Vinyl LP pressing. "When we walked out on stage it felt like a homecoming," says Jakob Bro of this texturally spacious and emotionally charged live recording from Copenhagen, on which three of the defining protagonists of improvisation in Denmark, leading musicians from three generations of Danish jazz, come together. The concert, in February 2023, was particularly poignant since it marked a return to performance for trumpeter Palle Mikkelborg, who delivers some of his most thoughtful playing here. Repertoire, drawn from Jakob Bro's Returnings and Gefion albums, is addressed in spontaneous and exploratory spirit, and transformed as Marilyn Mazur's subtle percussion language of blossoming gongs and metals and rumbling drums blends with Bro's drifting and rippling washes of sound. The music's atmospheric qualities, as well it's eruptive moments, are enhanced by the resonant acoustics of the Danish Radio Concert Hall.

Mary Halvorson - Cloudward / The album features eight new compositions by Halvorson, performed with her sextet Amaryllis; the improvisatory band that performed on her critically praised 2022 albums Amaryllis and Belladonna comprises Halvorson, Patricia Brennan (vibraphone), Nick Dunston (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums), Jacob Garchik (trombone), and Adam O'Farrill (trumpet). Labelmate Laurie Anderson also is featured on the album track "Incarnadine."All the music on Cloudward was written in 2022, mostly in the fall and winter, when things started moving forward. Life felt like a creaky machine starting up again," she continues. "Air travel, however chaotic, had resumed, and we were once again cloudward. Performances and tours and recordings were happening after a long hiatus and with a renewed sense of gratitude. This band, for me, was quite simply working, both musically and personally, and the main thing I felt while writing the music was optimism."

Unknown Rivers is bassist Luke Stewart's debut for Pi Recordings. An omnipresent and galvanizing force on the music scene, Stewart is a leader or co-leader of such bands as Irreversible Entanglements, Exposure Quintet, Blacks' Myths, Heart of the Ghost, and Remembrance Quintet. He is also among the most in-demand collaborators, having performed with the likes of David Murray, Nicole Mitchell, Moor Mother, Jaimie Branch, Nate Wooley, Ken Vandermark and countless others. Stewart is also a curator and presenter of multiple concert series in New York and Washington, D.C., a writer, activist, producer and D.J. Featuring his long-running Silt Trio, with Brian Settles on tenor sax, and drummers Trae Crudup on four studio tracks and Chad Taylor on three live ones, Unknown Rivers sees the band pushing towards greater emphasis on rhythmic acuity, highlighting the different approaches to the music of the two drummers. Settles - a stalwart of the fertile Washington DC jazz scene - plays with a quiet intensity, possessing a sound that reminds of players from a distant past set against a modernist's vocabulary. Stewart is the master of a deep, wide groove that cushions and propels, making every musical situation he finds himself in sound good. The Quietus has called the band "gripping... relies on subtlety and insinuation to register it's uncanny power." The Silt Trio is that magical juxtaposition of playing with raw spontaneity while maintaining the music's intent and purpose.

The third album from Levon Eskenian's remarkable ensemble is it's most adventurous to date. As well as reclaiming the music of esoteric teacher G. I. Gurdjieff for folk instrumentation, Zartir situates Gurdjieff in a tradition of Armenian bards and troubadours including Ashugh Jivani, Baghdasar Tbir and the legendary Sayat-Nova. In parallel, an emphasis on pieces for sacred dance reaches it's apex in The Great Prayer, an entrancing collaboration between the Gurdjieff Ensemble and the National Chamber Choir of Armenia, which draws upon ritual music of multiple faiths. Arranger Eskenian says, "I believe The Great Prayer is more than a mere 'composition'. It is one of the most profound and transformative pieces I have encountered in Gurdjieff's work." Zartir was recorded in Yerevan in 2021 and mixed and completed in Munich in November 2022 by Manfred Eicher and Levon Eskenian.

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 LP: 180G, Gatefold Jacket

MINIATURES

WORDS UNSPOKEN

BEYOND THE MARGINS

BUTTERFLY EFFECT

Quadraphonic sound, or 4.0 surround sound, utilizes four audio channels connected to four speakers positioned at the corners of a listening space. The multi-tracked audio is mixed dimensional, immersing the listener in an expansive soundscape. Quadio is a Blu-ray with 192/24 resolution Quadraphonic and Hi-Res Stereo mixes transferred from the original half-inch four-channel masters.

For this album, Sun Ra collected an arsenal of exotic string instruments and handed them out to his Arkestra on the precept that "strings could touch people in a special way." That the Arkestrans didn't know how to play or tune these instruments was not beside the point-it was the point. Ra framed it "a study in ignorance." The result was primitive, yet sophisticated; brutal, yet highly sensitive.In his essay for this expanded edition of the 1967 Saturn LP, musician-curator David Toop calls Strange Strings "saturated in mystery."

Fans of Sun Ra's Space Bop and genre-bending jazz were in for a shock with Strange Strings. Even in the eclectic and sometimes baffling Sun Ra catalog, Strange Strings is an outlier. It's primitive, it's sophisticated, but it's not a gradient of either. It's brutal, yet highly sensitive. Is it music, or just noise? Or noise as music? John Cage could not be reached for comment.

The original 1967 Saturn LP version of Strange Strings was monophonic, contained three tracks, and suffered distortion in the mastering (perhaps due to the high-decibel studio performance and excessive reverb). Yet some sessions were captured in stereo. A dozen strange-string works have been located, five of which are included on this remastered edition. (The others have been released on other labels; see discography inside gatefold.) No track titles appeared on the original Saturn LP verso, but the three works issued were later identified as "World's Approaching," the LP title track, and an inversion of the title, "Strings Strange." A belatedly discovered tape box listed the third recording as "Strange Strange," a title which has been used in this edition.

This September 1959 set at the Black Hawk in San Francisco became the first of four volumes released in 1960. Victor Feldman (piano) and Joe Gordon (trumpet) are among the aces joining the great drummer on "Theme: A Gem from Tiffany," "Summertime," "Our Delight," "Poinciana" and more. This Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series edition is a 180-gram vinyl LP, cut from the original tapes by Bernie Grundman and presented in a tip-on jacket! Craft.

JACOB COLLIER / DJESSE VOLUME 4 / Crafted in the famed studio beside his London bedroom, as well as various corners of the globe, Djesse has explored Jacob Collier's wildest dreams, and Vol. 4 brings the series to a most dramatic and thrilling conclusion. While his music is proudly unclassifiable, Collier enters a distinct sonic universe with each volume, which he likens to the different phases of a day. With Djesse Vol. 4, the saga ends at the incandescent light of dawn, alchemising a full spectrum of emotion into a massive, joyous moment of awakening and human potential.

All In Good Time is the latest step in Monika Herzig's ongoing mission to elevate women composers, players and bandleaders. This fourth outing under the banner Sheroes, an all-female band spearheaded by pianist, prolific composer and arranger Herzig, is simultaneously a celebration of the group's 10th anniversary and a salute to their perseverance. "This group has pushed quite a few boundaries and inspired similar formations and initiatives," said Herzig. "However, change takes time and we're seeing small steps forward in those 10 years, but we remain patient." - Back in 2014, her idea was to bring together fellow women jazz musicians with the goal of presenting powerful role models on stage as a way of breaking some lingering stereotypes; a path initially paved by Sherri Maricle and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra in the '90s. That groups like Artemis and others have followed the trail that Sheroes helped blaze is proof of efforts paying off. On All In Good Time, Herzig is once again joined by Sheroes charter members Jamie Baum on flute, Reut Regev on trombone and Leni Stern on guitar. Drummer Rosa Avila returns from her appearances on 2018's Sheroes and 2020's Eternal Dance, while newcomers Camille Thurman on tenor sax and vocals (a former member of the DIVA Jazz Orchestra and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra) and bassist-composer Gina Schwarz fill out this current potent lineup. Together their chemistry is undeniable, as they skillfully navigate the demanding originals by Herzig and Schwarz - and one surprising cover - while delivering impassioned improvisations along the way. They open with the elaborate title track, full of intricate counterpoint between flute and trombone and fueled by drummer Avila's grooving backbeat and indelible hookup with Schwarz's deep, syncopated bass lines. Composed by Herzig shortly after Chick Corea's passing in February 2021, it finds the leader outlining the moving harmony on Fender Rhodes electric piano.

Devon Hoff, Yuka C. Honda, Michael Leonhart, Jo�o Nogueira, Mauro Refosco, Ches Smith, Johnny Mathar, Sean Ono Lennon. Tzadik is proud to present Asterisms, a beautiful and exploratory instrumental project by Sean Ono Lennon, one of the most creative and versatile musician/composer/producer/songwriters working today. Sean has written countless songs, composed film scores, produced, and performed on dozens of albums-and here he steps out as the leader of an all-star band of Downtown luminaries. Years in the making, the music is powerful, trippy, and intensely imaginative, blending rock, electronics, jazz, and more into an exciting new musical soundscape. With driving rhythms, a stunning lyricism, and a brilliant sense of orchestration, this album is sure to surprise and delight music fans the world 'round. Beautifully recorded, this is modern instrumental music at it's very best-essential!

MUSINGS OF A BAHAMIAN SON: POEMS & OTHER WORDS

FOREST FOR THE TREES

Vinyl LP pressing. 2024 release. On Julius Rodriguez's sophomore album, he returns with exciting new original material and an incredible cover of Dijon's "Many Times". Guest features on the album include Keyon Harrold, Nate Mercereau, and Georgia Anne Muldrow. "This album for me embodies the meaning of Evergreen. With the differing worlds that are presented by each track, I still aim to be fully honestly myself in my expression-maintaining my voice in any variation of musical climate. With this, I hope to carry on the importance of prioritizing the music itself, rather than letting a genre or label create a preconceived connotation of the music. The genre is me."

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. The band Gillespie assembled for this date - Junior Mance, Les Spann, Sam Jones, & Lex Humphries - was for the most part a working band on the club & concert circuit, offering a mixture of Gillespie's entertaining songs, established repertoire, & some Latin & African-influenced pieces. With them, Dizzy found a middle ground in his music that gave his legacy room to breathe, but with much more rhythmic variety.

STEALING MOMENTS

FOUR CLASSIC ALBUMS PLUS

Vinyl LP pressing. Sonny Stitt led a number of excellent record dates in 1959, especially at the end of the year when he produced three LPs for Verve over a span of three sessions with pianist Lou Levy, bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Mel Lewis. Playing alto sax throughout this album, Stitt hardly sounds like a Charlie Parker clone, something that unfortunately was a frequent claim by tin-eared critics throughout a fair portion of his career. The music includes several potent originals, especially "Hymnal Blues" and the slow, powerful "Morning After Blues." Originally released in 1970.

I LOVE SAMBA

Heart Trio features three lifelong-devoted fellow travelers on the path of healing through sound. World-renowned & revered bassist-composer-leader William Parker has performed and recorded extensively with both Cooper-Moore & Hamid Drake over the past 30+ years. And, the three of them are core since 2012 in Parker's reborn In Order To Survive quartet. Heart Trio is, remarkably then, their debut as a trio on record. William here plays doson ngoni, dudek, and flutes of bamboo, cedar & walnut. Cooper-Moore on his hand-crafted ashimba and harp; Hamid Drake on frame drum and drum kit. All of this music was collectively composed at the time of it's creation. This is music for sunrise and sunset. Daily music. Healing, centering, mantra, heart music. From William's notes included with the release: "The theory behind this music is the music itself. Empty and fill the heart and soul with sound, letting it dance. Without pretense. We are trying to get to a flow-Earth, sky, and flowing water sounds that jump out of the painting." William Parker will receive Lifetime of Achievement Honors at Vision 2024. The celebration will take place June 18, 2024 at Roulette, Brooklyn. Jacket printed on reverse board. Includes full-res download card w/ all * tracks. Strictly limited LP edition of 600.

Passacaglia is a multi-colored musical dialogue between two unique characters who are leading figures in European jazz and contemporary music, Adam Baldych and Leszek Mozdzer. The repertoire ranges from free improvisations over works co-written by the musicians themselves to their very personal interpretations of themes by Erik Satie, Josquin des Prez and others. - The album features a highly unusual combination of instruments: a Renaissance violin, two grand pianos - one tuned to 442 Hz and the other 432 Hz - and a prepared upright piano. This setup allows an infinitely varied palette of musical expression, which defies styles, genres and even tonal and harmonic convention. - The world that Baldych and Mozdzer create is one of well-balanced beauty, expressed in the noble form of chamber music, but it is also one of turbulent and intensely emotional improvisation. Like all great art, it draws you in and leaves you intrigued at the same time - and also makes you want to come back and explore it all over again.