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)

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