There is much to be said for being in the right place at the right time. Circumstances caused by the pandemic found many people locked down in places they hadn't anticipated. Though there were likely many who were discouraged by this, there were just as many who found purpose and took advantage of their surroundings and the collaborators waiting there. Such is the story of Roberto Cassani and Fraser A. Campbell's poet / shuts / clock, a recording made possible by their will to find creative connection in a time of forced separation.

Yvonnick Pren�'s mission is to put the harmonica in it's rightful place in the pantheon of instruments used to improvise. He makes a convincing case on his new recording, Listen!, as he eschews the trumpet in the classic jazz quintet setting and replaces it with the chromatic harmonica. // Pren� chose a dream ensemble for his recording. Pren� loves saxophonist Dayna Stephen's magical sound, which he likens to the angular approach of Wayne Shorter. Drummer Bill Stewart has been a longtime favorite and Pren� felt that his singular conception of time and sound was just right for this project. Pren� met pianist Kevin Hays while at the New School and has always appreciated the pianist's unique voice that regards the tradition reverently, but with a certain freedom. Friend Clovis Nicolas holds the rhythm section the rhythm section together with his fluid bass playing. Pren� invited trumpet great Jeremy Pelt to help produce and direct session.

Having grown up in Juarez, Mexico, Mireles and his family experienced life much differently than most of his collaborators. Mireles and his brothers were brought up in a musical household and were drawn to performing. Music was not provided in their schools, so they had to find after school programs to pursue their muse. This is where Mireles met teacher and saxophonist Fortunato Perez, who introduced Mireles to the sounds of jazz and Charlie Parker. // Music became Mireles's passion and, with his family's help, he was able to continue his studies at the University of Texas El Paso, where he studied commercial music. Mireles remained in El Paso after graduating, becoming engrained in the local music scene and met his wife, vocalist Candice Reyes, on the bandstand. // In 2015, Mireles and Reyes decided to head east, the saxophonist being accepted into the masters program at William Patterson University. After school, Mireles began to find work as a musician and as a concert/event producer. He even began The Jazz Exchange, bringing jazz programming to young musicians around New York City, Texas, and Mexico. // Mireles put together his own group to perform his music. Bassist Myles Sloniker has been a longtime friend and collaborator, beginning with their Frontera Project six years ago. Mireles has long appreciated the work of pianist Benito Gonzales and began playing with him a number of years ago. Mireles met drummer E.J. Strickland when their gigs crossed over in Mexico City, the two striking up an immediate rapport.

The magical music of Brazilian composer/guitarist/pianist Egberto Gismonti has enchanted generations of listeners. His celebrated blend of folkloric, jazz, and popular music has stationed Gismonti in the pantheon of Brazilian music. Composer/arranger Gaia Wilmer fell under Gismonti's spell as a youngster and now honors him with her new large ensemble recording, Folia. // Wilmer began arranging Gismonti's music for large ensembles while finishing her master's degree at New England Conservatory, as a rehearsal big band was made available to composers each semester. With a number of arrangements in hand, Wilmer received a grant from the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil which would provide opportunities to perform her music in the Institute's four concert venues. She anticipated four concerts but was approved for sixteen. // The grant allowed Wilmer to present music of Gismonti at a series of concerts in honor of his 70th birthday in 2018, in which he was part of the program.

Both sides of Rufus Reid, the jazz one and the classical one, come togeth er on this album; in fact, it's like two albums for the price of one. The six tracks on which his trio is joined by the internationally acclaimed Sirius Quartet show off his facility for writing daring, memorable string arrange ments that draw equally from jazz and Western classical music. (Two of the six are by Allee, also a sophisticated composer whose musical interests are as broad as Rufus's.) Forming a delightful counterweight to these hybrid, chamber-jazz enterprises are five tunes that feature just piano, bass and drums: three blues-based excursions, a tender ballad and a jazz samba. The blurring of the lines between jazz and classical musicians - en couraged by the conservatories where both genres are increasingly part of the curriculum - is vividly demonstrated throughout the album, and especially in the title track. Recruiting the Sirius Quartet for this project proves to be an inspired choice - they are as celebrated for their facility with improvisation as they are for their adventurous repertoire. They play with precision and fire throughout, as demonstrated in the title track, which includes dazzling improvised solos by violinist Gre gor Huebner and cellist Jeremy Harman. Eschewing false dichotomies, Rufus insists on bringing both sides of his musical personality to bear.

The efforts put forth by ensembles comprised of friends always seem to have a special spark. When such a group comes together under ideal circumstances, the results can be spellbinding. Take note: This is exactly the case with the collaborative group of pianist Roberta Piket, bassist Harvie S, and drummer Billy Mintz on their new recording, You've Been Warned. // Individually, Piket, Harvie S, and Mintz have found success in a myriad of projects. But it is their collective identity that has really cemented itself over the past decade. Mintz and Harvie S have been collaborators since the 1970s. Their most notable affiliation was as members of pianist Alan Broadbent's trio. Piket met Harvie S in the mid-1990s and incorporated the bassist into her fold. Piket and Mintz have been partners in music and life since 2001. They married in 2011. // The dimension of the group's interconnectedness is obviously vast and varied. Their own work together as a rhythm section began organically. Piket and Mintz found themselves bound even closer together during the pandemic lockdown. They managed to work on each other's music at home. It wasn't long before they included their friend, Harvie S, at first with open windows and masks.

Inspirational people always live with you. They can come from memories of past or they may be sitting next to you. Angelica Sanchez recognizes that some of the illuminating people in her life can be interacted with on any given day. She chose to capture one special day with Billy Hart and Michael Formanek on their wonderful Sparkle Beings.

As relationships evolve, a special language can develop between partners. This language can foster new ways of approaching syntax and messages that have been often repeated. The duo of drummer Allison Miller and pianist Carmen Staaf found their voices together with repeated, enthusiastic involvement in a variety of musical settings. // The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic made it necessary for social distancing necessary in all aspects of life. Miller and Staaf's response to this distancing was to heighten their intimacy through music. Their new recording, Nearness, shows just how much their bond has grown and their creativity has blossomed.

Comedians and jazz musicians have been more comforting and enlightening to me than preachers or politicians or philosophers or poets or painters or novelists of my time. Historians in the future, in my opinion, will congratulate us on very little other than our clowning and our jazz. -Kurt Vonnegut

In 2021 after enjoying a Central Park concert, drummer Duduka Da Fonseca met bassist Gili Lopes and guitarist Vinicius Gomes, both of whom said that they wanted very much to play music with him. Da Fonseca felt flattered and suggested putting together a quartet that also included pianist Helio Alves, and Quarteto Universal was born. Throughout his career, Duduka Da Fonseca has been one of the leaders in performing music that mixed together Jazz with Brazilian rhythms, featuring the most rewarding aspects of both genres. In Gomes, Lopes, and Alves he has found kindred spirits, resulting in the first recording by the group, YES!!! YES!!! features Duduka Da Fonseca and Quarteto Universal performing music that is boundary pushing, while deeply in touch with their Brazilian heritage. It is an exciting beginning for the Brazilian Jazz super band.

Originally from the suburbs of Hamburg, Germany, Peters discovered the vibraphone as a young percussionist invited by his tutor to engage with a new, harmonic instrument. Peters's fascination and subsequent musical study led him to conservatory in Cologne, where he studied with Tom van der Geld and David Friedman. An exchange scholarship allowed Peters the opportunity to study in New York City in 2016, at New York University and the Manhattan School of Music, where he developed a relationship with Stefon Harris. His arrival in New York City has allowed Peters to invest in the City's flourishing young jazz scene. Peters's wide interests in all aspects of improvisational music allow him to be at home among both the avant-garde and the traditionalists, a perfect place to be in New York's eclectic milieu. Peters even programs a series at the Green Lung Studio in Brooklyn. Of course, the pause to the music world brought on by the pandemic lockdown shut off many of Peters's avenues of expression. Rather than get frustrated, he decided to hone his focus on his craft and composition. Peters took a musical turn and began to gravitate toward music with melodic clarity. He began to experiment compositionally with simplicity, limiting compositions to one or two ideas to pull from to develop. From there, the pieces could be embellished by the talented improvisers he would engage to perform them. All of the original pieces find reflection on musical inspiration from musical engagement with heroes, teachers, and experiences from Peters's life. At the end of August 2021, Peters assembled an outstanding cast of musicians to record Spring at Man Made Music in New York. The incredible quintet included trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, alto saxophonist Caleb Wheeler Curtis, bassist Walter Stinson, and drummer Buz Donald. Their wide range of expression can be heard augmenting the fascinating pieces Peters wrote.

The eerie stillness of New York City during the Covid-19 pandemic led many residents to a state of contemplation and inner exploration. Saxophonist/composer Marc Mommaas found himself drawn to sounds that he grew up with but had eschewed for his own musical path in jazz, namely classical music. The self-described expressionist was surprised to find himself immersed in the sounds of the Impressionists. // Mommaas dove into the music of the Impressionists but found himself particularly drawn to one of the instigators of the movement, Gabriel Faur�, who eventually taught Maurice Ravel and Nadia Boulanger. It was with Faur�'s esthetic in mind that Mommaas began to write music for his new recording, The Impressionist. // Coming from four generations of classical musicians, Mommaas still hears the sound of his mother's piano playing Chopin when he was a child. As a saxophonist, Mommaas was entirely jazz oriented, inspired by the deep passion his father had for Jazz (a prolific Dutch painter and artist with a capital A). However, as the City slowed down during the pandemic Mommaas found himself drawn to the impressionistic sounds of Faur�, instigated by his famous Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 // The study of Gabriel Faur�'s idiosyncratic composing style led Marc Mommaas down a path of discovery and rediscovery. The music hit him in a time and place where it made the most sense to channel into brilliantly fashioned original music, presented here as The Impressionist.

Alto saxophonist Randal Despommier offers with A Midsummer Odyssey, a captivating duo session with guitarist extraordinaire Ben Monder. The central focus is the highly accessible yet always enigmatic music of Swedish baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin (1928-1976). // It was a chance encounter with "Danny's Dream," a lithe and melodic piece played for Despommier by his friend Olof L�vmo in Italy in 2005, that sparked the altoist's deep and longstanding interest in Gullin. Despommier describes the tune as "a mix between a Norse folk-song arrangement by Edvard Grieg and a Billy Strayhorn ballad." Having triggered the process that would ultimately lead to A Midsummer Odyssey, L�vmo fittingly took on the role of assistant producer.

The world at large has been inundated with news from the recent Russian incursion into the country of Ukraine. While the storms of war gather, pianist and composer Vadim Neselovskyi chooses to remind people of the country's beauty and cultural legacy. More specifically, Neselovskyi looks to his hometown on the Black Sea to inspire his new solo recording, Odesa: A Musical Walk Through a Legendary City. // Generations of Odesa and Ukraine residents have witnessed strife and hardships. Vadim Neselovskyi chooses to remember the beauty of the place where he was born rather than the darkness and obstacles. Odesa: A Musical Walk Through a Legendary City is a truly magnificent, singular tribute to the pearl of the Black Sea.

In-demand Chicago bassist Ethan Philion - praised by bass legend Rufus Reid for his "wonderful internal pulse," and by The Washington Post for his "well-honed chops and astounding musicality" - has long looked to Charles Mingus as a towering role model. Mingus' highly physical bass technique, his up-front communicative style as a bandleader, his interest in blending composition and improvisation, his pursuit of a unified voice in both small and large group settings, and not least of all his uncompromising antiracist politics and the way they manifest throughout his oeuvre: these qualities continue to inspire Philion and so many others in the decades following Mingus' untimely death from ALS in 1979, at age 56. // Now, in Mingus' centennial year of 2022, Philion is proud to present Meditations on Mingus, a powerfully swinging and inventive set of Mingus masterworks as arranged by Philion himself and performed by a stellar 10-piece ensemble. "My goal was to put together a program of pieces that speak to current events," Philion states. "The themes of the songs on the album - racism, prejudice, identity, economic inequality - are all still relevant to the world today. These compositions ask listeners to reflect on humanity's continued capacity for evil, but as Mingus's psychiatrist Edmund Pollock put it, they are also 'a call for acceptance, respect, love, understanding, fellowship, freedom - a plea to change the evil in man and to end hatred.'"