The music of drummer/composer Dan Weiss always exceeds expectations. No matter the musical situation, he tends to push the boundaries of genre, ensemble sound and expectations. The title of his new trio recording, Utica Box, is a fitting conflagration of a barbaric psychiatric treatment, the Utica crib, and Weiss's tendency to write and perform music that is outside the box.

Nonagenarian saxophonist Lee Konitz has been a featured soloist for many decades and has become a legend for his intriguing contributions to many well-known jazz dates with a wide variety of ensembles. Woodwind player, composer and arranger Ohad Talmor has been an important part of Konitz's musical sphere for the past three decades, providing the elder statesman numerous opportunities to contribute his celebrated alto sound. // Konitz and Talmor have reunited a version of the Lee Konitz Nonet to release a new recording, Old Songs New, where the unique ensemble of winds, strings and percussion comes together to anchor Konitz's flights of fancy.

The great bassist and composer Charles Mingus had his diehard supporters and detractors. His explosive intermingling of devil may care attitude, imposing character and aggressive music was sure to rub some listeners the wrong way and was just as likely to attract adventurous fans. But his genius could not be denied; it just may have taken some time to break down barriers. // A good way to examine this change in listener attitudes is to investigate the differences in critical appraisals from two performances in the port city of Bremen, Germany, a decade apart. The initial performance in 1964 introduced Mingus's firebrand ways to an unsuspecting audience while his 1975 appearance was met with the expectancy of jazz royalty. The performances appear in their first official release remastered from the original source tapes on Charles Mingus @ Bremen 1964 & 1975. // Both of Mingus's performances in Bremen are incredible marathons of brilliance from the top musicians of two decades. The performances don't show a wilting in the passion of the leader. A decade apart, the performances are every bit as cutting edge. The only thing that seems to have changed was the attitude of the critical mind, as ten years of achievement had cemented Mingus's legacy in Europe.

A chance to host The Musicians' Show on Columbia University's WKCR made Ingram decide to explore jazz's use as a protest music. The music that he leaned toward was not overtly or loudly political, it did not catch the listener by force and volume. It tended to use subtle communication through the music. Herbie Hancock's "The Prisoner" and Milton Nascimento's "Fairy Tale Song" were perfect examples of artists thoughtfully utilizing their craft to generate nuanced and affecting messages.

The saxophone quartet is a tricky ensemble that is at the same time a lot of fun but very demanding technically. The saxophone quartet celebrates the instrument offering a lot of commonality, since they are all playing the same instrument, which embodies a rich legacy and history in jazz and contemporary music. The composers have to approach the ensemble as a chamber group with each member being especially responsible rhythmically. Remember the sax quartet configuration does not include a chord or rhythm instrument but, as you hear on this recording, the harmonic texture is quite pronounced and there is nothing musically missing.

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On his new recording, Violet Hour Live at Firehouse 12, Cleaver reconvenes this allstar ensemble for a rare performance and live recording at the New Haven, Connecticut venue. Violet Hour was first assembled for Cleaver's 2008 recording Detroit and features some of the most inspiring instrumentalists that have come into the drummer's orbit, most of them also hailing from or having connections to Cleaver's home town of Detroit, the state of Michigan or the Midwest. The ensemble is made up of some of the best and most in demand musicians in jazz, all questing souls who fortunately managed to cross paths in New York City.

Violist/improviser/composer Mat Maneri envisages his music as one of activity in stasis, or motion within stillness. His music continues from the lineage of master improvisers Paul Bley and Paul Motian with a sound that is distinctly his own and developed over years of discovery and practice. Maneri's new recording, Dust, showcases his stirring playing alongside an ensemble of communicative and exploratory musicians.

The duo found that their approaches to music fit well together, as they both had backgrounds in jazz and classical music. Dominguez's Spanish influences were not foreign to Noiberg, as her background in the widely eclectic music of Israel provided touchstones to the Iberian Peninsula and her own involvement with Latin American music gave her a grounding in some Latin rhythmic ideas. Further, many of the Israeli folkloric pieces that Noiberg introduced to Dominguez reminded him of holiday tunes from his native Andalusia.

Jobim's legacy has lived on through his admirers, followers and apprentices. Bossa Nova and the Brazilian jazz tradition continue to flourish, led by the likes of drummer Duduka Da Fonseca and pianist Helio Alves. With the addition of the great vocalist Maucha Adnet, the friends have assembled a program of music highlighting the beauty of the Brazilian Jazz music that they have performed all over the world. Their new recording, Samba Jazz & Tom Jobim, was recorded to spread their passion even further. // Though Da Fonseca and Alves come from different parts of Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, respectively), they both grew up with the sounds of popular Brazilian music and Bossa Nova in their ears. It was upon hearing jazz as teenagers that they decided to pursue the American born genre as their passion. Both would eventually land in New York City to become enmeshed in Gotham's jazz world. // Beginning in 2007 at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in New York, they began to perform a program of music called "Samba Jazz and the Music of Jobim" with the singer Maucha Adnet, who was a member of Jobim's ensemble during the last ten years of his life. The trio has toured the world with the program and has developed an incredible empathy.

There are relationships that always remain fruitful. Maybe it is because the discourse never lags or there is unflagging affection. Vocalist Jay Clayton and percussionist Jerry Granelli have been making music together for forty years and their musical connection continues to surprise as their affinity deepens. Their new recording, Alone Together, shows how the spark of creativity has only brightened over the duo's long affiliation.// Separately, the two have had remarkable and eclectic careers. Clayton came up as a jazz singer, only to be recruited into the modern classical worlds of Steve Reich and John Cage before becoming one of the great vocal improvisers in any genre. Granelli was a first call drummer in the Bay Area, playing regularly with piano greats Vince Guaraldi, Mose Allison, Denny Zeitlin and the guitar wizard Ralph Towner.// Clayton and Granelli's relationship stemmed from a recommendation of the great percussionist Collin Walcott. Granelli was running the summer music program at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, an important Buddhist institution where many important voices in creative arts and music came together. Walcott suggested that Granelli invite Clayton to their workshop in 1979.// Upon arriving, and having never met Granelli before, Clayton was asked to perform an improvised concert with Walcott and Granelli in a local planetarium. The rapport between Clayton and Granelli was immediate and deep. Clayton return to Naropa each of the following three summers. Then when Granelli relocated from the Bay Area to Seattle to teach at Cornish College, he invited Clayton to join the faculty.// The two really began to develop their language in Seattle. Meeting regularly in Granelli's basement rehearsal space, the improvisers made a core sound that would drive many future projects, including their group Quartett, featuring trombonist Julian Priester and bassist Gary Peacock. But it was their connection that was the heart of these endeavors. They were true musical soul mates.// Their first foray into recording was a duo recording entitled Sound Songs that was released in 1986 on JMT Records from Germany. Apart from Charles Mingus's "Goodbye Porkpie Hat," the entire album was improvised, showcasing the captivating talents of these two masters as they created new music together.// Thirty years later, Clayton and Granelli have revisited the integral duo setting they perfected so long ago. They reconvened along with engineer Darren Von Niekerk at the Sonic Temple Studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia for three hours in July 2014. The music was later mixed and edited by longtime friend Sascha Von Oertzen.

It was Charlston's friend, percussionist and Brazilian music expert Gordon Gottlieb, who introduced the vibist to Pascoal's unpredictable genius and to his style, which is fearless, but respectful of tradition. Charlston was immediately attracted to the way Pascoal combined many different musical cultures with his own brilliantly twisted music. Charlston reflects: "Tradition and near insanity are close brothers in Hermeto's world." Inspired by all of this, Charlston created JazzBrasil, a band built with the intention of melding the harmonic sophistication of jazz to the rhythmic intricacies and variation of Brazilian music. // JazzBrasil incorporated a tremendous blend of jazz and Brazilian music experts, including woodwind master Ted Nash, piano great Mark Soskin, bassist Jay Anderson, drummer/percussionist Rog�rio Boccato and percussionist Caf�. The group recorded the album Essentially Hermeto, which was released in 2012. // Over the past seven years, JazzBrasil's repertoire continued to grow and it became apparent that it was time to record. The group's musical canon had also incorporated tunes from other composers, including the great Brazilian guitarist Egberto Gismonti and singer-songwriter Lenine.

The combination of concept, effort and the right collaborators typically leads to good things no matter what the goal might be. These elements are especially integral to cohesion within a musical ensemble in performance, especially a group built of musicians who haven't previously played together. Pianist/composer James Carney was thinking along these lines when he came up with the idea and chose the musicians for his new recording, Pure Heart. // The sextet that Carney put together is quite an assemblage. For the horns, he recruited his longtime friend and saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, bass clarinetist and alto saxophonist Oscar Noriega, and recent collaborator and trumpeter Stephanie Richards. Bassist Dezron Douglas and drummer Tom Rainey met in their first time ever pairing. In fact, most of these players had never played together before, except Coltrane and Douglas and Noriega and Rainey.

As a MacDowell Fellow and Cultural Envoy for the US State Department, a Bachelor of astrophysics and a 30-year student of piano, Dan Tepfer has distinguished himself as "one of the moment's most adventurous and relevant musicians" (New York Magazine). In the eight years since his last full-length solo release, however, he's composed - and coded - the future. Today, he announces the multimedia, multisensory album Natural Machines, out May 17th on Sunnyside Records.

Luciana Souza's Duos II, released in 2005, 3 years after Barazilian Duos, was also nominated for a Grammy. This "remastered" version replaces the original album (SSC 1142) in Sunnyside's catalog.