Being a former classical pianist, Turkish-born Burak Bedikyan employs his enormous technical proficiency to elaborate his compositions here on this third album to illustrate the new depth in his creativity. “…his exponential growth as a performer, composer and arranger is chronicled with one of the finest releases for 2013 in Circle of Life ...” (Brent Black – Bob-N-Jazz on SCCD33109 Circle of Life)

Award winning jazz pianist/composer Carl Winther (b. 1984 in Denmark) has already established himself in the international elite instrumentalist circuit of younger generation. Growing up in a musical family with his father, renowned trumpeter Jens Winther (1960 – 2011) Carl embarked on his professional music career while still a teenager performing and recording with Billy Hart, Jerry Bergonzi, Bill Evans, George Garzone, Adam Nussbaum, Dick Oats, and Doug Raney to mention a few. “Carl Winther is an enterprising and original pianist and composer. He has toured all over the world, and is a representative of the high standard of Danish jazz internationally.” (Quintonic – album review)

“Mood” deciphers “ballads” here in this Rich Perry new album, which is, to quote the liner notes author Neil Tesser, “.. all ballads, all handled with skill and taste, yet all pushing at the edges to find something else.” “The SteepleChase sessions… constitute a body of work equal to anyone currently in the jazz mainstream. Perry's editing, shifts in tone and phrasing, and embellishments of songs like "Gone With The Wind" on Gone (SCCD 31670) evince a genuine appreciation of the melodies, as well as a desire to make his own way through them.” (David A Orthmann-AAJ)

Stella By Starlight, My Foolish Heart, Johnny Guitar, Beautiful Love – just a few of the iconic American Songbook titles by Victor Young, whose music has been an important part of the repertoire of guitarist Vic Juris for many years. Juris dedicates the whole album here to the undisputed giant of the American film music composer of the last century. “Two outstanding qualities characterize Vic Juris' playing. One is his embodiment of the jazz tradition, while always stretching his scope and reaching for new possibilities and concepts. The other is his almost uncanny ability to hear and communicate the totality of the music he is playing, from beginning to end, including what is going on around him in the group and his many references to the jazz legacy.” (Victor L. Schermer – Interview AAJ)

Back for the first time in more than 25 years, MAXINE SULLIVAN: Great Songs From the Cotton Club by Arlen & Koehler this award winning album has already been Grammy nominated and has won the NAIRD award for Best Female Jazz Vocalist. This album was carried on many top ten lists, and brought Maxine Sullivan’s five decade career to a climax. Maxine Sullivan and her husband John Kirby became the first African American jazz stars to have a regular radio program. After her retirement, Maxine formed The House That Jazz Built in the South Bronx, which supports jazz education programs for children.

Centered around accordionist Vincent Peirani, the ensemble Living Being presents this new, extended album. The works on these two discs were recorded at the November 2013 SWR NEWJazz Meeting. For this meeting, Peirani expanded his core quintet to include Mathias Eick and Leila Martial. The extended group performed three concerts, in Tubingen, Mainz, and Karlsruhe.

The pieces of Swiss pianist and composer Yves Theiler focus on the jazz universe, and seamlessly fuse together world music influences and minimalism. Dance In A Triangle includes seven of Theiler’s compositions. The works are performed by the Yves Theiler Trio, which includes the composer on piano, Luca Sisera on bass, and Lukas Mantel on drums. The ensemble is currently nominated for one of the most exclusive jazz-prizes of Switzerland.

Renaud-Gabriel Pion is a successful composer, multi-instrumentalist, and improvisational musician. He performs on bass clarinet, Turkish clarinet, saxophone, bass flute, English horn, electronic woodwind instruments, and piano. He is based in Paris and Berlin. Of this project, Pion writes: “This music made sense to open windows on the city, the charm is immediately established. New York Sketches questions the permeability of the process of composition and recording the sound of the external environment- the opposite of the usual confinement in an airtight place.” (Translated fromwww.renaudgabrielpion.org) An extensive booklet is included with full color photographs of the most inspirational places in New York to Renaud-Gabirl Pion.

Pianist/composer Federico Bonifazi is considered one of the most outstanding talents of younger generation of Italy. After studying music in Paris and Turin Bonifazi embarked on professional career as a jazz musician in Europe. His trip to NYC in 2014 enabled him to establish a network of friends in New York jazz scene. Bonifazi returned to NYC the following year with host of compositions of his own to record this SteepleChase Lookout debut album with New York’s leading artists including Eric Alexander and the legendary drummer Jimmy Cobbs.

One of the handful of surviving original hard-boppers Freddie Redd is turning 88 this month. The famed composer of the 60’s iconic off-Broadway play The Connection Redd ’s recording career has been, however, sporadic despite his great talent. His trio album “Music For You” (SCCD 31796) in 2014, the first in almost three decades rectified this trend following the precursory 2012 release of “Music Forever” (SCCD 31743) a tribute album to Redd’s music by altoist Chris Byars’ Octet. On this new album Redd presides over a sextet of much younger generations as performer and composer of old and new compositions embodied here to render a remarkable reminder of jazz’s longevity.

Following their first two albums, the Naoko Sakata Trio is one of the most popular and interesting improvisation groups in Sweden. The trio plays lyrical improvisation with attitude as well as musical maturity on this new release. The moods on this self-composed album vary from beautiful and wild to contemplative and still.

Jazz has been declared “dead” innumerable times since saxophonist Ken Field formed the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble in 1990. The band obviously didn’t get the memo! In fact, it’s ironic that over the years rather than playing a “Second Line” dirge for jazz’s funeral, the horn-heavy sextet- inspired by the New Orleans brass band tradition- has been developing and cultivating a distinct sound critics and audiences alike hail for invigorating an illustrious musical heritage with fresh ideas wit, and spunk while in the process attracting new and younger audiences to music. Over more than a quarter century of touring and performing in settings ranging from clubs and concert halls to festival and parades, RSE has been evolving and refining a unique sound that incorporates post-bop and avant jazz influences without ever losing its allegiance to the groove and the party spirit of NOLA. This release is RSE’s fourth album, and it celebrates the band’s collective experience by providing a snapshot of where and what it is today- a tight, funky, fun, and heady unit that’s transgenerational in its appeal and whose music resonates with listeners on melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic levels. The personnel heard on the album is Field’s current working band and the RSE line-up that has played continuously together the longest. This is also the group’s first album to feature all original material.

Jan Gunnar Hoff - Stories - Stories is Jan Gunnar Hoff's third solo piano album on the 2L label and is a sequel to his critically acclaimed album LIVING from 2013. On the new release Hoff stretches his creative abilities, presenting contrasting compositions and improvisations, in a distinctly personal mixture. Some of the pieces are meditative and expressive, while others have a strong rhythmic vibe. Stories also displays Hoff as an arranger, presenting versions of classics like "God Only Knows" and the traditional Swedish folk song "Värmlandsvisan". SACD and Blu-ray Audio

Sharon Paige broke into show business in her teens as a singing and dancing chorus girl and moved quickly to featured roles. She has traveled throughout the United States and Canada, performing in the national companies of Broadway and Off Broadway musicals. Sharon has also toured the summer-tent, dinner-theater and nightclub circuits. In 2008, she and Keith Ingham released their Ned Washington tribute album, Love Is the Thing; Burke Beautiful is their second collaboration. Sharon currently resides and sings in New York City. Keith Ingham has recorded extensively and worked with Benny Goodman and other bands. He wrote the arrangements and led an all-star group of musicians on three notable Maxine Sullivan recordings for Harbinger Records. The first, “Maxine Sullivan Sings Great Songs from the Cotton Club by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler,” was nominated for a Grammy Award. He and Maxine also collaborate on Harbinger albums devoted to the music of Jule Styne and burton Lane. Keith was also arranger and leader on the classic Peggy Lee recording, “Love Held Lightly,” also for Harbinger Records. Johnny Burke was one of America’s greatest composer/lyricists. He enjoyed a long collaboration with James V. Monaco and then Jimmy McHugh writing songs for films, shows, and such singers as Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

Guitarist and composer David Doružka, a leading and awarded representative of the Czech jazz scene, whose activities go beyond Czech borders, comes with his new album "Autumn Tales" almost ten years since his previous album "Silently Dawning", although in the meantime he obviously worked on dozens projects of other artists. The album, recorded in trio with acoustic rhythm section, contains mainly David's original compositions, but for inspiration and repertoire, however, he also used sources of Jewish music, oeuvre of Bohuslav Martinu and Czech interwar popular jazz.

Veteran alto saxophonist Andy Fusco, despite his long-time active career which had begun with the 5-year tenure with the Buddy Rich Big Band in the late 70s, has been notoriously under-recorded as a leader. His SteepleChase debut album last year “Whirlwind” SCCD 31811, though it took 12 years before its release, has marked the new era for the virtuoso instrumentalist. Here on his new album (only one year has passed since the last one) Fusco leads his hand-picked band to present a tasteful and full-blooded program. “Whirlwind is one of those rare releases that exceeds craft and competence, and establishes its own reasons for being. Among other things, it's a bottomless well of a jazz record. The more you play it, the more discoveries you make. The music offers multiple perspectives and can be enjoyed in a number of ways.” (David A.Orthmann – AAJ on SCCD 31811)

Guitarist/composer Gene Segal is rapidly becoming a stalwart regular player of SteepleChase Lookout with this his 3rd album, for which Gene assembles an organ trio. With his unpredictable, open, unconventional style still intact Segal applies a mini paradigm shift to straighter jazz and reveals a new dimension. “While Segal still loves the funk, as the opening "Healing Feeling" definitively shows, the remainder of the album doesn't easily fit into any one musical pigeonhole; unless there's a category at your local music store called "accomplished, original jazz-rock from out of left-field."” (Dave Wayne – AAJ on SCCD 33114)

The winner of Downbeat Magazine’s “Rising Star” critics poll 2015 cornetist and composer Kirk Knuffke is presenting here his interpretation of compositions by the two iconic practitioners of 60’s free jazz movement Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman. For Kirk – being identified himself with new jazz – who had known Coleman in his late years personally, this engaging tribute is an axiom. "One of modern jazz’s most skilled navigators of the divide between inside and outside, freedom and swing", he has "full command of his most demanding instrument…” – (All About Jazz)

Italy’s new piano-forte star Federico Bonifazi hails from Umbrian region but his musical soul belongs to the jazz scene of New York city where this his second SteepleChase LookOut release was produced. On this album Bonifazi invites trumpeter Philip Harper of the Harper Brothers to be featured. “You'll see is an album worthy of special attention, designed and built with strong artistic personality and with a huge communicative generosity, in which Bonifazi interacts with his fellow performers with that nurturing freedom with humility and discretion that only great artists possess and that’s what makes this CD a real gem in the musical production of the Umbrian pianist.” (A Proposito di Jazz on SCCD 33125)

Late bassist Milt Hinton is celebrated for a stage and studio career that intersected with countless legendary musicians - from Dizzy Gillespie and Cab Calloway to Barbra Streisand and Willie Nelson - for an incredible seven decades. Groove Dreams, a new recording by versatile bassist Peter Dominguez, honors Hinton's legacy with solo bass tunes from artists as varied as Duke Ellington, Stevi Wonder, Bill Evans, and Chick Corea. Performed on the 18th-century Italian bass Hinton played throughout his career, each song explores the nuances and deep colors of the instrument - qualities not always discernible in ensemble playing. A renowned bassist and educator in his own right, Dominguez met Hinton in 1981 and won the inaugural Milton J. Hinton Scholarship Competition that same year. More than three decades later, Dominguez was instrumental in forging a relationship between the Hinton estate and Oberlin Conservatory, where he is a professor of jazz studies and double bass. Oberlin's relationship with the Hinton estate has grown to include a scholarship fund; an extensive collection of papers, films, and personal artifacts amassed by the Hintons; a biennial summer Institute for Studio Bass; photographs taken by Hinton throughout his career; and four basses formerly owned by Hinton that continue to be played by Oberlin facutly, students and visiting artists. ''Words are not adequate to express the experience of playing Milt Hinton's bass,'' says Dominguez. ''We are ever mindful of its provenance and Milt's enduring spirit that thrives within it.''

Chris Byars’s ongoing endeavour to re-discover and celebrate works by outstanding jazz composers of the past generations produced here another collection of gems by alto saxophonist Frank Strozier superbly arranged by Byars. Born in Memphis, TN in 1937 Frank Strozier grew up playing piano in the nourishing Memphis blues/jazz environment. Strozier established himself in New York as highly acclaimed alto sax player and composer in the 1960s, performing a. o. as a member of The Miles Davis Sextet. “The music of Duke Jordan is surely worthy of re-appraisal and when it is refurbished and re-interpreted as creatively as it is here it emerges as much more than a trip down memory lane but serves as inspirational source material upon which to build a new music.” (Evan Dixon - Jazz Views on SCCD 31787 The Music of Duke Jordan)

Stephen Riley started his recording career with SteepleChase in 2005 with an amazing (and unusual) piano-less trio SCCD 31584 Inside Out. Since then he had more often than not opted for the piano-less format until he recorded his 2013 quartet release SCCD 31765 Lover with Peter Zak on piano. Riley and Zak started performing as duo and made their first duo release SCCD 31806 Haunted Heart to critical and public acclaim. So here’s “Deuce” to follow up by the empathic twosome. “…This session is his third meeting with pianist Peter Zak, whose sensitive accompaniment allows Riley the breathing room he thought could only be found in pianoless groups. This time, however, it’s just the pair, finding new avenues through a mix of jazz standards and gems from the Great American Songbook. Without timekeeping by a rhythm section, the players rely on intuition to anticipate their joint path…. With Haunted Heart, Stephen Riley and Peter Zak have achieved that rare chemistry that demands future projects together.” (Ken Dryden, New York City Jazz Record on “Haunted Heart” SCCD 31806)

Composer and saxophonist Nicola Alesini is one of the most prominent new sounders in the rhythms and melodies of the Mediterranean tradition. In his music, always open to the whole universe of the language of art, there is a meeting and mingling of jazz and popular music, ambient and world music. Visionary, magical, and suggestive are the stylistic figures of his compositions and his sometimes lyrical, sometimes scratching phrasing. He has worked with musicians such as Glen Velez, Hans Joachim Roedelius, David Sylvian, Roger Eno, David Thorn, Harold Budd, Steve Jansen, and Richard Barbieri. This new release is a concept album based on the book “Invisible Cities” by Italo Calvino, and is a journey in the imagination of the composer where “impressions” and “memories” become sound. A symphony of saxophones, popular clarinet, bass clarinet, and keyboards is heard here. “Totally unreal places, wonderfully without time nor space. And, once again, packed with music that knows how to scratch the soul with velvet nails.”

The SLD Trio is an exciting and adventurous group of young musicians from Buenos Aires. The Argentinian capital is not a city that is exactly known for an extensive free-jazz and improvised music scene; however, there is a dedicated core of artists and musicians in the city, and the members of this piano trio, pianist Paul Schocron, bassist German Lamonega, and drummer Pablo Diaz, are at the heart of it. Individually, they have studied at institutions like the Classical Composition at Rosario University, and the Contemporary Music School (part of the Berklee International Network, which is run by the popular music school in Boston), as well as the University of Fine Arts in La Plata. They have been working together for years, along with other important Buenos Aires musicians like Enrique Norris. All the while, their musical rapport has grown closer and closer, and most recently the trio has been greatly expanding their network of collaborators and welcoming new influences. This is a lovely and exciting album from a trio that is just as willing to give as to receive, and ready to synthesize the familiar with the unknown. On Tensegridad, these three strong, empathetic musicians are flexing their creative muscles, working hard together to share their excitement in making music, and giving back the community that they have received as much from.

Listening, eight years after it was created, to this primary chapter in the recorded legacy of Myra Melford's first trio evokes a rush of feelings. There are warm memories of in-person encounters with Melford, Lindsey Horner and Reggie Nicholson; and satisfaction regarding how the ideas Melford articulated here as both pianist and composer have metamorphosed into the triumphs of her subsequent music. What is absent is the uncertainty one often feels when contemplating the recent past, that feeling of needing more time to take the full measure of a musical statement. Melford has made it easy for us, through the clarity of both these now-historic performances and her subsequent efforts, to hear the present works as both glorious ends in themselves and the foundations of her ongoing creations. Melford formed the trio in 1990, and immediately began the touring and recording that made her and it among the most positive signs of musical health in the early 1990s. What set the trio immediately apart was its ability to merge a strong blues feeling with notions of rhythmic and structural complexity associated with the exploratory end of the jazz-trio spectrum. The music conveyed a strength and unguarded emotionalism that burst forth in dynamic arcs, with a sense of shape and completeness that made the trio’s collective creations anything but random. Even as the band broke new ground, it was clearly a product of the jazz tradition. However odd the meter or angular the thematic material, the music always had a propulsion that all sides of current debates on jazz aesthetics could identify and celebrate as swing.