(2-CD set) Occupy the World features the legendary composer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith together with Tumo, a new improvising orchestra that is assembled specifically for each project, in it's first appearance. The 22-piece orchestra performs five extended compositions by Smith, including "Occupy the World for Life, Liberty and Justice", his most extensive recorded composition to date, that was originally inspired by the Occupy movement. The four other compositions included on this double-CD were also recorded here for the first time. TUMO is made up of leading improvisers in Finland and the Nordic region, many of whom have recorded for Tum Records with various groups before. In addition to the principal soloists, Wadada Leo Smith on four compositions and bassist John Lindberg on one, featured are trumpeter Verneri Pohjola, trombonist Jari Hongisto, saxophonists Mikko Innanen and Fredrik Ljungkvist, flutist Juhani Aaltonen, pianist Seppo Kantonen, harpist Iro Haarla, accordionist Veli Kujala, guitarists Kalle Kalima and Mikko Iivanainen as well as drummers Mika Kallio, Stefan Pasborg and Janne Tuomi, among others.

Conclusions can be seen to reflect the long career of the Finnish tenor saxophone giant Juhani Aaltonen through ten new compositions by members of the quartet that also include pianist/harpist Iro Haarla, bassist Ulf Krokfors and drummer Reino Laine, who are all masters in their own right. On Conclusions, Aaltonen takes stock of his musical past while moving to a new, more mature level, still always placing a strong accent on free improvisation.

March of the Alpha Males is the first recording of the Ilmiliekki Quartet. Founded in early 2002, the group won the Young Nordic Jazz Comets competition just months later in the summer of 2002. Strong, beautiful melodies and boundless improvisation ready to break conventions while simultaneously embracing a broad variety of musical influences are what Ilmiliekki Quartet is all about. March of the Alpha Males includes an eclectic mix of the members' own compositions as well as tunes by Ornette Coleman, Kenny Wheeler, Bj�rk and Radiohead.

(3-CD set) Trumpet is a unique three-CD boxed set of solo trumpet music recorded over one week in the beautiful natural acoustics of St. Mary's Church, the medieval stone church in the Town of Pohja on the Southern Coast of Finland. All compositions are by Wadada Leo Smith. Trumpet represents a culmination of Smith's recorded solo trumpet work that has comprised a total of six albums before Trumpet, starting with his very first album as a leader, Creative Music - 1: Six Solo Improvisations, in 1971 and ending with his dedication to Thelonious Monk, Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk, in 2015.

The Sky is Ruby is an album of Raoul BJ rkenheim's compositions recorded with Finland's premiere jazz big band, the UMO Jazz Orchestra. Raoul Bj rkenheim, who is one of the most adventurous guitarists on the contemporary scene, initially progressed from B.B. King to Frank Zappa and from John McLaughlin to John Coltrane in his search for a sound of his own. With his own groups, such as Krakatau, BJ rkenheim accomplished that goal more than two decades ago and has successfully brought this own unique sound to his compositions as well. For the Sky Is Ruby, BJ rkenheim penned eight inspired original compositions that make good use of the orchestra and it's soloists, including tenor saxophone great Juhani Aaltonen and pianist/harpist Iro Haarla, plus the composer himself. The end result stands out as one of the rare recent recordings of improvised music for a larger ensemble that avoids repeating the by now trite mannerisms of traditional big band music.

Duo Nueva Finlandia is pianist Eero Ojanen and bassist Teppo Hauta-aho, who have both represented the top of Finnish modern Jazz since the early 1960s. After often playing together during the 1960's and 1970s, they went their separate ways for many years, but started again playing together first as Trio Nueva Finlandia (with saxophonist Seppo Paakkunainen being the third member) and more recently as a duo. Short Stories is the result of an impromptu session from June 1998. It is improvised music at it's purest: no recording engineer, no written music, no preconceived notions of what the music is going to be. Just two musicians with their instruments, a recording device and two microphones ready to capture the magic.

Shadowglow is an improvised musical interplay between guitarist Raoul Bj"rkenheim and drummer Lukas Ligeti. The Raoul Bj"rkenheim & Lukas Ligeti Duo includes two longtime residents of New York, who share European roots and a mutual interest in the music of the world. References to Asian, African and European indigenous musical styles and rhythmic patterns can easily be detected on Shadowglow. Still, above all, this recording is a celebration of free improvisation by two highly compatible musicians who know each other well.

Delirium is a quartet made up of Finnish saxophonist Mikko Innanen and his three Danish compatriots, including Kasper Tranberg on cornet, Jonas Westergaard on bass and Stefan Pasborg on drums. Eclexistence, the second album of Delirium, is characterized by a sense of musical adventure. Combining the tradition of modern jazz with their own fresh take on that tradition, there is a definite joy of freedom and will to experiment that guide the quartet's approach. New elements, such as increased ethnic influences, enrich the music even further from their debut recording.

SUHKA

Wadada Leo Smith's latest album features "Rosa Parks: Pure Love. An Oratorio of Seven Songs," another extended composition by Smith inspired by the civil rights movement in the United States. This new major work is composed for the iconic civil rights hero Rosa Parks (1913-2005) and performed by three vocalists, a double-quartet and a drummer with electronics. The album is released in February 2019 to celebrate Rosa Parks' birthday on February 4.

MORE THAN 123

Ode To O is the second release of the Ogjb Quartet, a cooperative group that features four longstanding leaders in modern improvised music, saxophonist Oliver Lake, cornetist Graham Haynes, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Barry Altschul. Each group member is a composer in his own right and a master on his chosen instrument. The new release, which follows the highly acclaimed Bamako (TUM CD 050) released in 2019, again features compositions contributed by each of the group's members as well as two collective improvisations. The album is named after Barry Altschul's composition dedicated to the late Ornette Coleman.

Innkvisitio, led by the highly talented saxophonist Mikko Innanen, is an energetic quartet of players, each of whom is much sought-after on the current Finnish jazz scene. Pianist Seppo Kantonen, who performs exclusively with synthesizers in Innkvisitio, and drummer Joonas Riippa form the nucleus of Innkvisitio with saxophonist Timo Lassy joining Innanen in the front line on this recording. Their debut, Paa-Da-Pap, captures the group during an innovative and vital phase, touring across Finland, as it is extracted from hours upon hours of music recorded during that tour. The album title refers to an onomatopoetic extract of a birdsong as perceived by Innanen, an analogy quite fitting to the band's organic concept of sound.

(5-CD set) The Emerald Duets is a crowning achievement among Wadada Leo Smith's many recorded duo collaborations with drummers/percussionists that have previously featured such creative giants as Ed Blackwell, Jack DeJohnette, Milford Graves (TUM BOX 003), Louis Moholo-Moholo (TUM CD 029) and G�nter Sommer, among others. The Emerald Duets features four master drummers who have each, in their own unique fashion, contributed to the way modern drumming has developed in the past six decades and how it is now perceived. Pheeroan akLaff, Andrew Cyrille and Han Bennink are each featured on one disc and Jack DeJohnette on two discs, including Smith's five-part composition "Paradise: The Gardens and Fountains" that fills the fifth disc of this boxed set in it's entirety. The sessions with akLaff, Cyrille and DeJohnette mostly feature compositions by Wadada Leo Smith, including three very different versions of Smith's powerful statement for the protection of freedom and democracy, "The Patriot Act, Unconstitutional and a Force that Destroys Democracy." The session with Bennink includes a combination of Smith's compositions and collectively created tracks.

A Sonnet For Billie Holiday brings together for the first time two of Wadada Leo Smith's frequent collaborators, drummer Jack DeJohnette and pianist Vijay Iyer, in this meeting of three creative giants. The recording features compositions by all of it's participants in a unique artistic collaboration.