, Bill Frisell, Billy Drewes, and Baden Powell.

There is music that can only be created under certain conditions. As much preparation and work that goes into studio recordings for a crafted, perfected sound, there are recordings that resonate because of their spontaneity and natural feeling. On his new solo recording, Trouble In Mind, pianist Elan Mehler presents an extraordinary collection of music full of pathos that could only be caught at that moment in time at a recording studio in New Orleans. The Boston-born, New York City based Mehler has become well known for his fluid touch on piano and his skilled bandleading. He is also well known for his record label, Newvelle Records, that caters to vinyl lovers with series of recordings covering a wide range of jazz and creative music. It happened to be during the culmination of Mehler's work on a series of recordings by New Orleanian artists that Trouble In Mind was born.

Growing up in an urban environment could lead to obliviousness to the natural world. Having grown up in a rural environment, saxophonist/composer Jeremy Udden was very aware of nature but living in metropolises made him seek nature's touch in the city's midst. Udden's children have grown up in Brooklyn and he is frequently amazed at how attuned to nature his city kids are, just one of the intriguing juxtapositions he reflects in his new recording, Wishing Flower. For his new recording, Udden used the inspiration of his children and their daily walks from school to write new compositions that reflect the sounds of the city through Udden's singular musical lens, which blends the pastoral sounds of folk and country with contemporary jazz. Coming full circle, Udden recruited guitarist Ben Monder and drummer Ziv Ravitz to revisit their ensemble roles from Torchsongs, along with longtime collaborator, bassist Jorge Roeder.

TIME AND AGAIN

Klein has made a name for himself as an expert composer, who finds ingenious ways to make the complicated feel natural and evolve. Many of his pieces over the past decade have evolved out of strict studies of musical phenomena that Klein was able to exercise and mold into highly rhythmic and inviting pieces for Los Guachos and other notable ensembles. These endeavors include delivering highly wrought compositions that require time for construction and preparation from the ensembles. A break from these procedures would be a liberating experience for Klein, so when playing at New York's legendary Village Vanguard jazz club during the summer of 2022, Klein recruited old friends and a newcomer to the fold to play a collection of tunes that provides plenty of avenues for expressive dimensions provided by individual decisions on the bandstand.

It would be hard to foresee a young kid from Bavaria becoming a celebrated jazz saxophonist in New York City. Tobias Meinhart has done that, sculpting a career of brilliant recordings and world touring. One of his principal ensembles in this endeavor has been his Germany-based Berlin People, which features the revolutionary guitarist, Kurt Rosenwinkel. Meinhart and Berlin People's new recording, Dark Horse, celebrates how far he and the ensemble have come since their inception. Since his arrival in New York City in 2018, Meinhart has maintained a busy schedule as a composer, performer, and touring artist. His debut album, Berlin People (Sunnyside, 2019), introduced the greater listening public to his Berlin-based group of the same name. Immediately, the group took to the road, playing extensively throughout Europe and South America.

Ethan Philion is an award-winning bassist, composer, and bandleader based in Chicago. A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and DePaul University, Philion has been praised by the Washington Post for his "well honed chops and astounding musicality" and his debut album, Meditations on Mingus, was commended as "a labor of conspicuous love and respect for a musical titan" by Downbeat Magazine. He has performed with an extensive list of jazz artists including Rufus Reid, Greg Ward, Dana Hall, Mark Feldman, Russ Johnson, Howard Levy, Ryan Cohan, Tito Carillo, Gary Bartz, Alfonso Ponticelli, Ernest Dawkins, Geof Bradfield, Dee Alexander, Mark Gross, Alyssa Allgood, Thaddeus Tooks, Victor Garcia, Mike Allemana, Mai Sugimoto, Paul Marinaro, and more.

Rising star pianist/composer Noah Haidu's resplendently expressive Standards celebrates the 40th anniversary of the release that launched Keith Jarrett's great Standards Trio and arrives on the heels of Haidu's two recent acclaimed Sunnyside albums, most notably 2021's SLOWLY: Song for Keith Jarrett. Featuring Haidu with bassists Buster Williams and Peter Washington, drummer Lewis Nash and guest saxophonist Steve Wilson, Standards is, in part, the soulmate to SLOWLY, which DownBeat called "a stunning and heartfelt tribute." After Haidu, Buster Williams and Billy Hart recorded it's last two songs - "But Beautiful" and "Georgia on My Mind" - Williams said, "Those two standards were beautiful, got any more?"

It is accepted for creative artists to tug on the reigns of the expected. In the worlds of jazz and contemporary music, musicians are instructed to respect the conventional parameters of the genre they learn. But it is for the musicians to push the limits of the rules in order to make new discoveries. The trio of Leo Genovese, Demian Cabaud, and Marcos Cavaleiro take such an unbridled approach to music making on their new recording, Estrellero.

The extraordinary pairing of Jim Campilongo and Steve Cardenas has been a rewarding one for the two guitarists, who have been performing in tandem for the past twenty years. Though they have recorded together before, the pair had never released an album of this grouping. The opportunity was seized when Campilongo was planning his return to the Bay Area, the pair realizing the project that was always simmering and needed to be put to a boil. The result is their fantastic new album, New Year. Campilongo moved to New York City from California in 2002, becoming enmeshed in the local rock and singer/songwriter scene, most notably with his own trio and as a member of The Little Willies with Norah Jones. It was around this time that he was introduced to Cardenas, through a mutual friend singer/songwriter Richard Julian. The two immediately connected and a fast friendship turned into a mutual admiration society from their first time playing together.

The work of an artist o2en suggests that of an alchemist. In her new album, Aire, Mexican singer and composer Magos Herrera transformed the grief, fears, and loneliness of a deadly plague into a luminous collection of songs representing "a celebration of our humanity and the healing power of music." Aire features twelve songs and includes her new compositions and gems from the Great Latin American Songbook, such as "Alfonsina y el Mar" and "Gracias a la Vida." Those two classics suggest bookends of the experience in Aire, "Alfonsina..." as an acknowledgment of impermanence and death; "Gracias a la Vida" as a prayer of gratitude for the many gifts of life. But for two exceptions - the voice and guitar duo of "Passarinhadeira" and the octet reading of the Vinicius de Moraes and Baden Powell's classic "Samba em Preludio" -Magos sings over a musical canvas provided by her jazz trio augmented by an orchestra under the artistic direction of Eric and Colin Jacobsen, of Brooklyn Rider fame.

One of the steps to becoming a band leader is to drop your inhibitions and find collaborators who play the music that you want to make. Though he has music in his blood carrying from two generations of bandleaders before him, drummer Greg Joseph initially found it difficult to grab the reigns of his own ensemble. It took finding the right voices in Larry Goldings's Hammond organ and Steve Cardenas's guitar to express his joyful music, which Joseph presents for the first time on Drop The Rock.

Following the elusiveness of Dust (Sunnyside, 2021) comes the permanence of Ash. Violist/composer/improviser Mat Maneri presents the second volume in his series of quartet music, this installment, Ash, focusing on the residue of memories burned into the mind. Maneri's Dust recording cemented the sound of his quartet, an ensemble built around impressionistic interpretations of Maneri's singular compositions with an incredible cast of brilliant improvisers and friends. Drummer Randy Peterson and bassist John H�bert have been regular musical partners for decades and pianist Lucian Ban has become an essential colleague over the past dozen years. After the first recording, Maneri began to consider making a series of recordings, settling on the idea of a trilogy. This second installment, Ash, focuses on the metaphysical aspects of a physical byproduct, as did Dust. Maneri likens the burned in memories of his childhood and teenage years to the ash that a fire leaves behind. Elements of th

Lucian Ban and Mat Maneri harness the spirit of George Enescu's masterwork, Oedipe, and channel it into a modern recreation in their own vernacular. Oedipe Redux is a breathtaking retelling, breathing new life into one of the most storied tales of human drama.

Saxophonist Jerome Sabbagh is an old soul. He favors spontaneity between performers on the bandstand, prefers the feel of a swinging band to heady, over-wrought music, and likes the sound of analog over digital. When it came time to work on a new project, Sabbagh wanted to record an album that would sound like a set in a club, and felt ready to look back to early influences. On Vintage, his first album as a leader featuring piano, Sabbagh enlists the piano legend Kenny Barron in his all-star quartet to help make a recording that connects generations and makes tradition vital once again. Sabbagh also has an ear for the tradition. One of his seminal early jazz experiences came when he was a teenager and got to hear Stan Getz in Paris. Kenny Barron was Getzs accompanist that evening and Sabbagh was taken immediately, standing outside the back door to get Getz and Barrons autographes after the show.