Rolling Jazz 2026

Toast of the Nation 2026's sets are already posted, though I've just come in on the broadcast: what I've so far heard from Nicole Zuraitis & Friends upwas pretty tensile---the kind of Friends who could upstage a lesser vocal stylist without necessarily meaning to, but it didn't happen here. Took a while to warm up to some of Kassa Overall's musos, but it all came together. Sofia Rei's crew are the ones who are killing meee--never heard of her before! Still ahead:

Toast of the Nation takes note of a few magical live performances to emerge in 2025. We begin in New York, where drumming royalty Marcus Gilmore makes an auspicious Village Vanguard debut as a leader. Tyreek McDole serenades festival goers in Marciac, France. Amir ElSaffar reveals a new quartet in Berlin. Then we head to Philadelphia for the visionary Marshall Allen and his small group, Ghost Horizon. The set concludes with inspired performances from Kokayi at Big Ears in Knoxville and one of the last performances featuring Jack DeJohnette with George Colligan's Trio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-nXegyTyuI

If, like me, you were upset that Kamasi Washington's soundtrack to the anime Lazarus (which stands up really well as a KW album) was only going to be available on vinyl, good news! They made a CD version for Japan. I've got a copy on the way to me, along with reissues of two grails from the BYG-Actuel catalog: Frank Wright's One For John (with Noah Howard on alto sax, Bobby Few on piano and Muhammad Ali on drums, also never before available on CD) and Alan Silva's Seasons (with the Celestrial Communication Orchestra, a 22-member group that included the whole Art Ensemble of Chicago, three pianists, multiple bassists, and a slew of horns - it's a triple LP now reissued as a 2CD set).

The Small's jam session ruiner/guitar guy debacle has been all over my social media (jazz jams often bring out the real weirdos, but I guess it's notable for going down at jazz jam central).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35tBA_5SlNY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ropCaQu2jLU

Can't bring myself to watch the second one.

Although it seems like the guy requested "Sunny" and they maybe played a Sonny Rollins tune instead ;)

xxxpost Kamasi is also on Saul Williams Meets Carlos Nino & Friends at TreePeople, the first International Anthem album to be nominated for a Grammy, and both tenors, Aaron Shaw as well as KW, are especially appealing in this overall bubble of live clarity---spoken word seems no prob here: Williams's voice fits in well, though the only lines that have grabbed me are about how Wall St. got its name. (Tenor may be mainly KW; it's one of several instruments played by Shaw).

Scrolling through the Smalls/Mezzrow email makes me think I've gotta get over there soon.

lol @ the dude crashing the Small's jam with a giant acoustic guitar

it is like some kind of Andy Kaufman performance

lol

tbh I feel bad for the guy

Jazz Legacies Fellowship Honors All-Star Concert was at Lincoln Center in NY last night. I was not there but read about it. the Jazz Legacies Fellowships provide unrestricted $100,000 grants to jazz elders. Performing last night were Valerie Capers, Amina Claudine Myers, George Coleman, Akua Dixon, Tom Harrell, Billy Hart, Bertha Hope, Roger Humphries, Carmen Lundy, Roscoe Mitchell, Johnny O’Neal, Shannon Powell, Julian Priester, Herlin Riley, Michele Rosewoman, Dom Salvador and Reggie Workman. The Mellon Foundation and Jazz Foundation of America fund this

That new Pat Metheny "Side EYE III" is pretty good. Some of the keyboard/synth stuff on that kinda echos sound wise some of those early ECM synthy touches with 2025 sounds (with the loops etc).

I was checking that out last night. I listened to the Side EYE I which was just the trio a while back and that has some cool stuff on it too.

What a great lineup, curmudgeon! Just made me think of Rudy Lawless, who played drums with Valerie Capers for many years and was a really great person to be around.

Honestly makes me so happy to see Shannon Powell & Herlin on there, and Roscoe Mitchell. Good job, rich people.

I need to check out those Metheny records, I love Joe Dyson.

End of an era: The Bad Plus (aka Reid Anderson, Dave King, and your gran on bongos) are hanging it up at the end of this year, after a tour featuring Craig Taborn and Chris Potter on which they'll play the music of Keith Jarrett's American Quartet.

might actually see this tour

Ben Monder came and went?

They're doing a couple of dates with Monder and Chris Speed in St. Louis this week, and a festival in June. The Potter/Taborn shows are in March and April.

The annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics' Poll is out. My label did quite well on the "Rara Avis" (reissues and archival releases) list; the Anthony Braxton Quartet (England) 1985 set was #4, and the Cecil Taylor/Tony Oxley album Flashing Spirits was #9.

concur on the new Metheny -- super good

I don't connect with Metheny's music very often. I've tried - and I've interviewed him; he seems to be a genuinely good dude. But what he does is Not For Me. That said, if his taking control of his post-ECM catalog means Zero Tolerance For Silence is coming back into print, I'm all for that.

Have you gone back to Trio->Live recently? That's sneakily become my fave Metheny, just burning.

I love this concept - Chris Weisman and Pablo Held wrote each other an album's worth of music on paper, then each arranged and recorded the other's music however they wanted to, and then they each released the album of the other person playing their new compositions:

https://pabloheld.bandcamp.com/album/chris-weisman-plays-my-music
https://chrisweisman.bandcamp.com/album/pablo-held-plays-my-music

I struggle with Metheny myself, but some of his stuff is pretty great. Honestly, my favorite single disc Metheny thing might be Works II.

His album of John Zorn compositions — Tap: Book Of Angels Vol. 20 — is really good. I listened to that last night. I also like his album From This Place, and a few other 21st century things. I think it's mostly the Pat Metheny Group stuff that sets my teeth on edge.

Yeah, haven't kept up with him in this century, but I always preferred some of the non-Group ventures, like with Haden and Ornette---also unexpectedly enjoyed [Fictionary, by Group mainstay Lyle Mays. One of my friends swears by some of his albums with Gary Burton, and. I've liked radio tracks from his album with Scofield.

Will have to check out his Zorn covers!

The Gary Burton album with Metheny, Roy Haynes, and Dave Holland is a classic, but the trio albums with Larry Grenadier and Bill Stewart are *fire* (esp. the live one).

Speaking of Metheny, can anyone tell me if this has been an official release or a streaming-only thing? It's pretty good.

Also pretty good is the Tales from The Hudson concert with Michael Brecker, Jack DeJohnette, Joey Calderazzo and Dave Holland . Metheny's solo in "Slings and Arrows" is stunning.

Heard two tracks from an upcoming Shabaka Hutchings album (coming out in March) and they both suuuuucked.

The second James Brandon Lewis/Messthetics record, also out in March, rips, though.

Yeah, this Shabaka is not great. The last one was a bit too bougie wellness jazz for my liking, so I was intrigued by the idea of him making his own beats, but the production is pretty tame, with generic ambient jazz synth sounds. There's some potentially interesting stuff going on rhythmically on the back half, but as with all his electronic projects, it needs to go harder. As for the rapping, his delivery is pretty monotonous. He's been playing live with Pat Thomas lately, so I'm hoping something more exciting will come out of that.

The thing with Shabaka is that he's a good player, particularly on clarinet, but he's never really lived up to the hype of being the UK's golden boy. His artistic curiosity is admirable, but Sons Of Kemet aside, I don't think he's really landed on anything truly distinctive or vital. I enjoyed The Ancestors record, but they felt like group efforts, and I think that he's probably at his best when he has collaborators who can inspire and challenge him.

Of the two that have been made public, Future Untold is a twinkly ambient blandfest, but the beat on this is quite fun, and I like the way the sax gets a bit spicier after the chromatic breakdown. But as with a lot of his stuff, I want him to take it a bit further, freer, weirder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkV4FsZi-i8

art is cool for sure

I like that Shabaka track, the Baile funk-esque beat, the weird calliope-sounding flutes, bringing back the SoK rhythmic sax...

Just heard syndicated Jazz In The New Millenium's hour of Craig Handy: starts with version of "Watermelon Man" on Headhunters' live 2025 alb, then back to early 90s for live Mingus Big Band, forward a few years to "I Left My Baby," from the Kansas City soundtrack: Handy as Coleman Hawkins, with Curtis Fowlkes, David Fathead Newman, Kevin Mahogany, others; also with group 2nd-Line Smith, which is organ jazz meets New Orleans street, parade etc. elements (organist isn't trying to be the frontman here, wisely); The Latin Side of McCoy Tyner, with Conrad Herwig, and (great finale) James Brown's "Aint It Funky Now," with German combo BAM, back to 2025.

All of that really worked, plus some more with annotations I didn't take in (must start recording this show: there's no archive of any kind, much less downloads)

Here's that Kansas City track; Mark Whitfield's on there too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvYiRl6-FY8

That was arranged by Steven Bernstein, whose long-part-time band with Charlie Hunter, ", Bobby Previte, and Skerik (Omaha Diner) finally released its s/t album in 2025. Name is ironic tribute to where a guy got the idea for Top 40, on which all of the songs covered were originally No. 1, "at least briefly." Think some were Top 20, or other formats officially, but all are the unmistakably well-preserved, processed goods, though not too familiar, not as done here. Also not like the Mothers assaulting "Louie Louie," but witty, lithe, charming, hell maybe it's gay, I wouldn't know:https://charliehunter1.bandcamp.com/album/omaha-diner

(Also don't know why that ", is between Hunter and Previte.)

Cecil Taylor's final live performance — at the Whitney Museum on April 23, 2016, with Harri Sjöström on saxes, Okkyung Lee on cello, Jackson Krall on drums and Tony Oxley on electronics — will be released on CD by the Fundacja Sluchaj label. I was there, and wrote one of the two liner note essays.

https://sluchaj.bandcamp.com/album/words-and-music-the-last-bandstand

cecil is an automatic purchase for me

The show was fascinating - it's 80 minutes long, and about 30-35 minutes of that is him reading what starts out as a poem but becomes a long lecture on biology, human prehistory, and all kinds of other stuff. It's wild. (And the quality of the recording is great, btw.)

Utterly lost touch with jazz last year— couldn’t find myself excited by much on offer, with a few exceptions. One goal this year is to get back into it!

Just saw The Naked Gun last night, which I found to be moderately enjoyable trash– I mean good fun! – but now recalling the parody of jazz singing sequence that kind of bugged me.

Utterly lost touch with jazz last year— couldn’t find myself excited by much on offer, with a few exceptions. One goal this year is to get back into it!

Catch up last year with anything involving Luke Stewart (esp Silt Remembrance Ensemble), the Otherlands Trio (w/Darius Jones), anything with Mary Halvorson

I am utterly baffled by love for Halvorson. Totally unmoved by everything I have heard from her.

i’m a sucker for digital delay

Artlessly Falling is still the one Halvorson album I've really gotten into----from RJ 202i:

eah we were digging AF over on Robert Wyatt: Classic or Dud?:

He's good on that Code Girl album--sounds old, but vivid, to lingering impression after tracks are over---and alb is all good, by far the best Halvorson set I've heard so far, maybe because she's an accompanist here, to singers and instrumental "chamber" (but non-antiseptic) jazz combo & soloists.

― dow, Tuesday, 5 January 2021 19:45 (one month ago) link

i was a little cooler on the album overall, maybe it needs a few more spins to grow on me, but agree that Wyatt is fantastic on it

― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open)

t's a great setting for him and he sounds perfect on it even if I am not as high on as I was the first Code Girl record, but agreed I need some more time with it

― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, 5 January 2021 20:47 (one month ago) link

I thought Amirtha Kidambi's vocals were very strong too, think she's the main singer other than Wyatt, although tenor saxophonist Maria Grand also gets voice credit on the bandcamp page. MH writing and picking but not singing is okay by me; People was like a Portlandia take off on jazz school nerds, although as such, could be entertaining, but it goes on a while. Anyway, this one is soooo much better, and whole thing is here:
https://maryhalvorson.bandcamp.com/album/artlessly-falling

― dow

Grand must be doing backing vocals e.g. on the refrain of "Mexican War Streets (Pittsburgh)". Kidambi was the only credited vocalist on the previous Code Girl and the non-Wyatt lead vocals on this album sound like the exact same voice to me.

― to party with our demons (Sund4r)

Artlessly Falling is still the one Halvorson album I've really gotten into

Seconded; I can appreciate all the subsequent Halv albums but AF was my first and Wyatt was my way in. He's only on three tracks but I really love the whole cosy tactile warmth of the whole record. I do need to spend more time with the first Code Girl album

Code Girl is my least favorite MH project. I really like the current ensemble, and Thumbscrew (particularly their album of Anthony Braxton compositions) and her septet/octet with Susan Alcorn on pedal steel.

the duet albums with Courvoisier have no vocals and may hit the spot for some of you

Yeah, I've kinda liked some where she isn't the leader, for inst this, from Pazz & Jop 2017 ballot comments:

ERR Guitar, by Elliott Sharp with Mary Halvorson and Marc Ribot. No other instruments, and none missed, for a while longer than expected, because these three are compatible, establishing an extended sonic vocabulary, incl. occasional Spanish chords, zig-zag repartee, pedals I think, Sharrockian slide, modulation in mid-run or as run (no electronic thingies of course, just peg-twisting), a whole lotta pluckin/, pickin', chirpin goin' on (coulda used more chords, Spanish or whatever), kinda thin but not too, unlike my attention level at times, but they kept bringing me back, though I couldn't say where, since these 12 might as well have been one track---almost, but extended finale "Kernel Panic" does finally bring some (some) distortion and heat.
...this 65-minute set is pretty agreeable, on the whole---and immediately upstaged by Nels Cline's "So Hard It Hurts/Touching," conceptually and expressively. Oh, Spotify!

Oh yeah, I did really like the 2021 Sylvie C duet album and the 2022 Thumbscrew - there have been more of each apparently which I should dig into. I'm all for vocal Halvorson/ensemble records though; recommendations for these are appreciated, particularly any earlier ones

https://krisdavis.bandcamp.com/album/the-solastalgia-suite

new Kris Davis quartet with some classical players sounds good, been a fan of hers for a long time so imagine this will be good but just listening for the first time now.

With Halvorson I love her playing but while I find her recent leader albums are impressive, they haven’t quite made me go wow! Maybe I need to spend more time with them. Really like Meltframe, her solo guitar record with the great version of Carla Bley’s Ida Lupino.
She’s fantastic on the new Tomeka Reid Quartet album. Rips a killer noisy solo on the single.
https://outofyourheadrecords.bandcamp.com/track/oo-long

Would also recommend Ches Smith’s Clone Row which has her and Liberty Ellman trading guitar lines. Caught them live in London last month and it was a guitar nerd thrill to see them in action.

Do we have a Luke Stewart thread? I love him from a distance and want to dig in

clone row is awesome and Ches Smith is an unheralded monster!

Thanks. I know him from WPFW which is frankly the best radio station ever

i can chime in with a few LS records i like: Exposure Quintet from 2020, the two Silt Trio records, the collaboration record with Jarvis Earnshaw (REALLY like this one), and Janel Leppin's Volcanic Ash Ensemble

i wish i could be more specific or comment on more of his output, but that's about all that i've been meaningful exposed to

The summer in my last band collaborated with Janel Leppin. I’ll start there

Drummer

Second on those Luke Stewart recommendations. The History Dog record from last year was cool. Quite loose and jammy with a million ideas bouncing around, and the spoken word might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but when they focus in on electro-acoustic textures it’s really strong. Stewart and trumpeter Chris Williams are key to that - see the latter’a great duo HxH with Lester St Louis.
Big fan of Stewart’s solo bass records, electric and acoustic. Heavy and deep!

Cool! Thanks yall. WPFW has an app if you want to hear some great jazz recommended by DC folks. Just tune in week nights after 7:00 est

Hearing that Richie Beirach has passed

Been a rough few months for ECM artists.

just caught up with Thomas Fujiwara's Dream Up from late last year. Fucking immense album imo.

he’s one of my faves, as well

Yeah, that's a great record. Patricia Brennan was pretty much 2025's jazz MVP - she was on six albums (one of her own and five others) and they were all great thanks in large part to her work.

i’m finally going to see Kris Davis live Friday at Blues Alley. I’ve missed a bunch of opportunities, including a gig at the Stone I was at where she had to cancel because she was stick in traffic.

There’s some really great stuff on mccoy mrubata’s new album “children on the fromt line”

Some I could skip but glad I made it to the second half

ahmed has had to cancel the upcoming Brooklyn shows

This is a truly good record, vibe & communication are pristine (Kenny Reichert)

https://shiftingparadigmrecords.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-chicago-2

Nice month for reissues: Julius Hemphill's Dogon A.D., Noah Howard's Black Ark, and Phil Cohran's African Skies via various labels

Who's putting out Black Ark? I have an almost 20-year-old CD reissue but would be interested to know about a new version...

New Ron Carter gospel album is not at all what I expected and it's incredible

Black Ark is Superior Viaduct. They're doing Dogon AD too.

OK a little dated but I didn't realize until today Dave Liebman had a recent (2023) record with Tyshawn Sorey, among others, on it

https://daveliebmanlive.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-smalls

It is pretty great

Preview tracks from the new Frisell (his current trio plus strings) sound amazing

It is good, but I'm trying to decide whether to cover it for Stereogum or not as Blue Note has at least two albums a month coming out at the moment and the new Walter Smith III disc is really good, too.

New Ron Carter gospel album is not at all what I expected and it's incredible

thank you for the heads up!

Np!

The Walter Smith looks good too, that Bill Stewart record from last year was the first time that I really took notice of him. And it's got Ron Carter!

If I had to chose, would rather read about the Walter Smith album at this point, because I'm not familiar with him, and of course Frisell gets tons of exposure.
That said, I was recently struck by local station's playing his trio's version of Boubacar Traoré's "Baba Drame," opening Valentine, all of which he plays for us here, on his record player:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQCRGn6OTu0

Black Ark is Superior Viaduct. They're doing Dogon AD too.

― Composition 40b (Stew), Tuesday, February 10, 2026 12:32 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Stew, what's going on in your world? Give us an update on what's caught your ear recently if you have a minute!

Been busy with a couple of big pieces, but the new Tomeka Reid album is terrific and the XT/Pat Thomas is incredible. And I may be biased but this just dropped and is great: https://dropadisc.bandcamp.com/album/the-forward-process

And on a reissue tip, I just reviewed Charles Tyler’s Voyage for Jericho, wonderful stuff.
https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/charles-tyler-ensemble-voyage-from-jericho-review/

Nice write-up, I love that Charles Tyler record.

Alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe, whose devastating Alabama Feeling + 1 Tyler would release on Ak-Ba in 1977

I do however need to point out that although Blythe is playing on "Voyage," it's another Arthur -- Arthur Doyle -- who released "Alabama Feeling" on AK-BA

also, to my knowledge, Blythe never played with Milford Graves

Ah jeez you’re right, that’s a total brain wobble on my
part, especially as I love Doyle. I’ll get them to change it.

(must start recording this show: there's no archive of any kind, much less downloads)

― dow, Sunday, January 18, 2026 9:40 PM (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I found a partial archive (streamable) here:
https://xray.fm/programs/jazz-in-the-new-millenium

Holy Moly, goes back to 2017, might be whole thing! I don't recall hearing the show before that. Must get the book too---thanks so much!!

Criss Cross Jazz is now on Bandcamp.

A fantastic label if you like straightahead jazz. If you want a starting point, every Tim Warfield album is worth your time and money.

they had Warne Marsh’s last records

I like that Jason Moran releases music without warning now, it's not streaming anywhere, and if you want it it's $20.

Jason Moran Plays Duke Ellington

Yeah, I respect it even if I'm not buying it.

Love love love Criss Cross, and I'm glad they're on BC if only so I can more easily follow and find out about new releases.

The recent Bill Stewart and 'Solid Jackson' records are instant classics. gonna check out this Gregory Groover (what a name) record with Joel Ross and Kendrick Scott.

Btw tomorrow I'm seeing the Miles & Coltrane tour with Jeremy Pelt, Emmet Cohen, and Joe Farnsworth, I'm psyched.

Also btw I went back to that Forces of Nature (McCoy Tyner/Joe Henderson/Jack deJohnette/Henry Grimes) live record, and I really think that 'In & Out' might be the single most exciting, impressive, and burning recording in the history of the music. Or at least up there with some Coltrane quartet stuff and little else. Idk man, it goes.

Cool. Will check that out

really love the new quartet album by julian lage

well by new i mean it came out in january

Quartet, you say?

yep!

https://www.bluenote.com/spotlight/julian-lage-scenes-from-above/

I shouldn't have slept on it - he's playing the Vanguard next week and tix are sold out. (I don't have the energy to do standby in this weather.)

Reminding me to check out the recent Lage round-up already stashed xpost here: https://xray.fm/programs/jazz-in-the-new-millenium
(thanx again to SlimAndSlam for posting that link.)

Before he says a word, JITNM's Rick Mitchell opens his Tyshawn Sorey set with all 7:22 or so of the Diehl-Brewer-Sorey trio's riveting "Enchantment" (did not know such depths could be found in the compositions of Horace Silver)---duh, since RM always lets the music do the talking, save for brief chronological intros or outros to tracks from history of the artist---in this case, though other career highlights are mentioned, Mitchell mostly picks smaller groups, and covers, incl. ones taking off from familiar material: leader Vijay Iyer's "Because of Guns (Hey Joe Redux)," and a swirling "Jitterbug Waltz," via the above trio plus Osby---also, continuing with my education, there's Harold Mabern's "In What Direction Are You Headed": same trio, Sorey swinging the groove--and because it's no longer on the radio, I could replay parts of Geri Allen's "Drummer's Song," with Iyer at his most lithe and atypically light-hearted, Sorey on just the right notes too.
(In future plays, may fast-forward through the part of the Steve Coleman venture where percussionist unnecessarily horns in on the vocals.)
https://xray.fm/broadcasts/53524

Splurged on the Miles Davis Live at the Plugged Nickel box set, truly an amazing document of group improvisation at its finest. I'm going to be exploring this for a long time. Just an amazingly talented group of musicians. My highest possible recommendation.

https://milesdavisstore.com/products/the-complete-plugged-nickel-live-1965-10-lp-box-set

the messthetics record is incredible, my god

the messthetics record is incredible, my god

way more fusion/proggy

The new Lewis/Messthetics record is heavier, skronkier, and proggier than the debut. It rips.

The Plugged Nickel box is amazing. I couldn't detect any difference between my original 1995 set and the new one in terms of sound quality. They even maintained the clumsy fade-out/fade-in between the two halves of the second set, even though you could easily fit it on a single CD in 2026 (it's 79 minutes or so once you get rid of that transition), and they didn't make the super annoying guy who keeps talking to Davis during the second night of performances any lower in the mix.

ha yeah I noticed that guy, i guess there was always "that guy" at shows

audible old-fashioned cash register going “ka-ching” still there

?

Just checked out another xpost JITNM set: Julian Lage, v. dope (likewise the most recent on there, Lionel Louke, who also has a new album)
Lage link:https://xray.fm/broadcasts/68711
and here's Loueke:https://xray.fm/broadcasts/68713

I reviewed two new books about Prestige Records, one focused on the music and the other on the album art.

Missed this record last year, but it's a good one. John O'Gallagher with Ben Monder, no bass, and both Billy Hart and Andrew Cyrille on drums.

https://johnogallagher-whirlwind.bandcamp.com/album/ancestral

Also missed that the John Scofield/Dave Holland duo album came out last November on ECM, but it's lovely. Could be a new playalong classic for instagram drummers, lol.

A new Harriet Tubman album and an announcement of a new Tyshawn Sorey album in May on Pi Recordings.

Do I need another $47 Tyshawn Sorey CD? Yes.

No shade on the Harriet Tubman/Georgia Anne Muldrow collab, but I can't help but come up w/ the groaner that with that op-art album cover they missed an opp to name it "Harriwether Post Pavilion"

(-weather, whoops)

47 dollars budo? are you shipping it to Tahiti or something?

hehe i was just exaggerating to be dramatic

for some reason i remember spending big bux on one of his CDs, maybe pillars b/c it's a 3xCD

The new Tyshawn is incredible. Opens up the Max Roach material in a way that recalls his own trio, but with more intensity and fire (also certain parallels with [Ahmed] there). The band is brilliant and the great Fay Victor's appearance on the title track takes it to the next level. At the end of the 90 minutes all I could say was "fucking hell".

Tyshawn is also on the superb new DoYeon Kim album, channeling his love of technical death metal drumming at times. Folks should also check out the new TAK Ensemble, which has his beautiful piece For jaimie branch.

didn't know there was a new Sorey. Absolutely up for it.

https://tyshawn-sorey.bandcamp.com/album/members-dont

that's 2 new ones then, because also there is Monochromatic Light (Afterlife)

Oh yeah, that one is stunning too.

Oh hey, new Gregory Hutchinson album (of Miles tunes) with Ambrose, Ron Blake, Gerald Clayton, Joe Sanders, and Emmanuel Michael.

Man, the Flea album is getting a full court press in the Jazz press (as well as rock press)

should be buried (under a bridge)

Man, the Flea album is getting a full court press in the Jazz press (as well as rock press)

Yeah, the way jazz mags are going "OMG they're looking at us!" is kinda embarrassing. I write for DownBeat, and the cover story they did with him is weeeeeak. (The album is a B+ IMO. 3 stars. I saw someone calling it "smooth jazz" and that's simply not true. It's somewhere between L.A. scene jazz — I mean, the band is basically Jeff Parker's ETA group — and, like, The Smile or Atoms For Peace.)

The trumpet playing is the weak part, that's the only thing that puts it into the Andre 3K category. Like, I love that he's been working on it for years and loves doing it, but this record with these players would not exist if he weren't famous for doing other things well.

The trumpet playing is fine. It's perfectly adequate to the music. If you pressed play on Flea's solo album expecting Woody Shaw or Freddie Hubbard, that's on you. And I think that's exactly what's going on - people are setting up false expectations and then shitting on the record for not meeting them.

It's fine for a bass player. But even though he's just playing melodies, I think there would be a different standard for any trumpet player with the likes of Jeff Parker and Deantoni Parks on a jazz record. But #2, yeah, I do agree that "jazz" is the wrong lens to view this record through, it's more in that L.A./Chicago/ambient vibey instrumental world for the most part, not improvised music.

"L.A./Chicago/ambient vibey instrumental" music is definitely having a moment, and I kinda can't wait for that moment to be over

Saw Maurice Louca's Fera earlier tonight at little Rhizome in DC. For this US tour the Egyptian Maurice Louca was on guitar and electronics, Ayman Asfour also from Egypt on violin, Dylan Greene, Asian American jazz and global music player on drums and percussion, and jazz musician Luke Stewart on double bass (plus clarinet & some other hand held percussion) Louca's music melds psychedelic rock trance drone, Egyptian shaabi, and jazz. Louca also plays in Alan Bishop's Dwarfs of East Agouza. Bishop was in the Sun City Girls .

jazz musician Tomeka Reid was in the audience

You guys know Flea plays trumpet right? Flea plays trumpet. He is in the Red Hot Chili Peppers and plays bass but he plays trumpet too. Flea plays trumpet. Do you know Flea, from Red Hot Chili Peppers plays the instrument known as trumpet? Flea plays trumpet. He's actually a trumpet player. He's in the Red Hot Chili Peppers but he's the one who isn't a sex pest. Well, actually he is, but he plays trumpet. Flea plays trumpet. Rick Beato told me Flea plays trumpet.

Listening to the new Ahmed album Play Monk. I have never connected with Ahmed's music, not even a little bit, but maybe this one will succeed where all their previous works have failed.

Oh new Ahmed, it isn't out yet is it?

next month

I have never connected with Ahmed's music, not even a little bit

what do you dislike about it? If dislike too strong a word, what about it leaves you cold? I'm a little surprised a Cecil fan would not find something to like about Pat Thomas, at the very least

I just... don't like it. It's one of those things where yeah, I like lots of things like this, but this particular version does nothing for me. And honestly, I've never heard anything from Thomas that I really liked; not his solo piano work, not his electronic stuff, none of it. I think ultimately it's that Thomas comes out of European improv, not jazz, so his music lacks the cohesion of Taylor's. Taylor's music had rigorous discipline and his improvisations were much more structured (in the architectural sense, not the "worked out beforehand" sense) than people think. Thomas always sounds like he's flailing around to me, and his music has a very static energy as a result - I find myself thinking, Oh, is he still going?

I mean, I'm not a musicologist, and words are just words, but Pat Thomas's playing strikes me as quite "rigorously structured" in a very nearly a Taylorian way

It's not a binary. Thomas comes out of jazz, he comes out of European improv, and he also comes out of European classical and Caribbean diaspora traditions, from calypso to reggae to dub to jungle. But when it comes to jazz, the man knows more about the music's history and the way it works than any of us ever will. The way he gets inside Ellington, Monk, Herbie Nichols, Cecil Taylor et al is just stunning.
Last year in Chicago, he played an ad hoc trio set at Hungry Brain with Joshua Abrams and Mike Reed and they absolutely swung. I really hope they can get together again and tour/record, because that felt like a consummate jazz trio from the off.
I've never had the sense he's flailing about. He's got incredible technique and plays with total intention and precision, even at his most abstract. He is extremely rigorous in everything he does - he really puts in the hours practicing - and there's a very clear architecture to his compositions, eg The Solar Model of Ibn Al-Shatir. Just beautiful and profound solo piano music.
He does like to lock into a chordal motif, particularly in [Ahmed], but it's anything but static - he's always stretching the forms, the metre, the dynamics.
Maybe you need to see him in person. Hopefully he'll make it back over to the States soon.

The perils of not downloading your Bandcamp purchases: I bought the first Ahmed album and without warning it was deleted from BC (and my collection) and another version is now available for purchase, but the one I paid for is gone.

Do you mean the box set? I know they've repressed that one a few times but the earlier version should still be available on the page if you bought it! otoh, If you mean one of the earlier two, I wonder what they changed for the new versions - they appear to be the same (I check this page often hoping they will repress the first two albums on CD)

Ah, I see - just got the email about the "new" version of New Jazz Imagination, which looks identical to the one that was on there before. Strange!

yeah it was New Jazz Imagination

That has happened to me, too, and I bought a cassette. It's a bummer. In my case, an email to the label got 'em to send me the files, but I wish I could stream the album straight from Bandcamp, and I can't.

Jon Irabagon, Ingrid Laubrock, James Brandon Lewis and Linda May Han Oh all got Guggenheim fellowships this morning. Emailing them all now to see if I can borrow twenty bucks...

I’m a huge fan of Laubrock, nice to see

I'm less of a fan of Irabagon's work than the other three, but they're all ambitious composers deserving of institutional support.

Absolutely. Really great choices for the fellowships.

Grant C Weston posted photos today of him and Amin Ali visiting an ailing James Blood Ulmer. I guess Ulmer was doing better today but didn’t realize he was ill. No idea from what but hope it’s something he can recover from.

We actually like the Flea album a lot! (Although I can do without Nick Cave singing Wichita Lineman). Other two recent good ones: Miroslav Vitous and Irreversible Entanglements.

I mean... Ulmer's 86. Even if he gets past this specific bout of illness, you don't really recover from being 86.

Man, those Immanuel Wilkins Vanguard records are great (vol 1 anyway, haven't gotten to vol 2 yet).

brilliant track: from forthcoming album by Akusmi

track: Anima

groovy 7 minute track reminds me of Triosk and Peter Gabriel track San Jacinto.

Described as French composer Pascal Bideau blends post-classical with Spiritual jazz and Afrobeat influences, complete with electronic production

Akusmi - Terra Incognita
https://akusmi.bandcamp.com/album/terra-incognita

Due
July 3rd 2026

Tags
afrobeat electronic electronica global jazz highlife jazz instrumental minimalism modern classical world music London

nice album artwork:

PREORDER: 'Terra Incognita' by Akusmi

French composer Pascal Bideau blends post-classical with Spiritual jazz and Afrobeat influences, complete with electronic production.

On LP, CD, and coloured vinyl.https://t.co/zUS1eADm5T pic.twitter.com/YIqJYXxc00

— Norman Records (@normanrecords) May 6, 2026

that is very cool

Into it!

Another interesting 2026 electronic jazz album:

Church Andrews & Matt Davies - TILT
https://churchandrewsmattdavies.bandcamp.com/album/tilt

Church Andrews and Matt Davies return with Tilt, a pinpoint collection of skewed microtonal and discordant compositions for percussion and digital synth.

Tones ascend but don’t resolve, rhythms loop, collapse and reassemble, patterns wriggle with geometric precision, sounds tilt, the edges fray.

Kinetic, elastic, wonky without being obtuse, Church Andrews (aka Kirk Barley) and Matt Davies new LP Tilt is the culmination of six years of creative collaboration, refining and redrawing the relationship between Davies’ virtuoso percussive practice and Barley’s off-kilter synthesis.

releases May 29, 2026

Tags
electronic experimental hip hop dub techno jazz microtonal minimalism United Kingdom

I've been stumping for them for years, their records are always good (not jazz-based I would say, but they do record live as far as I know).

Immanuel Wilkins has just put out vol 3 of those live at the Village Vanguard albums. Vol. 3 is supposedly the last one. The 1st one was on vinyl, cd and digital; 2 & 3 are digital only I read

I interviewed Wilkins back in March; he wants to put them out as a boxed set and is trying to talk Blue Note into it. I guess it'll depend how well Vol. 1 sold. They are a really good series.

One of the best shows I ever saw at the Vanguard was a few years ago when Wilkins played with Kenny Barron's trio, making it a quartet. (R.I.P. Kiyoshi Kitagawa) My partner and I were seated right under Wilkins's horn and it was pretty astonishing to watch him that close. It can also be a little awkward to sit that close to a horn player because often times they'll look you right in the eye as they're playing and something about that breaks my focus - irrationally, I'll think I'm a distraction somehow and disrupt whatever they're playing - so most of the time I just stared at their fingers.

Bobby Previte has a new band that includes Wendy Eisenberg, Angelica Sanchez, Jerome Harris and Matt Bauder. Eisenberg in particular shines on their first album 'Second Arrow'.

Didn't mention this before, but I caught the Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis for the very first time at LPR and they were awesome. (Only the second time I've seen Lewis perform, but he just did a residency at the Vanguard as part of Dave Douglas's Gifts Quintet and he'll be back the week of July 4th leading his own group.) They're done with the East Coast but the West Coast leg of their tour is coming up.

Lewis has a new album with his quartet coming out in June; I'm listening to it as I type this and it's really good. The similarities to the David S. Ware quartet remain strong, and he's got a real ear for a big, hooky melody.

New album announced today:

Ezra Collective - Here Because of Hope
https://ezracollective.bandcamp.com/album/here-because-of-hope

releases September 18, 2026

On July 3, my label Burning Ambulance Music will release At Iridium 2004, a digital-only (for now...) set containing 14 complete performances by Cecil Taylor's 15-member Orchestra Humane, recorded at NYC jazz club Iridium from March 23-28, 2004.

Beginning in 2003, Taylor and his orchestra — which changed name over time from the Orchestra Humane to the Ubuntu Orchestra to the AHA! Orchestra — performed once and sometimes twice a year at Iridium, creating music of stunning beauty. Some footage of the ensemble rehearsing and performing can be seen in the 2010 documentary Cecil Taylor: All The Notes, but none of the music has ever been released in full... until now.

The first set from March 25, 2004 (Taylor's 75th birthday) is streaming now:

https://ceciltaylor-bam.bandcamp.com/track/march-25-2004-set-1

At Iridium 2004 is available exclusively on Bandcamp, and will not be on any streaming service.

just purchased!

I was there at almost the whole run!

Really? That's amazing. Listening to these sets, I can't believe the range the orchestra displays. Some parts are incredibly quiet and gentle, some parts are blaring free jazz like you'd expect, there's poetry from Cecil and another member of the ensemble, saxophonist Elliott Levin, he's playing inside the piano for a lot of it... it's really some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard him make. People are gonna be blown away when the whole thing is out next month.

Every set was basically the same composition. Bobby Zankel took a major solo at every set that must have been partly composed

As I pasted at or near the top of this year's thread:

Toast of the Nation takes note of a few magical live performances to emerge in 2025. We begin in New York, where drumming royalty Marcus Gilmore makes an auspicious Village Vanguard debut as a leader.

Jazz In The New Millenium did an hour on him last week:
https://xray.fm/broadcasts/70384

James Blood Ulmer has left us. I was aware he'd been unwell, but this is sad news. I saw him live in 2006. Set leaned more towards blues than jazz, but really powerful with plenty of harmolodic flourishes. The live record he made with The Thing a few years back is great fun: gnarly free jazz takes on some of his classics. But that late 70s/early 80s run is the pinnacle.

RIP to one of the greatest, I saw Ulmer two times, both solo, both more overtly "blues" than jazz but in his singular style, so many great records

Those late 70s/early 80s "free funk" albums (the ones everybody likes the best) never did anything for me. But the Odyssey trio (guitar/violin/drums) was great, and so were the Music Revelation Ensemble albums where he'd team up with saxophonists (David Murray, Arthur Blythe, Pharoah Sanders) and really let it rip. And his playing on Blythe's album Illusions is fantastic.

This Ben Wendel record is the most unique group I've heard in awhile, saxophone backed by four mallet players (vibes etc). Feels more like minimalism or occasionally gamelan/west African music but obviously coming out of jazz.

https://benwendel.bandcamp.com/album/barcode

Yesh, that’s good stuff.

Had a really interesting conversation with James Brandon Lewis this morning. He’s on a west coast tour with the Messthetics through the weekend but we were talking about his next quartet album, out at the end of the month.

looking forward to the quartet stuff. the Messthetics have been the biggest disappointment

This Alexander Claffey live album with a ridiculous band (Seamus Blake, Jaleel Shaw, Kevin Hays, Bill Stewart) is great too.

why do all of ben wendel's promo pics make him look like a male shoe model

lol yes, he really loves to present the foot.

The Melissa Aldana ballads album is gorgeous too, what a sound.

kalia vandever's new solo album is droney, cinematic and ridiculously good

(the vocal tracks remind me of julia holter sort of)

I posted this Odyssey show on a Blood thread which will soon sink out of sight, like the other one, so might as well put it somewhere actually still rolling:

Here they are, v. mobile at Jazz Jamboree Warsaw 1983--forgot there were only three--Blood providing enough bass function along with his other soundz, some unaccompanied Burnham too

Yeah, I included that video in my newsletter last week. Really great stuff.

I put out an album by Breath Of Air (guitarist Brandon Ross and the two non-Ulmer guys from Odyssey) on my label a few years ago.

https://breathofair.bandcamp.com/album/breath-of-air

Warren Benbow has subsequently died, but Brandon told me they've brought in Tcheser Holmes of Irreversible Entanglements on drums and might be making another album.

Excellent choice! Yeah, I came back to mention Breath Of Air's ace alb. Agree also about Blood as sterling team player with Arthur Blythe---Black Arthur, they called him, long gone and seldom mentioned nowadays, seems like, but, as well as Illusion, check hisLenox Avenue Breakdown, also w Blood (and Dejohnette, and McBee, and Bob Stewart, and Guillermo Franco), which is like what Sonny Rollins did on several 70s albums, accessibly adventurous (though not like Prime Time, drawing me into blues-disco on Mars, which was also fine).

Interesting ideas on that Wendel album, but the naff reverb on his sax let it down for me. I love effects when they're used to take a horn player's tone to weird new places, but too often contemporary players are using effects in a really shiny, processed cheese way. There are exceptions of course: Seymour Wright's dissonant use of the harmoniser is an antidote to all the sub-John Hassell stuff going on in new age ambient jazz, while Caroline Davis does really beautiful, psychedelic and wobbly things with granular delay etc. And then there's Delphine Joussein running her flute through all sorts of distortion, delays and pitch-shifting.

Speaking of new age ambient jazz and effects on saxophone, I posted this to the UK jazz thread, it's guilty but also really beautiful and executed well, and Gary Bartz sounds great. Maybe that's the retirement plan for legendary saxophone players now, record a prestige ambient jazz album with some British people.

https://yourbrotherskeepergarybartz.bandcamp.com/album/where-rivers-meet

Tyshawn Sorey's "Members, Don't" is great (Fay Victor's vocals are not. I will complain about the state of jazz vocals elsewhere).

Fay Victor is incredible and her contribution to that recording Is the cherry on top. What do you mean by state of jazz vocals? She's steeped in the tradition but has pushed it way out.

is that new miles ‘56 boxset any good

xp "etended tachniques" are anti-ASMR to me.

extended

is that new miles ‘56 boxset any good

It contains nothing you haven't already heard, and if you're fanatical enough, is missing some alternate takes you have already heard.

xp "etended tachniques" are anti-ASMR to me.

― The Immortal Bird of Avon (Boring, Maryland), Monday, June 22, 2026 10:07 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

So you like them or you don't like them? I thought ASMR was when ladies on Tik Tok touch food with their fingernails, so I'm not sure what the opposite of that would be

for me, “extended vocal techniques” are like nails on chalkboard and makes me instantly repulsed. it works on my nervous system in a bad way. Honestly, many extended vocal techniques now in modern jazz singing, just sound like hiccuping and vomiting to me. That’s my problem, of course.

I gather the ASMR videos and stuff are meant to be pleasant.

like I love Cathy Berberian, though.

If you love Cathy Berberian I don't think it's much of a leap to Maggie Nicols, Phil Minton, Jaap Blonk et al. They're all bad asses (and Minton and Nicols can really sing too - check the former belting it out with Mike Westbrook and Carla Bley, and the latter's recent standards album) but in jazz context that kind of Dada/free improv vocalese can be a bit forced if it's not done right.
Fay Victor definitely does it right: she's earned her jazz standards and bebop bonafides, but has also learnt a lot from her time hanging out with Misha Mengleberg and the ICP in Amsterdam, as well as hanging out in the 1980s NYC club scene. When she scats on the Herbie Nichols stuff, it doesn't sound dated or fake, it's just great improvising.
My main issue with contemporary jazz vocal in the more conventional sense, is that it can be a bit too music theatre. I don't mean that in terms of the material, cos obviously show tunes are part of the tradition, but it's more about the performative way it's put across.

I took part in one of Phil Minton's feral choirs (perhaps you did too, Stew?) and it was a really fascinating experience. At one point in a rehearsal, the choir fell into an almost shanty-like dirge that felt, in the moment, like a musical breakthrough for the collective - it was much more like 'proper' song - and of course Phil totally disregarded it when it came to the actual performance. Proper song was definitely not what he was looking for, or trying to coax from us.

Five Men Singing - with Blonk, Makigami, Dutton, Minton and Moss - is (along with the two Patty Waters albs) my go-to disc for improv singing, incredible rec:

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/five-men-singing-jaap-blonk-victo-review-by-eyal-hareuveni

Ha yes, at an Instal many moons ago? That was such a blast. It's online too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq_dfgHEuvw

I've not heard Five Men - got to remedy that asap. Thanks for the heads up.

I was at FIMAV that year for the Five Men Singing show -- totally amazing.

Good stuff here re vocalese, Lambert Hendricks & Ross to present day, not very experimental though:
RFI: Vocal jazz songform

But I shoulda said that LH&R's Sing a Song of Basie was experimental af in 1956! They were one of the first jazz acts, after Bechet, I think, to use four-track recording, singing the horn parts from Basie Orchestra recordings, and sometimes adding lyrics, with their own recorded harmonies responded to by a live-in-the-studio combo.

And their songwriting could adventurously follow their sound, like Annie Ross's song about her shrink, "Twisted," with lyrics set to a Wardell Gray sax solo, and well-covered by Joni Mitchell.

James Brandon Lewis’ new quartet album on Intakt is a winner

brilliant track: from forthcoming album by Akusmi

track: Anima

groovy 7 minute track reminds me of Triosk and Peter Gabriel track San Jacinto.

Described as French composer Pascal Bideau blends post-classical with Spiritual jazz and Afrobeat influences, complete with electronic production

Akusmi - Terra Incognita
https://akusmi.bandcamp.com/album/terra-incognita

Due
July 3rd 2026

Tags
afrobeat electronic electronica global jazz highlife jazz instrumental minimalism modern classical world music London

― djmartian, Tuesday, 12 May 2026 7:06 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

FYI this album is spectacular

Holy shit! The DownBeat critics' poll is out, and not only did a record I released — Cecil Taylor & Tony Oxley's Flashing Spirits — get honored in the Historical Album Of The Year category, but Burning Ambulance itself was listed in the Record Label Of The Year category. I'm pretty fuckin' amazed, I gotta say.

congrats on all that!

Yeah, congrats.

Nice!

Congratulations!

congratulations, unperson. next they should have you in for a blindfold test!

Congrats!

Congrats!

Released today, this looks interesting, anyone familiar with this artist?

Vincent Yuen Ruiz - Trio

https://vincentyuenruiz.bandcamp.com/album/trio

FELT survey Copenhagen's contemporary jazz scene with RMC graduate Vincent Yuen Ruiz’s intimate and strikingly minimal rendition of stifled percussion, spacious piano and precise double bass work, tipped FFO of The Necks x Talk Talk, naturally ✨https://t.co/MwlIvtz1hn pic.twitter.com/mdJdotAOYl

— Boomkat.com (@boomkatonline) July 14, 2026

JUST IN! 'Trio' by Vincent Yuen Ruiz

Ambient jazz on FELT from the Copenhagen piano, double bass, and percussion group, drawing from jazz influences past and present alongside minimalism, impressionism, chamber music, and the output of ECM records.https://t.co/IgWa8Up2Jk pic.twitter.com/0EuCmvopJA

— Norman Records (@normanrecords) July 16, 2026

I don't think so, but from the clips I love how it's recorded/mixed (close, super compressed, might not work for all jazz but it's great for this spare textural stuff).

the Tomeka Reid album continues to grow on me, definitely one of the year's best in all genres

Agreed, it’s great.

Aye, congratz unperson! Second the blindfold test too (don't we have a thread for that?)

Congratulations unperson!

Francis Davis mid-year poll is out. It's a strong list, with quite a few of my picks ranking highly. Hard to argue with Tyshawn and Tomeka taking the top spots, although there plenty of equally fine records throughout the list. As compiler Tom Hull says, the votes are pretty spread out, meaning the top ranked albums getting a fairly low vote share. I think that lack of consensus is a good thing, reflecting a healthy and diverse scene.

https://artsfuse.org/331941/the-annual-francis-davis-jazz-critics-poll-at-mid-year-warming-up-a-riff-how-it-happened-and-why-it-matters/

I was happy to see that Cecil Taylor album top the Rara Avis list - they gave me a producer credit on it but all I did was write the liner notes and help with emails to a few people.

congrats unperson!

I saw Steve Turre live last night in a DC club with his son Orion on drums, and DC-based musicians Allyn Johnson on keys, and Herman Burney on acoustic bass. Turre played trombone, conch shells and various percussion instruments. A mostly straight-ahead jazz gig for both sets (little Latin jazz or salsa). Turre did do the Don Drummond and the Skatalites song "Green Island" (and Turre noted his own wife is from Jamaica), played 2 conch shells at once on Miles Davis "All Blues," & also covered Herbie Hancock "Watermelon Man" and Rahsan Roland Kirk. He did a couple of new originals and a nice ballad where the keyboardist shined. He told a good Ray Charles story

thought about going

Ha, I mean Herbie Hancock “Cantaloupe Island”

The Brooklyn Jazz Festival, which was supposed to happen yesterday, has been "postponed" due to lack of ticket sales, despite a really good lineup - a jazz festival with actual jazz artists! Check the website to see:

https://www.bklynjazzfest.com/

The LA Jazz Festival (more of a typical R&B-with-a-few-jazz-artists event) was cancelled outright; apparently that one was more of a bureaucratic shitshow, plus financial problems:

https://variety.com/2026/music/news/l-a-jazz-festival-canceled-john-legend-janelle-monae-1236830665/

"inaugural" Brooklyn Jazz fest postponed

I was unaware of the Brooklyn Jazz Festival until now. Was it well advertised? Great line-up, but I also see most of those acts regularly in smaller indoor venues. This summer has been brutal in terms of weather-related cancellations for outdoor shows, and the entire weekend has a heat advisory. I'd suggest another time of the year, but not to compete with the other jazz festivals going on around NYC.

Same

Guitarist Joel Harrison, who was one of the talent bookers for Brooklyn, offered some thoughts on Facebook, in response to various comments (not reproduced here, but you can infer what they were).

Reluctantly, I am going to weigh in since I was one of the talent buyers in Brooklyn. 1. There should be virtually NO comparison with LA because that was a HUGE event over many days, we were one day. There are many factors why this had to be postponed: extremely low ticket sales is the main reason. Why? 1) Advertising started too late 2) Outdoor events are very expensive and hard to produce 3) There is a TON of summer competition, free events, other festivals. Perhaps stupidly we were not aware that Nomad was happening when we chose this date, for instance. 4) The Parks Dept. really dragged their feet and made delays inevitable in the producers execution, promo, and planning. How do you "prepare" for that? To note, I was only the talent buyer, not the lead producer or organizer. As for whether this means anything in the bigger picture. I doubt it. Everyone I spoke to thought this was a fabulous lineup that could be successful. I think if done indoors, with way more time to promote it would have been. The more cruel and negative comments here are really unnecessary. The producer made mistakes that should be forgiven. He put up his money to make something beautiful happen and should be thanked. How many people are willing to even try who have the ability to do it? We DID put on a successful guitar festival in June, though again Parks Dept. almost killed it. Yes, to Willard Jenkins point, it is harder than it looks. Lessons have been learned. Apologies have been made. We are going to reschedule for the winter 2027 and hope as many artists as possible will be free at the same time. To the persons point that this was "too old" a roster. Come on! Marcus Gilmore, Linda May Han Oh, Vinicius Gomes and Joel Ross are too old? I hope not or we are all going to be dead very soon. And to the gentleman's point of an anchor artist. One must ask...who would that be? This whole thing about art meeting commerce is quite intricate. Until you've tried...you don't really see HOW intricate. So let me end by saying I have even more respect for those who have succeeded, and they have been consulted this past week and will continue to be. Anyone with a genuine interest in contructive advice in the truly challenging art of making a jazz festival great musically and great financially is welcome in my inbox! One last thing...I've had a LOT of people express genuine support after this cancellation. THANK YOU!

Speaking of booking:

A superior court judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered the Kennedy Center to pay more than $250,000 to a jazz musician who last December canceled the annual Christmas Eve performance he had hosted there for nearly 20 years. Chuck Redd, a vibraphonist and drummer, decided to cancel the concert after President Trump's name was added to the facade of the arts center that month.

After Redd canceled the performance, the Kennedy Center vowed to sue Redd for $1 million in damages. In June, Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier dismissed the center's breach of contract suit against Redd, granting his motion to dismiss the case under the district's anti-SLAPP statute, a law designed to protect public interest speech.
In her ruling Monday, the judge decreed that the Kennedy Center must pay Redd $252,479.70 to cover attorneys' fees and other legal costs.

The Kennedy Center in a statement said it intended to appeal.

Here’s a NY event:

Please join us...

Saxophone Colossus
A Celebration of the Life and Music of Sonny Rollins

Saturday, September 19, 2026
1 PM

The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street
New York, NY 10025

Presented in partnership with the Rollins Family

Performers and additional details to be announced.

Joe Henderson's incredible 1970 live album At The Lighthouse (aka If You're Not Part Of The Solution, You're Part Of The Problem) is being reissued as a 3CD set in November. I've already pre-ordered my copy.

Yaaayy!

Even though I haven't followed all the links yet, have gotten a lot out of Nate Chinen's Cassandra Wilson send-off---probably not a farewell writing-wise, and certainly not for listening; the linear and other in the kiln of her sound makes for travelling music, as with her avowed touchstone, Miles---anyway, here tis, with postscript and comments worth checking: https://thegig.substack.com/p/cassandra-wilson-the-conjurer

(Have also gotten a lot out of Chinen's Playing Changes: Jazz For The New Century.)

Two things I've written about John Coltrane this month:

A piece on his final years, where I argue that he did the world more good by getting Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Marion Brown and Albert Ayler signed to Impulse! than through the albums he released post-1965 (except for Meditations, which rules)

A guide to the bootleg-quality live releases Impulse! has put out over the last 25 years, separating the good from the strictly-for-scholars-and-saxophonists

The one thing I'd like to fix on the Seattle release is raise Coltrane in the mix so you don't have to strain so much to hear him. That's now a real possibility thanks to what was recently used on the Beatles' archival recordings, but I'm not sure if that would be a cost-prohibitive process without Beatle-money financing it.

xp unperson, is the Tiberi Tapes box actually coming out? There’s no information on a release release date that I can find. All I see from googling is the record store day sampler.

All information is currently embargoed, but it's coming out in November. It's gonna be 4 LPs and/or 2 CDs. I've heard it. It's awful. Imagine someone goes to a jazz club where John Coltrane is playing, calls you on a circa-2000 flip phone and holds it up so you can hear. That's what it sounds like.

I’ll still buy it anyway, I’m a mark I know

That's consistent with the "sampler" they released on Record Store Day. I was hoping this might be a kind of updated Benedetti Tapes-type thing for Trane obsessives, but I already have dozens of greymarket releases and bootlegs I don't listen to, and those probably sound better than this will

unperson, what about Interstellar Space? I'll admit that I don't listen to much of the post-classic quartet recordings very often, but IS has always been captivating and deep. Certainly a peak of whatever you want to call that approach.

I went back to it recently after listening to John O'Gallagher on Pablo Held's podcast, he really breaks down how structured and systematic it actually is (of a piece with earlier Coltrane eras, still exploring new patterns and systems but never at the expense of intense feeling).

I know I'll end up buying the Tiberi Tapes too, but disappointed to hear that unperson.

FYI - ImportCDs, at least, is showing it as 3xCD https://www.importcds.com/john-coltrane-tiberi-tapes/4988031916124?srsltid=AfmBOorhDrs1fXpmPJ9UDddtzh_BQgR4gQbdPn-kPBewVK-w1ghGgaRd

Apparently 11/6 is the scheduled release date.

unperson, what about Interstellar Space? I'll admit that I don't listen to much of the post-classic quartet recordings very often, but IS has always been captivating and deep. Certainly a peak of whatever you want to call that approach.

I recently described Interstellar Space as four iterations of one idea, and I stand by that. If he'd done just one duo track with Rashied Ali on one of his later albums, I'd have been happy with that, as a listener.

Muriel Grossman continues to put out top quality music...her new album with Tonu Naisoo is really superb

I like her, but I haven't bought that one because it's like $25 just for the digital files on Bandcamp.

I don't know, I think it's the commitment to the form that gives it a lot of its power, you start zeroing in on the differences between the tunes and the minutiae of what they're doing.

I like Interstellar Space quite a bit too, but Ali has expressed regrets, believing he could have played better. (He was caught off guard that no one else was joining him and Coltrane.) Being one of the very last studio recordings Coltrane made before illness got the better of him, it feels more tantalizing as a pathway that never grew to complete fruition.

FWIW I'd also add Sun Ship (recorded on August 26, 1965 but released on April 16, 1971) and First Meditations (recorded on September 2, 1965 but released December 1977) as posthumous studio albums I really enjoy. Since these were among the last recordings Coltrane made with his classic quartet, they probably don't count as they were simply very belated releases.

I've always wanted to like First Meditations more than I do. Meditations is one of my favorite Coltrane albums of any era, so I can't help but hear FM as an unsuccessful rough draft.

Oh yeah, it does play like an earlier draft, but I still enjoy it. I'll often listen to Meditations right after.

The track listing on the Joe Henderson reissue I mentioned is amazing. Can't wait to hear it.

DISC ONE:

1. Caribbean Fire Dance
2. ’Round Midnight
3. Mode For Joe
4. If You’re Not Part Of The Solution, You’re Part Of The Problem
5. Blue Bossa
6. Closing Theme
7. Recorda Me
8. A Shade Of Jade
9. Isotope

DISC TWO:

1. Invitation
2. Gazelle
3. The Moontrane*
4. Black Narcissus*
5. Olive Oil*
6. Punjab*
7. Caribbean Fire Dance [Alternate Take]*

DISC THREE:

1. ’Round Midnight [Alternate Take]*
2. Mode For Joe [Alternate Take]*
3. If You’re Not Part Of The Solution, You’re Part Of The Problem [Alternate Take]*
4. Recorda Me [Alternate Take]*
5. Isotope [Alternate Take]*
6. Invitation [Alternate Take]*
7. Gazelle [Alternate Take]*

*previously unreleased

This feels like a big deal and it's THIS Sunday at a very intimate venue:

FourOneOne is thrilled to present Windward Passages, a concert featuring scenes from pianist Dave Burrell’s groundbreaking jazz opera. Written in collaboration with Swedish poet and librettist Monika Larsson, Windward Passages is a deeply personal, major work that presents a socio-political coming-of-age-story following a Black American's family’s migration from Harlem to Honolulu just as Hawaii transitions into the fiftieth American state. Musically, the opera is a heady, vibrant and seamless tapestry of Ellingtonian melodies, blues, ragtime, bebop, free jazz and formal operatic arias that has been a hallmark of Burrell's approach to the tradition.

Remarkably, despite its position as Burrell’s life-defining composition and several stagings in Europe, Windward Passages has never been performed in its full, orchestrated capacity in the United States. Instead, American audiences have primarily known the piece through intimate solo piano or duo reductions—leaving the full, multi-vocal, and choreographed brilliance of this monumental American tale largely unheard on its home soil.

This concert will be the first ensemble performance of this material in the United States since 1982. Monika Larsson will introduce and set the narrative context for each piece in the performance. Dave Burrell will lead the ensemble at the piano.

Windward Passages has been a life-defining work not only for Burrell but also for his wife, collaborator, and partner in everything, Monika Larsson. They met in Honolulu in 1978 and quickly fell into, in Burrell’s words, “a love we couldn’t escape.” Larsson turned Burrell’s memories and music into a sensitive and expressive libretto, tracing his parents’ struggles, his own youth and the relationship between the indigenous Hawaiians and their land. As Burrell describes it: “the work is semi-biographical and takes place when Hawaii reached statehood in 1959. I performed the night of the actual statehood celebration with my regular band. In the story line we have a band of youngsters performing in front of a huge, American flag backdrop. My parents have fictional parts, along with a land developer, Mr. Henry J. Kaiser, a South African man who I actually worked for…Some of the villagers in our story line demonstrated against the development. There is one murder, there is also a love interest, blues and several beautiful arias. There are three acts.”

The performance is one night only and presents a rare opportunity to experience the richness of Windward Passages in the company of its creators.

Regretfully going to be out of town :(

omg, finally--used to see at least one alb of music from that in Cadence Magazine's mail-order section, ca. late 80s---read about it (think they interviewed him), wish I'd gotten it or them, but was too strung out on all things Sonny Sharrock (for instance). Hope this will be available at some point via streaming etc.

Just now first-listened to this: strong and clear, well-punctuated, though so far the material seems a bit all-of-a-piece, in a good way---maybe the "musical democracy" that Bruce Lundvall complained about, as xpost quoted by Chinen, but it's engaging, and I can tell that she's the leader:

pw hoax12
Am 09.6.1988 spielte die Cassandra Wilson Group im Studio 10 des NDR. Neben der Sängerin spielten am Piano Rod Williams, Kevin Harris am Bass und Mark Johnson am Schlagzeug.

Cassandra Wilson Group – Here it is
+++
Cassandra Wilson Group – Lies
+++
Cassandra Wilson Group – Blue in green
+++
Cassandra Wilson Group – Never
+++
Cassandra Wilson Group – No goodtime fairies
+++
Besetzung: Cassandra Wilson (voc), Rod Williams (p), Kevin Harris (b) und Mark Johnson (dr)

Thanks dow! She sounds pretty amazing on this recording. This was recorded only a few months after she released Blue Skies (which I've enjoyed a lot), and I guess she wasn't exaggerating when she said that album was "special" (i.e. a one-off) because she doesn't perform a single song from it here!

Joe Henderson's incredible 1970 live album At The Lighthouse (aka If You're Not Part Of The Solution, You're Part Of The Problem) is being reissued as a 3CD set in November. I've already pre-ordered my copy.

Resonance Records also released a Joe Henderson live album this year, Consonance: Live at the Jazz Showcase.

I've been on a big run of diving into Peter Bernstein's discography over the last few months, centered around the jazz firm of Goldings, Bernstein and Stewart. I've been listening to their new album Rhombus that came out a few weeks back.

It is fun having an artist that has such a deep and diverse discography to explore like Bernstein has created over the decades. There is discussions on here about liking the trio albums he did with Melvin Rhynes and I got to say they are really groovy. I've checked out three of the albums thus far and they are swell. Don't know the people that recorded those albums but they have a killer sound and the drummer Kenny Washington is really funky.

The Rhyne's take of "All Blues" needs to go into that thread. Kenny Washington does this cool thing where he kinda puts a Purdie shuffle with the kick when they get into the solos that is really groovy. Drum sound on these records is really excellent.

Cool. It was Peter's birthday the other day iirc

Don't know the people that recorded those albums but they have a killer sound

Max Bolleman, who did all the Criss Cross stuff (incredible recordings). Looks like he has a memoir in Dutch about all his sessions, and it was translated into English at some point. I would totally read it but can't find it anywhere online.

Max Bolleman, who did all the Criss Cross stuff (incredible recordings). Looks like he has a memoir in Dutch about all his sessions, and it was translated into English at some point. I would totally read it but can't find it anywhere online.

Dutch book cover

FYI, I heard the Burrell performance was recorded so they may try to release it eventually.

Also, I had no idea Jimmy Garrison's son, Matt, owns that venue, and he's actually holding a celebration on his father tomorrow night and Thursday as part of Coltrane's centennial.

More info from Reggie Workman (who's appearing tomorrow night)

Matt Garrison is also a bassist; he's on this trio album with Ravi Coltrane and Jack DeJohnette:

https://www.discogs.com/master/1015956-Jack-DeJohnette-Ravi-Coltrane-Matthew-Garrison-In-Movement

I love this Andrew D'Angelo record of solo (multi-tracked) bass clarinet that he apparently did in between chemo sessions, really special record. On Jakob Bro's label, which has been doing great work.

^ good recommendation, like this one a lot.

James Blood Ulmer's memorial is taking place, Tuesday, September 29. They're no longer offering seats - it was free but there was also a limited number and you had to RSVP - but it looks like it'll be streaming live on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_BWktY7QT0

The scheduled performers will be:

Denardo Coleman
Fostina Dixon
Rick Iannacone
Grant Calvin Westen
Kelvyn Bell
Leon Gruenbaum
Mark Peterson
Charlie Burnam solo + Memphis Blood
Aubrey Dayle
David Barnes
Eric Mingus
Irene Datcher
Queen Esther
Gary Lucas solo
Marc Ribot
Ava Mendoza solo
Jamaaladeen Tacuma
Brandon Ross
Melvin Gibbs
Jeremiah Hosea solo
David Murray
Michael Mustafa Ulmer (unnamed drum ensemble members)
Vernon Reid (Band Director)

("Many thanks and much love to James’ family and to his beloved wife Eva Pernes along with Vernon for organizing.")

Forgot, it's 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM (at Saint Peter's Church in NYC)

If I was an impersario of jazz, I would think that getting some of the Miles Davis alumni to do a big show would be a cool thing to do. I'd think it would be cool to center it around the guitar players in the later bands like Scofield, Mike Stern and Robben Ford. Do a tune each of all the big composer keyboard players like Herbie, Joe Zawinul, Chick, Keith Jarrett etc.

Doing a modern take on Jeru by Gerry Mulligan would be a hip tune choice too.

Nardis would be another cool tune for such a gig.

Immanuel Wilkins: The 29-year-old New York-based saxophonist and composer is the youngest person on the MacArthur roster this year.

https://www.npr.org/2026/09/29/nx-s1-5980447/macarthur-genius-grants-2026-fellows

didn’t know he was that young!

Good for him! Those Live at the Village Vanguard records have really grown on me

Steve Swallow 'Winter Songs' on ECM (w/Chris Cheek and Adam Nussbaum etc) is extremely chill, but also might be the first Swallow record I've loved.

Oh man, I didn't know Steve Swallow was still alive!

I imagine Carla Bley's illness and subsequent death may have kept him at home for a while.

Iraqi-American jazz and Iraqi maqam trumpet, santur player and vocalist Amir ElSaffar teamed up with Italian electronics musician Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch on a 2025 album called Inner Spaces. Hoesch had done an album with Malian kora player Ballake Sissoko. The 2 began doing some music together circa 2015/ 2016.

Inner Spaces has a bit of an atmospheric Sketches of Spain like combination of genres. ElSaffar has gotten some mentions for other releases on ILX jazz threads, and end of the year best of threads. Just discovering them now as they are scheduled for a dc appearance October 22.

https://lorenzobianchihoesch.bandcamp.com/album/inner-spaces

oh, I love El-Saffar, thanks!

He's got a new album of his own coming out November 6; it's called Ashwaaq; I just got an email about it this past week. According to the publicist, "the album is comprised of an original seven-movement composition for string quartet, voice, and santur (Iraqi hammered-dulcimer) by ElSaffar, that pairs his music with verses of poetry by thirteenth-century poet Ibn Arabi. The album also features guest artists Syrian vocalist Khaled AlHafez, violist Dena El Saffar, violinists Megan Gould and Eylem Basaldi and composer/cellist Naseem AlAtrash."

I haven't listened to it yet.

ElSaffar is great. The recent New Quartet album is superb: that microtonal piano is •chef's kiss• I'll finally get to see him at Jazzfest Berlin in a couple of weeks. I interviewed him for that last week, so that'll be published on my Substack towards the end of the week.

I was at the New Quartet concert in Berlin that’s on the album.

Cool. ELSaffar and Hoesch will be at tiny Hill Center in DC Thursday Oct 22 although the promoter is worried as they have sold few tickets

enjoying this new album by Emma Dayhuff

https://division81records.bandcamp.com/album/mountains

Cool. ELSaffar and Hoesch will be at tiny Hill Center in DC Thursday Oct 22 although the promoter is worried as they have sold few tickets

oof I feel the Hill House doesn’t publicize stuff well? I tried looking for a mailing list signup and couldn’t find one

I liked Dayhuff's last album (also on Division 81), will check the new one out - thanks!

https://division81records.bandcamp.com/album/innovations-lineage-the-chicago-project

This one with the Chicago wrecking crew (Makay McCraven, Junius Paul, Maurice Brown, Marquis Hill) is nice - https://shiftingparadigmrecords.bandcamp.com/album/alloy

My ElSaffar interview: https://ionengine.substack.com/p/jazzfest-berlin-conversations-2-amir

Thanks. I love that ElSaffar did a side by side listening session with Robert Johnson music and an Arabic call to prayer

Clifford Jordan's Night Of The Mark VII (a live album from 1975 with Cedar Walton on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums) has just been reissued, and next month a previously unreleased live recording, Let It Ring: Live At The Jazz Showcase, with Al Haig on piano, Wilbur Ware on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums, is coming out.