Consonance: Live at the Jazz Showcase is the first ever release of saxophone titan Joe Henderson and his quartet featuring pianist Joanne Brackeen, bassist Steve Rodby and drummer Danny Spencer captured live at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase in Chicago, IL in February of 1978. The 2-CD set was mastered from the original tapes by George Klabin and John Koenig.

SONIC

BLOSSOM

OCTOBER SONGS

Return to the Enchanted Forest by Heisenberg Uncertainty Players is a vivid and imaginative exploration of memory, nostalgia, and transformation. Led by composer and bandleader John Dorhauer, this genre-blurring jazz big band album features eight tracks-six originals and two inventive covers of pop hits by the Backstreet Boys and Wilson Phillips. With hypnotic grooves, rich harmonies, and emotionally charged improvisations, the album invites listeners on a journey through memories as they evolve and distort over time. The result is both accessible and artful, blending memorable melodies with bold, unexpected turns. A must-hear for fans of progressive jazz, cinematic arrangements, and fresh big band energy.

SHAPESHIFTER

IN THE BRASS PALACE

Alex Skolnick Trio / TRANSFORMATION - Brand new reissue and first ever vinyl pressing of the second album from famed Testament six-string slayer Alex Skolnick and his jazz trio! Inspired by a 1964 live recording of John Coltrane, Skonick entered the world of jazz music in the late '90s and put together his own jazz combo that has since relased 6 studio albums and helped bring jazz music to a new audience of metal heads!

'Thelonious Alone In San Francisco' is the third solo album from legendary jazz pianist Thelonious Monk, following 'Piano Solo' and 'Thelonious Himself.' Recorded at Fugazi Hall in October 1959, the album was recorded without an audience. This new edition of the album is released as part of the Original Jazz Classics Series on 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI with all-analog mastering from the original tapes at Cohearent Audio and presented in a Stoughton tip-on jacket.

THE SISTERING, four powerhouse women (with awards and accolades too numerous to mention) come together to share their version of "sistering" through sound vibration, words of wisdom and melodic dance. They offer an elegant and generous recording that will make you feel things you may not be expecting. Through their stories of love, loss and life lessons, they present raw emotion with "in your face" truth and honesty. "The Sistering" has something for everyone." Terri Lyne Carrington (from the liner notes) Just as the construction term "sistering" involves strengthening a beam by adding another alongside it, fastening them together, these four vocal powerhouses have joined forces to create a new musical collective, The Sistering. All North Carolina-based, these longtime friends-Lois Deloatch, Nnenna Freelon, Lenora Zenzalai Helm, and Kate McGarry-have collaborated on their forthcoming album, The Sistering. The 12-track recording features original compositions that blend jazz, ballads, gospel, and folk, reflecting on themes of life, family, and loss. For each artist, this collaboration has been a deeply meaningful experience. Deloatch describes the project as "art, life, truth, and clarity," a coming together of "real friends" to "write and sing, and remember and dream and celebrate each other." Freelon calls it "the most soul satisfying artistic connection" she's had in a long time, noting that the "creative friction" challenges each artist while pushing, pulling, and holding them up. Helm feels The Sistering has helped her embrace sisterhood in a new way, and grow as a creative woman. McGarry adds that the project has been a "container of creativity, of laughter, of support and expansion, unlike anything I've ever experienced." She says it started with friends around good food and wine, but quickly evolved into sharing "heartaches, hopes, joys, tears and speaking our deepest creative dreams into being.

Stardust & Starlight: Live at the Jazz Showcase is a previously unissued recording of the enigmatic piano icon Mal Waldron captured live at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase in Chicago, IL in August of 1979 with bassist Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny Group), drummer Wilbur Campbell, and special guest saxophonist Sonny Stitt on 2 songs. The set was mastered from the original tapes.

The Colonel & The Governor "World-renowned Australian "fingerstyle" acoustic guitarist Tommy Emmanuel, CGP, and Britain's Martin Taylor, MBE, release their highly anticipated collaboration album "The Colonel & The Governor" on Mesa/Bluemoon Recordings. " - Guitar International "Aficionados of the style out there will love it... The guitar work is mesmerizing. " - No Depression "Tommy Emmanuel and Martin Taylor Releasing New Album - A Top Story" - AntiMUSIC. Com The sound they put together is inviting, homely and truly incredible. The images each tune throws up is one of stimulating and carefully loved enticement, designed to relax the listener whilst at the same time giving a sense of hope and off beat gentleness. - Liverpool Sound and Vision The music has a delicious feel, relaxing and soulful and one can picture up families, even with small children, dancing around the kitchen or living room, the music has a wholesome, family feel about it all, and in today's commercial world this album is a simply a blessing. - Rockshot. Com "Any aspiring guitar player might have one of two reactions to a performance by six-string virtuosos Tommy Emmanuel and Martin Taylor. You might stand, open-mouthed in amazement and admiration, and walk away inspired and energized. Or you might savor their complex skills and beaming passion, then abandon all hope of ever being able to master the instrument yourself... Few can match his [Emmanuel] flawless standard, but for his latest record release and tour Tommy has teamed up with a man with all the right credentials - his long-time friend and British acoustic guitar hero Martin. " - This is Somerset "It's as if they were always destined to work together. " - The Birmingham Mail "After years of planning, they're out on the road for a 21-date UK tour following the release of The Colonel & The Governor album, a sensational collection of personal favourites. In the autumn they tour China, Japan and Asia. There's no language barrier when two great performers let the instruments do the talking. " - This is Devon

Walter Smith III -"Twio, Vol. 2" [LP] For his third Blue Note album, tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III reprises his Twio concept with a highly enjoyable Vol. 2, a set of classic jazz songs that exudes a playful sense of joyful freedom. The album features a new cast of musicians including bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Kendrick Scott, plus special guest appearances by eminent elders Ron Carter on bass and Branford Marsalis on tenor saxophone. Capitol Music Group; Blue Note; Jazz.

ESSENTIAL RAY BRYANT: TRIO & SOLO ALBUMS 1956-59

Extra Stars is Gregory Uhlmann's solo debut on International Anthem. It's a deep and gorgeous expansion of the LA-based multi-instrumentalist producer / composer's rhythmic ambient side, as nascently explored in his much-lauded duo with Meg Duffy, his trio work with Josh Johnson and Sam Wilkes, and in the gentler moments of SML (the improvising trance-jazz unit of which he is a member). A radiant sidereal serenade, the album's fourteen miniature infinities swirl serendipitous synthesis and measured, melody-rich song into a panoramic menagerie of sound. For a record that seldom incorporates percussion instrumentals, the music is distinctly rhythm-forward, while Uhlmann also leans heavily into swaths of pastoral beauty. Extra care was clearly poured into the kind of harmonic depth that's often missing from vibe-only "ambient" music, making for a delightfully refreshing take on the electronic, processing-heavy quiet sound.

Extra Stars is Gregory Uhlmann's solo debut on International Anthem. It's a deep and gorgeous expansion of the LA-based multi-instrumentalist producer / composer's rhythmic ambient side, as nascently explored in his much-lauded duo with Meg Duffy, his trio work with Josh Johnson and Sam Wilkes, and in the gentler moments of SML (the improvising trance-jazz unit of which he is a member). A radiant sidereal serenade, the album's fourteen miniature infinities swirl serendipitous synthesis and measured, melody-rich song into a panoramic menagerie of sound. For a record that seldom incorporates percussion instrumentals, the music is distinctly rhythm-forward, while Uhlmann also leans heavily into swaths of pastoral beauty. Extra care was clearly poured into the kind of harmonic depth that's often missing from vibe-only "ambient" music, making for a delightfully refreshing take on the electronic, processing-heavy quiet sound.

Blackpool Cool was self-released on the band's own imprint, Head Records, in 1977. It was the band's third and final album. The jazz-rock/fusion album by the Scottish band known for it's creative, energetic sound, influenced by artists like Nucleus, featuring multi-instrumentalist John Davies. It's been a long-sought-after vinyl record, highlighting the band's unique style with trumpet and keyboards interplay. The album has been remastered and includes a restored advert insert that the band used to promote bookings at the time.

Walter Smith III -"Twio, Vol. 2" / For his third Blue Note album, tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III reprises his Twio concept with a highly enjoyable Vol. 2, a set of classic jazz songs that exudes a playful sense of joyful freedom. The album features a new cast of musicians including bassist Joe Sanders and drummer Kendrick Scott, plus special guest appearances by eminent elders Ron Carter on bass and Branford Marsalis on tenor saxophone. Capitol Music Group; Blue Note; Jazz.

The first LP released on Ray Charles' Tangerine Records imprint in 1963, Jimmy Scott's Falling in Love is Wonderful exists as one of the most mythic albums in vocal jazz. Due to contract disputes with his former label, Scott's Tangerine debut was shelved shortly after it was released - much like it's Atlantic Records follow-up, The Source - and went un-reissued for decades. Ultimately, Scott, a favorite of his contemporaries like Ella Fitzgerald, never became the star he should have been, but this album remains his masterpiece: A loving, tender collection filled with Scott's masterful work around a ballad.

With Blues in Blueprint, bassist and composer Clovis Nicolas delivers his fifth album for Sunnyside Records and one of his most focused artistic statements to date. Framed by the subtitle "12 Variations on the Blues," the album explores the blues not as a fixed form, but as a living blueprint-flexible, expansive, and deeply woven into the DNA of jazz. For this project, Nicolas set himself a clear challenge: to record an entire program of blues and blues-related repertoire while drawing from a wide range of jazz eras, grooves, and formal approaches. The result is a cohesive yet adventurous journey, revealing the blues as both a historical foundation and an endlessly renewable source of expression. To bring this vision to life, Nicolas assembled an exceptional trio featuring Larry Goldings, heard here in a rare and welcome appearance on acoustic piano, and the masterful Carl Allen on drums. Recorded in New York and engineered by the legendary James Farber, the trio plays with deep rapport, elegance, and rhythmic authority throughout. The repertoire spans an unusually broad terrain. Traditional material such as "Old Stack O'Lee Blues," famously associated with Sidney Bechet, sits alongside modern classics by Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman, Carla Bley, and Wes Montgomery, as well as a 19th-century hymn to close the album. Each selection reveals a different structural or emotional facet of the blues, from stop-time lyricism and bebop sophistication to free interplay and gospel-tinged introspection. Nicolas's original compositions are central to the album's identity. Pieces like "Hutch," "The Bass Speaks," and "Groovy Globy" reimagine blues forms through unconventional structures, contrapuntal writing, and fresh harmonic language, highlighting Nicolas's distinctive voice as both composer and bassist. His warm, vocal tone and melodic approach-particularly evident on "Abide with Me"-anchor the trio with quiet authority and emotional depth. Highlights abound: Goldings' lyrical imagination and harmonic elegance, Allen's refined swing and coloristic mastery (especially on brushes), and the trio's collective ease across styles-from R&B-inflected grooves on "Lawns" to open, free-form dialogue on Ornette Coleman's "Ramblin'," one of the album's most striking moments of spontaneous interaction. Blues in Blueprint is ultimately a meditation on continuity and reinvention. Rooted firmly in tradition yet forward-looking in spirit, the album presents the blues as a timeless framework-one that continues to inspire new shapes, new voices, and new stories. With Goldings and Allen at his side, Clovis Nicolas offers a blues album that is at once respectful, personal, and unmistakably contemporary.

Free jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements return with their second Impulse! Recording, Future Present Past. Largely recorded at the historic Van Gelder Studio, the album sees the quintet meld atmospheric jazz, global music traditions and spoken word into our shared story of existence - futures full of possibility, the present with all it's uncertainties, and pasts as wellsprings of ancestral wisdom.

The jazz world honors a legend and welcomes a rising star. Syndee Winters Sings Lena Horne, a 10-track tribute released via Wake Your Words/Bassline Live and distributed digitally by The Orchard/Sony Music, arrived on what would have been Lena Horne's 108th birthday, marking both a celebration of legacy and a powerful artistic arrival. Broadway powerhouse and jazz vocalist Syndee Winters (Hamilton, Motown, The Lion King) merges theatrical Polish with deep jazz roots in this luminous project, produced by revered jazz pioneers Eulis Cathey and Carl Griffin. A 2024 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition 1st Runner-Up, Winters reimagines classics such as "Stormy Weather" and "If You Believe" with elegance, emotional depth, and narrative clarity. The album also features "Alive," a contemporary anthem of resilience written by Andromeda Turre, bridging past and present. Winters is joined by a stellar lineup of musicians, including Michael Eckroth, Freddie Hendrix, Warren Wolf, Alexis Lombre, John Davis, Brad Allen Williams, Jason Ennis, Allan Mednard, Edward Perez, and Grammy Award winner Ben Williams, resulting in a collection that feels both reverent and refreshingly alive. Taking the Jazz Radio charts by surprise, debuting in the Top 40 on Jazzweek, critics are taking notice. Upscale Magazine writes, "Syndee Winters, a powerhouse performer with Broadway chops and jazz lineage, delivers a dazzling performance across every track... She doesn't mimic Lena. She honors her." Right On! Digital calls the album "jam-packed with wonderful, classic music,"* while critic Van Taylor affirms that Winters' unique style "brings Horne's music to life for a new generation." Pressed on vinyl for discerning listeners, "Syndee Winters Sings Lena Horne" is a tribute, a statement, and the emergence of an essential new voice.

FROM THE ARCHIVE VOL 3 COMPILED BY VOLCOV / VAR

Convergence: Live in China is the new album from William Hooker, featuring world-renowned musician and composer John King. It was captured from the duo's 2024 performance at the B10 Festival in Shenzhen. In tune with the open-hearted engagement and palpable respect of the audience, they deliver an exhilarating hour of improvisation. Hooker's thunderous drumming is blanketed by sheets of distorted guitar from King, both playing with formidable intensity. Recorded direct from the soundboard on 10/25/2024, the concert is available in vinyl, CD, and digital formats, with the latter two including three bonus pieces from the performance. Convergence: Live in China is the new album from William Hooker, featuring world-renowned musician and composer John King. It was captured from the duo's 2024 performance at the B10 Festival in Shenzhen. In tune with the open-hearted engagement and palpable respect of the audience, they deliver an exhilarating hour of improvisation. Hooker's thunderous drumming is blanketed by sheets of distorted guitar from King, both playing with formidable intensity. Recorded direct from the soundboard on 10/25/2024, the concert is available in vinyl, CD, and digital formats, with the latter two including three bonus pieces from the performance. Convergence: Live in China is the new album from William Hooker, featuring world-renowned musician and composer John King. It was captured from the duo's 2024 performance at the B10 Festival in Shenzhen. In tune with the open-hearted engagement and palpable respect of the audience, they deliver an exhilarating hour of improvisation. Hooker's thunderous drumming is blanketed by sheets of distorted guitar from King, both playing with formidable intensity. Recorded direct from the soundboard on 10/25/2024, the concert is available in vinyl, CD, and digital formats, with the latter two including three bonus pieces from the performance. Convergence: Live in China is the new album from William Hooker, featuring world-renowned musician and composer John King. It was captured from the duo's 2024 performance at the B10 Festival in Shenzhen. In tune with the open-hearted engagement and palpable respect of the audience, they deliver an exhilarating hour of improvisation. Hooker's thunderous drumming is blanketed by sheets of distorted guitar from King, both playing with formidable intensity. Recorded direct from the soundboard on 10/25/2024, the concert is available in vinyl, CD, and digital formats, with the latter two including three bonus pieces from the performance.

Time Is Slipping Away is an album by American R&B/jazz fusion producer, composer, keyboardist and vocalist Dexter Wansel. It is the last of four studio albums released at Philadelphia International Records. The album contains songs with different styles from P-funk to sophisticated quiet storm music to instrumental jazz-funk. It features the two popular songs "The Sweetest Pain" and "I'll Never Forget (My Favorite Disco)". The former song features vocals by soul singer Terri Wells. Time Is Slipping Away is available as a limited edition of 500 copies on translucent blue coloured vinyl and includes an insert with lyrics.