The art of Brazilian guitar playing has almost become a musical genre unto itself. The gorgeous music written by composers like Ant�nio Carlos Jobim and Jo�o Gilberto echoes differently on six strings. Guitarists Romero Lubambo and Chico Pinheiro have spent their lives absorbing and refracting Brazilian music through the lens of the guitar. On their new recording, Two Brothers, the pair meets for a groundbreaking duo album of their favorite pieces, showing their true mastery of the Brazilian guitar style.

Fall is a special time of year. The carefree vibrations of summer slow to a meditative pace allowing healing and regrouping to begin. For pianist Bill Mays, fall gives him a feeling of spiritual rebirth along with time for introspection and reflection. Mays has dedicated his heart felt new recording, Autumn Serenade, to the season. Thoughts of autumn usually imagine changing leaves, color temperatures, and a meditative hush. The music that Bill Mays and his trio have compiled for Autumn Serenade proves to be a perfect soundtrack for this contemplative season.

The music on Luciana Souza and Trio Corrente's new album, Cometa, comes from a place of love and joy. As a group, they hope to celebrate the reemergence of hope in Brazil with a collection of inspiring music highlighting the power of Brazilian song and the limitless expression of jazz. Grammy award winning vocalist and composer Luciana Souza has been a fan of the outstanding, Grammy award winning, S�o Paulo based piano group, Trio Corrente, since their inception. She had initially met the Trio's drummer, Edu Ribeiro, while teaching. Pianist Fabio Torres is well known as a member of guitarist Chico Pinheiro's different ensembles, while bassist Paulo Paulelli was familiar for his work with the great Rosa Passos. It was Torres who invited Souza to return to her native Brazil to collaborate and tour together in the Fall of 2022. It struck Souza immediately that they should make a recording that unites their collective love of Brazil's uplifting music and jazz.

Up High, Down Low, Alan Ferber's fifth studio album for his ongoing nonet of 20 years, continues his quest to synthesize soulful melodocism, rhythmic interplay, and resonant voicings with the ever-evolving musical elements that he absorbs as an active player, composer, and producer both inside and outside of New York's jazz scene.

For nearly a decade, the endlessly exploring pianist / composer / improviser Denny Zeitlin has focused on an individual composer for his annual solo concert at Oakland's Piedmont Piano Company. Zeitlin brings his full creative force to these efforts to transform these well-known pieces into remarkable musical journeys. In 2018, Zeitlin decided to focus on the great American composer, George Gershwin, for his concert and recorded the proceedings, released now as Crazy Rhythm: Exploring George Gershwin.

The music of Herbie Hancock has affected the lives of generations of jazz performers. Like many of these musicians, it was the opportunity to play with the great pianist/composer that introduced the great drummer Mike Clark to the jazz world at large. To show his appreciation, Clark presents a selection of his favorite Hancock pieces performed with a trio on his new recording, Mike Clark Plays Herbie Hancock. Mike Clark in the late 1960s regularly played post-bop gigs with Woody Shaw and Bobby Hutcherson, but it was the funky organ gigs with his friend, bassist Paul Jackson, that really cemented Clark's standing on the scene. At the time, Hancock's ground-breaking, electric Mwandishi ensemble broke up due to financial constraints. Hancock began to regroup a smaller, funkier ensemble and hired Jackson. Hancock initially had Harvey Mason for the drum chair, but his work constraints wouldn't allow him to join. Jackson recommended Clark for the group and the Headhunters were born.

The art of constructing a solo recording is the ultimate challenge for most musicians. Pianist Benny Green believes that the challenge provides the ultimate inspiration, as he is free to take the music in whatever direction he chooses. For his first solo recording in twenty years, simply named Solo, Green finds himself reflecting on pieces by pianists who have inspired him over the decades. Over his career, Green has solidified himself as one of jazz music's premier piano stylists. His command of the bebop, post-bop, and swing styles was harnessed and cemented through years of study and apprenticeship alongside the music's best, including jazz masters Walter Bishop, Jr., Oscar Peterson, and Art Blakey, with whom he played as a member of the legendary Jazz Messengers. The pandemic allowed Benny Green to reassess his goals and approach to music. It also allowed him time to further investigate the music of his heroes so that he could reinterpret them on his new recording, Solo.

The music made standards by generations of jazz performers continues to inspire and challenge. A goal of many is to be able to interpret these well-known pieces in a cogent and unique fashion, highlighting an individual style of expression. Pianist Dahveed Behroozi has long hoped to record a solo album of some of the standards that he has had ingrained in his musical memory over the past three decades. His new recording, Standard Fare, allows Behroozi a showcase of his own style through the prism these classics provide. The recording of the music was made at a comfortable pace. Behroozi was able to use a prepared living room with microphoned piano at his leisure for the entire month of January 2023. With this flexibility, he was able to do many takes and whittle down the material into the program on Standard Fare. Dahveed Behroozi's first solo recording, Stardard Fare, allows him to float through the dimensions of his favorite standard compositions.

After hoping to record for several years, Peter, Sullivan and I agreed to go into the studio following Peter's gig at the Village Vanguard, (where I'd made my debut on the NYC jazz scene back in 1978). Peter invited me to join the band onstage but New York City locked down that night. // We finally met again more than a year later at the historic Van Gelder studio, now owned and run by my dear friends, Maureen and Don Sickler. With excitement we hugged for the first time in way too long. // The happiness of seeing each other in person again as well as making music together in the legendary studio lifted everybody up. In two days we recorded 13 songs! // My heartfelt thanks to Peter, Sullivan, Doug and Joe for your focused, soulful music-making, to Maureen for her masterful engineering and patience, and to Don, for advising, managing, and producing. Chris Drukker captured the mood perfectly, always supportive. Thanks Katsuhiko for final mixing and mastering.

The world's pause caused by the Covid-19 pandemic created rifts in regular patterns and collaborations. Pianist Anat Fort found herself effectively separated from her regular trio of bassist Gary Wang and Roland Schneider for the first time in the trio's 20 years of existence. When an opportunity arose to bring the trio together to perform in Germany, Fort seized on the chance to regroup and record an album that goes against the group's typical formula on The Berlin Sessions.

There are millions of tales to be told of life in New York City. In every neighborhood, there are buildings that have witnessed generations of individuals, families, businesses, and organizations utilizing their communal spaces. The inconspicuous townhouse that sits at 64 East Seventh Street in the East Village conceals a hidden history that truly shows the changes of it's famous neighborhood over the building's 150 years of existence. // Writer/lyricist David Hajdu discovered the legacy of 64 East Seventh when the East Village was applying for the status as a historical district in New York City. (The East Village/Lower East Side Historic District was created by The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in October 2012.) Spellbound by the stories of the former occupants that he uncovered, Hajdu composed lyrics to a song cycle about the building, which he then entrusted to the capable hands of select composers and performers to bring to life as The Parsonage.

The Civil Rights Movement was a principal fight during the turbulent 1960s. In turn, many artists took up the mantle of progress and/or revolution. Three of the most righteous voices in jazz music were vocalist Abbey Lincoln, drummer/composer Max Roach, and composer Oscar Brown, Jr. Their defiant music on We Insist!: The Freedom Now Suite and Percussion Bitter Sweet remains as poignant and topical today as it was upon release. // Vocalist Christine Correa was introduced to the music of these three icons by her mentor Ran Blake upon her arrival from Mumbai, India. The music had visceral effect on her that has remained to this day, especially as the parallels of the Civil Rights and the Black Lives Matter movements have become more and more focused. Correa's new recording, Just You Stand and Listen with Me, revisits the powerful music of Lincoln, Roach, and Brown to remind listeners that their struggles are still very much alive.

Randy and I played together for the first time in 2015 while teaching at a jazz camp in the Catskills. The musical connection was immediate and natural, and one we have continued to explore throughout the past seven years. // Pianists who not only enjoy playing with singers, but are also extremely good at it are rare, and to find that in Randy, as well as a treasured friendship, has been a gift. We hope you enjoy the first of our recorded collaborations as much as we enjoyed creating it. - Aubrey Johnson, July 2022

Collaborations between artists specializing in different mediums regularly bring out facets and revelations unknown to the participants theretofore. Utilizing sonic and visual elements to stimulate creation, guitarist, conceptualist Brandon Ross and his ensemble, PENDULUM, met Neo Symbolic Abstract painter Ford Crull to generate what Ross calls a sonic mandala on their new recording/multi-media piece, Of Sight and Sound.

Vocalist Camille Bertault took her first strides in music under the tutelage of her father, Paul Bertault, a pianist who dabbled in classical and jazz music. From this early inspiration, the younger Bertault took to the music and continued into a successful and celebrated career as a performer. The pair regularly play together at home and for small concerts, leading to a unique musical connection. On their new recording, Song for My Daughter, the Bertaults present a program that celebrates their bond and allows listeners a glimpse. The collaboration between Camille Bertault and Paul Bertault has been the longest and most meaningful of their lives. It is only natural that a father and daughter pairing should evince a special connection and natural but unique communication. The duo's Song for My Daughter is a heartwarming display of heart and love through music between these two.