Renowned Danish pianist and composer Carsten Dahl is set to release his new album, Interpretations The Norway Sessions with his Golden Ratio Trio feat. Swedish bassist Daniel Franck and Danish drummer Jakob Hoyer on vinyl on Storyville Records. This recording presents 13 original compositions, two by Dahl, one by Franck and ten by all three musicians. Interpretations presents two distinct recording sessions that offer contrasting textures. The first session is characterized by a warm, melodically precise ambiance, while the second session embraces a rawer, more aggressive edge. This duality in expression ensures that the music remains compelling and evocative, with every nuance and detail thoughtfully crafted. The interplay between Hoyer's delicate drumming, Franck's resonant bass, and Dahl's emotive piano creates a rich tapestry of sound, revealing layers of meaning and intensity. Interpretations showcases Dahl's matured approach to the piano trio format. Over the years, Dahl's style has evolved from his early bop influences to a more nuanced and sophisticated voice, drawing comparisons to jazz luminaries such as Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. Dahl's unique interplay of melody and rhythm now incorporates influences from European classical music, with inspirations ranging from Bach to Rachmaninoff, all while remaining deeply rooted in the jazz tradition. Dahl describes the album with his signature poetic and introspective approach, stating: "We interpret the wind's sigh and the blood that bubbles inside us." He likens the creative process to a spiritual excavation, seeking the profound roots of musical expression. The trio's approach is akin to the artistic philosophy of Pablo Picasso-where creativity emerges not from striving, but from a receptive and intuitive interplay. Dahl likens their work to "small paintings where the picture dictates the interpretations, and where the musician merely plays the role of paint and paintbrush." Interpretations challenges listeners to engage with music in new and profound ways. It is in the delicate balance between action and pause, expectation and surprise, that this music truly thrives.
In 2025, PMP is proud to release Trillium X, a sixth opera by Anthony Braxton, on the occasion of his 80th Birthday. A limited deluxe 8-CD box set including both, a live recording of the world premiere in Prague, a studio recording realized at the famous Darmstadt Summer Course, a 6-hour of exclusive audio-visual materials documented a complete world premiere, documentary film In the Garden of Trillium X, and in-depth conversation between Anthony Braxton, Swiss conductor Roland Dahinden and German writer and Braxton's scholar Timo Hoyer. Braxton spent five years working on his opus magnum. He has been significantly involved in all Trillium performances, including this one. He has accompanied the rehearsals from the very beginning. However, the leading man in charge was Roland Dahinden, his long-time fellow from Wesleyan University. Dahinden and incredible PMP Orchestra represent the ongoing generational change in creative music. "X is a dream-logical world unto itself, a place to get lost in for a handful of hours, like Wagner, but strictly according to Braxton-ian rules of order and exploration." - Josef Woodard, DownBeat, 5-stars
Four Compositions (Wesleyan) 2013 / Anthony Braxton, Roland Dahinden, Hildegard Kleeb
Animal Music
CD
$64.99Apr 19, 2024
In September 2023, PMP is proud to release Anthony Braxton's "Four Compositions (Wesleyan) 2013", a limited deluxe 4-CD box set documenting the one-time meeting of an all-star trio featuring the legendary saxophonist and composer alongside Roland Dahinden (trombone), and Hildegard Kleeb (piano). This is the first album of the new Czech label PMP. Art Lange describes the impetus for the session in the liner notes: The 4 CD set box Four Compositions (Wesleyan) 2013 is built on the latest evolutional stage of Anthony Braxton's lifelong conceptualization and personalization of notation called Falling River Music. Braxton's systematic approach balances methodology and mythology, utilizing a variety of graphic designs as symbolic and representational characterizations of his sound vision. The scores incorporate numerical and alphabetical equations, abstract diagrams, and sections of conventional notation, along with spontaneously conceived, painted gestures connected to a web-like pattern of shorthand. In this album, Braxton explores the concept of "aesthetic networking "by having three musicians play from different scores simultaneously, creating a unique blend of impressions. The collaborative efforts of Roland Dahinden (trombone) and Hildegard Kleeb (piano) bring an intimate awareness of Braxton's language types and transformational procedures, resulting in rotating voicings, morphing tonalities, and labyrinthine counterpoint. Braxton's characteristic reed colors and personal lyricism are also showcased, along with occasional electronic elements, to enhance the overall sonic experience.
PLAY! Is Henning Ullén's second album under his own name. Together with Mauritz Agnas on double bass and Nils Agnas on drums, the trio offers music with a melancholic undertone, yet infused with a joy of playing. The title of the album, also the title of the second track urges us to play, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and improvisation in it's simplest form. On the other hand, the music is rich, oscillating between well-composed, sometimes complex passages and freer sections that leave room for improvisation. The album is infused with a driving high-energy vibe. At times, the boundaries blur between what is composed and what is improvised. In addition to the trio format, the album also includes some shorter solo improvisations where Ullén for the first time on record presents his solo-playing. Henning Ullén is an award-winning pianist and composer primarily active in jazz and improvisational music. He studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Berklee College of Music, and the conservatory in Paris (CNSDMP). Henning Ullén was one of Sweden's most promising and acclaimed young jazz trumpeters when he had to end his trumpet career in 2019 due to a rare disease that caused dizziness and headaches in connection with playing the trumpet. He then quickly transitioned to the piano and released his first album, Debut, in 2021.
Tenor saxophonist Andrew Rathbun and pianist Gary Versace-longtime collaborators on several acclaimed SteepleChase sessions-meet for the first time as a duo on Episodes, revealing a striking new dimension in their musical partnership. Versace's chameleon like ability to shift color, texture, and groove pairs seamlessly with Rathbun's ever evolving compositional voice, whose pieces here range from unmetered shapes to baroque tinged counterpoint and driving ostinati. The duo's interplay is vivid and deeply attuned: Versace favors linear, wriggling motion over harmonic cushions, while Rathbun's improvisations unfold with narrative clarity, balancing modern language with melodic focus. Across the surreal, atmospheric 'Episodes' series and the contrasting standalone works, the two push themselves into unfamiliar territory, crafting music that feels exploratory and quietly daring-an inspired debut for a duo with limitless potential. 'Rathbun is a unique voice on saxophone with a style and sound of his own.' (Ed Sapiega - Jazzview) 'All For Now (SCCD 31933) makes a solid case for what an all-around inventive player Gary Versace is. ' (DownBeat)
This 2022 album gathers the most iconic songs recorded throughout her career and includes 7 remixes by some of the hottest, in-demand DJs worldwide. The first single from the set is a remix by English DJ/producer Joel Corry (Charli XCX, Ed Sheeran) of the timeless classic "Feeling Good." The album includes seminal songs such as "Mississippi Goddam," "Strange Fruit," "I Loves You Porgy," "I Put A Spell On You," and Nina Simone's timeless version of "Feeling Good."
2019 live release. A solo concert from Keith Jarrett - recorded on the last night of a 2016 European tour at Munich's Philharmonie - finds the great improvising pianist at a peak of invention. Creating a spontaneous suite of forms in the moment with the assurance of a master builder - interspersing touches of lyricism between pieces of polyrhythmic and harmonic complexity - he delivers one of his very finest performances. The audience hangs on every note, every nuance, and is rewarded with tender, magical encores.
Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah [formerly Christian Scott] is a two-time Edison Award-winning, six-time Grammy Award-nominated, Doris Duke Award in the Arts Award-winner. He is a sonic architect, trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and designer of innovative technologies and musical instruments. Chieftain and OBA of the Xodokan Nation, Chief Adjuah is the grandson of Louisiana luminary and legend, the late Big Chief Donald Harrison Sr.
Vinyl LP pressing. Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, originally released in 1957, features Pepper's legendary sessions with the East Coast rhythm section for Miles Davis's quintet. Produced by Lester Koenig and engineered by Roy DuNann, this stereo edition features all-analog mastering from the original tapes and is pressed on 180-gram vinyl housed in a tip-on jacket. Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series celebrates 70 years of the venerable jazz record label.
Trilogy 3 Chick Corea In 2020, Chick Corea-27-time GRAMMY® winner, National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, and one of the most iconic figures in jazz-hit the road with his powerhouse trio of Christian McBride and Brian Blade, and embarked on what would be his final tour. Candid Records and Chick Corea Productions proudly present the recordings from that tour as Trilogy 3, the third installment from this extraordinary group. This unforgettable double live album showcases their unparalleled chemistry and cements their legacy in contemporary jazz history. With years of collaboration to draw from, 9-time GRAMMY®-winning bassist Christian McBride and 4-time GRAMMY®-winning drummer Brian Blade bring a profound musical connection to their work with Corea.
Blessed with a captivating, richly sonorous singing voice, Japan-born, Seattle-based Valerie Joyce recorded two albums for audiophile label Chesky Records in the 2000s. The first of them, 2005's critically acclaimed New York Blue, featured the young singer supported by a crack Big Apple jazz band: formidable pianist Andy Ezrin, alternating bassists John Hebert and Tim Lefebvre, and drum stalwart Gene Jackson. They are augmented on some tracks by the veteran session musician Lawrence Feldman's smoky saxophone. Joyce's intriguing repertoire blends deft interpretations of well-known evergreens from The Great American Songbook ('Darn That Dream') with jazz standards (Miles Davis' 'Blue In Green'), jazz-tinged R&B ('Fever'), rock (Jimi Hendrix's 'Little Wing'), and pop (The Beatles' 'Golden Slumbers'). Bolstered with new liner notes featuring a recent interview with Valerie Joyce, New York Blue is reissued in 2026 as part of the Chesky Original Masters series on 180g One Step Pressing Vinyl LP and SACD Hybrid Stereo.
Swiss pianist and composer Sylvie Courvoisier has been a defining figure on the contemporary jazz scene for 20 years and is at the epicenter of the New York music scene. She was also recently awarded the prestigious Swiss Grand Prix Musik 2025. She now follows up on the acclaimed recent releases - her solo album To be Other-Wise, and the atmospherically multi-layered duo album Angel Falls with the legendary Wadada Leo Smith - with a live album from her much-lauded trio with bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Recorded during a European tour in February 2025, the album presents the quintessence of this outstanding trio. With each concert, with each album, the trio's working method becomes more defined. In deep musical trust with each other, the three exceptional musicians celebrate a detailed and precise music that is both ambiguous and wide open. "And that's what this album shows now. This joy, diversity, subtlety, this desire. (...) Losing oneself in the music, the delicious moment that unfolds heavenly. But so cunning, so complex, so pointed, as only true virtuosos can be," writes Ulrich Stock in the liner notes.
Guitar virtuoso Pasquale Grasso presents Be-Bop! a brilliant new tribute to be-bop pioneers Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Be-Bop! kicks off in exhilarating fashion with Dizzy’s quintessential 1942 composition, “A Night in Tunisia." Grasso achieves an astonishing balance of technical wizardry and swing, sounding like two guitarists coming out of the gate on the challenging head on top of the syncopated Latin rhythm. (Sony)
Four-time Grammy Award nominee Scott Colley was first introduced to SteepleChase in 1994 as a young (30 at that time) and up-and-coming bassist of the Harold Danko Quartet. This is Colly’s SteepleChase debut leader album released on CD in 1997, which received numerous accolades from critics the world over.
“Devoid of any grandiose ambition or ego-driven solos, This Place succeeds as illustrating Colley’s remarkable talents as a bassist and composer.” (John Murph – JazzTimes)
“This Place is a hardy and no-holds-barred type of affair that speaks volumes for Colley’s aesthetics…. This Place will surely reward earnest and mindful listening with its adroit musical conversation.” (Chris Hovan – AAJ) 180g Audiophile Vinyl
The 180g VINYL release of this month Cherryco by Cornetist Kirk Knuffke stands out not only as a creative tribute album but also as the cornetist’s personal testimonial to the legendary Coleman-Cherry Quartet which was the epitome of 60’s avant-garde jazz. Despite generational differences Knuffke was in the inner circle of Ornette Coleman’s life in its later days. To quote from the article by Aidan Levy for JazzTimes – Lessons from Ornette - in 2019 Kirk remarks, “Just playing with him changed who I am and how I play. There was something about being so close to his sound that was really informative…”
“Cherryco Is a tribute album in the truest sense. Kirk Knuffke walks a mile in Don Cherry’s shoes.” (Thomas Conrad – NYCJR)
“… (Knuffke) puts the emphasis on ensemble interplay, forming an airy, malleable bond with his deft rhythm team while still uncorking one convincing and lyric solo after another. Cherryco feels like a love letter and it’s hard not to share in the ardor.” (Peter Margasak – DownBeat) 180g Audiophile Vinyl
John McNeil (born March 23, 1948) is one of the most influential trumpeters today. Despite his debilitating health condition which he has been fighting all his life, McNeil has a fully active career both as performer and educator. Recorded during McNeil’s European tour in 1983 with a fellow American Doug Raney on guitar and the best Danish rhythm section at the time, this album caught the trumpeter at his top form.
“…. He seems to have the trick of drawing the best from his sidemen ….” (Melody Maker)
“… plays his horn with a soulfulness that is rarely heard these days. [His] poetic, dusky-toned trumpet is very close to song.” (Chicago Tribune)
“McNeil's solos were by and large the most incisive features of the night.” (London Daily Mail)
Boulou Ferré (b. April 24, 1951 in Paris, France) is one of the greatest French contemporary virtuoso jazz guitarists of the manouche (gypsy jazz) tradition. He was awarded “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Cultural Ministry in 2012.
Together with his younger brother Elios Ferré, also a jazz guitarist, Boulou recorded seven albums for SteepleChase. This album was recorded live at “Slukefter” in Tivoli Gardens.
“... In this duo acoustic guitar session, the brothers Ferré grab and hold attention ... they maintain a lively, imaginative interplay ... greatly extend the library for acoustic guitar. This is a worthy follow-up of their earlier album SCCD 31120 Pour Django.”
(Ottawa Citizen, May 1, 1981)
“…The Ferré trio’s performance is full of European flavour… their emotional play suits very well the tunes selected here…” (Okazaki, Swing Journal)
Duke Ellington in Coventry, 1966: A Sacred Concert
Storyville Records
CD
$17.99Jun 08, 2018
During the year of 1966 Duke Ellington was touring Europe. Duke Ellington’s sacred concerts had many incarnations, more than the three on the commercial records: The First (1965), The Second (1968) and The Third (1973). At concerts Ellington often made changes in the proceedings – left out some numbers, and played others, and altered the succession of numbers played. This was evidenced at Coventry Cathedral on a winter’s Monday, February 21st 1966. The Coventry concert had its centerpiece in “In The Beginning God”, but apart from that it was no ordinary sacred concert: Two numbers, “Come Sunday” and “Tell Me It’s The Truth” would have a vocal on the issued record and in other performances of A Concert of Sacred Music the previous year, but were purely instrumental here – and the two numbers following “In The Beginning God” had no connection to a religious theme. With him on that day in Coventry Cathedral were some highly professional British vocalists, The Cliff Adams Singers and the baritone singer George Webb, giving the performance a special quality, which the band acknowledged by playing on the top of their game. The concert was filmed for TV, and part of it was telecast. Two numbers were regrettably omitted from the TV production, but are on this album, a powerful version of “Light (Montage)” from Black, Brown And Beige, and the above-mentioned “Come Sunday.” The concert also includes a premiere and only performance of a new Ellington composition “Come Easter,” a premiere of another new Ellington piece “West Indian Pancake,” and one of the first performances of a piece which would become an important part of many concerts during the following years, “La Plus Belle Africaine.”
Horace Parlan’s Glad I Found You is his second quintet date for SteepleChase which captures a rare meeting of inspired musicians at a peak moment, recorded in Copenhagen with Thad Jones — making a vibrant late career comeback — and the always inventive Eddie Harris. Parlan leads the quintet full of warmth, swing and spontaneous interplay. The album blends Parlan’s own tunes, soulful obscurities, and modern jazz classics like “Afternoon in Paris,” all delivered with the rhythmic looseness and deep blues feeling that defined his style. This new 24bit/96kHz remaster brings fresh clarity to one of Parlan’s most spirited SteepleChase sessions, revealing the nuance and energy of a group of masters enjoying every moment together.
“...it’s another fine addition to Parlan’s discography.” (Jazz Journal)
John McNeil (March 23, 1948 – September 27, 2024) launched his professional career with debut LP "Embarkation” SCS 1099) on SteepleChase in 1978 a few hours before he turned 30.
Age 30 was his goal to release his first and he remarked “I just made it!”
John McNeil’s There Is No Greater Love (SCCD 34007) unveils a previously unheard 1983 Odense, Denmark session, capturing the trumpeter at a creative peak during his extensive Scandinavian tour. Joined by Danish masters Jesper Lundgaard (bass) and Aage Tanggaard (drums), McNeil delivers a warm, incisive set blending standards, bebop classics, and his own “Out”. His bright, agile phrasing — long praised for its roots in Miles, Hubbard, and the Parker lineage—meets a deeply swinging Nordic rhythm team. This newly discovered trio date highlights McNeil’s lyrical clarity, spontaneous invention, and enduring place in the modern jazz tradition.
Yuko Mabuchi moved to the United States from her native Japan only recently, but when she plays American jazz she speaks the language perfectly. We love Yuko’s sense of rhythm and melody, and her improvising feels like she was born in Detroit or New York City. Her technique reminds one of some of Yuko’s music idols like Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock and Monty Alexander. But beyond her talent for traditional jazz, one can also hear flavors of American R&B, Hip-Hop and Blues, which Yuko loved as a teenager. This album’s associate producer and Yarlung special advisor Billy Mitchell describes Yuko’s playing as “funky from the heart,” and he means that as an enormous compliment. Yuko was born in Fukui, on the west coast of Japan, north of Kyoto. She studied classical music and the piano starting at age four, and continued her studies at the AN Music School in Kyoto, where she was a jazz piano student of Kunihiro Kameda. Yarlung first heard the Yuko Mabuchi Trio at Catalina Bar and Grill in Hollywood and offered to record their debut album the next day. This live concert recording session took place in Cammilleri Hall, the same concert venue designed by Yasuhisa Toyota, where Yarlung recorded Sophisticated Lady jazz quartet in 2014. Jazz pianist and educator Billy Mitchell served as associate producer.
