Cuban-born, Brooklyn-based pianist, composer and conceptualist Aruán Ortiz celebrates his 50th birthday year with the release of Pastor’s Paradox, his stirring new album drawing on the power and structure of Martin Luther King’s words. Out October 20, 2023 on Clean Feed Records, the album features Ortiz with clarinetist Don Byron, cellists Lester St. Louis and Yves Dhar, drummer Pheeroan akLaff, and spoken word artist Mtume Gant.
09
Oct
[ October 13th, 2023 release via Odin Records: A Tonic For The Troops – Realm Of Opportunities ]
release date: 13.10.2023 via Odin Records
A Tonic For The Troops have, after extensive touring, established themselves as a tight collective with high octane performances providing enjoyable and accessible jazz. After several ‘top of the year’ lists for their debut album Ambush, ATFTT are joining forces again for their second album! The ingredients still consist of straight ahead post-bop with a modern and contemporary sound, but ‘Realm of Opportunities’ also opens up a more lyrical and emotional approach.
06
Oct
[ October 13th, 2023 release via Adyhâropa Records: Quinsin Nachoff – Stars and Constellations ]
Saxophonist/composer Quinsin Nachoff draws inspiration from mythology that seeks to make sense of the unfathomable cosmos on his new album Stars and Constellations, out October 13, 2023 via Adyhâropa Records. Uniting a chord-less jazz trio – Nachoff, bassist Mark Helias and drummer Dan Weiss – with both the Bergamot Quartet, and on one track by The Rhythm Method string quartet, the adventurous album dissolves any division between jazz and classical.
” There’s something strikingly inventive and vivid about Nachoff’s music… composed by a mind that continues to stretch beyond the comfort zone of any genre.” – Friedrich Kunzmann, All About Jazz
“Nachoff’s writing [is] shaped by an engagingly complex musical mind, a sensibility that guarantees the progress of each movement will contain a series of delights and surprises. It’s demanding contemporary music that succeeds at the trick of pulling you in.” – Michael Ullman, The Arts Fuse
03
Oct
[ October 6th, 2023 release on Jazzland Recordings: Rymden – Valleys & Mountains ]
release date: 06. 10.2023 on Jazzland Recordings
After their previous excursions into the outer cosmos – the highly acclaimed studio albums “Reflections and Odysseys“, “Space Sailors” and the powerful live album “RYMDEN+KORK” – RYMDEN have returned to Earth with their new album, “Valleys and Mountains”. However, as one might expect from the trio of Bugge Wesseltoft, Magnus Öström and Dan Berglund, the music is not strictly earthbound – the inner cosmos, dreams and visions offer new spaces to explore, alongside bucolic rambles and treks. The instrumentation and techniques are once again diversified, the styles multiplied; yet all remains indisputably the music of RYMDEN.
01
Oct
[ October 6th, 2023 release on Giant Step Arts: Chien Chien Lu – Build in System ]
Giant Step Arts continues its Modern Masters and New Horizons series with the second album as a leader by vibraphonist Chien Chien Lu. Built In System (Live from New York) features Lu‘s original music performed by her stellar band with trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, bassist Richie Goods and drummer Allan Mednard. The album is out October 6, 2023.
10 Emerging Jazz Artists To Watch in 2023” – Morgan Enos, Grammy.com
“A soulful modernist on the rise” – Dan Bilawsky, AllAboutJazz.com
24
Sep
[ September 29th, 2023 release on Robalo Music: Sara Serpa & André Matos – Night Birds ]
Night Birds, available September 29, 2023 on Robalo Music, establishes Serpa and Matos’ gifts as a creative and an expansive duo in a program of contrasting beauty and darkness, with mesmerizing and textural pieces featuring Dov Manski, Sofia Jernberg, Okkyung Lee and João Pereira.
“The duo excels at combining pure sounds- vowels, strings, words, horn, keys, breath and creating soothing, inspiring musical sketches.” – Suzanne Lorge, New York City Jazz Record
“The chemistry and teamwork are close to perfect. Matos’ delicate, lyrical electric guitar, intricate and hypnotic, is the perfect foil for Serpa’s mostly wordless vocals, which are cool, calm and precise.” – Allen Morrison, DownBeat Magazine
21
Sep
[ September 29th, 2023 release on Punkt Editions: Jan Bang & Eivind Aarset – Last Two Inches of Sky]
release date: 29 September 2023 vie Punkt Editions
Everything I know is like a rope around the ankles Hollow out my bones and take me higher To the last two inches of sky
«Last Two Inches of Sky», released by Punkt Editions on 23 September, is an ambitious and engaging mixture of sonic painting and art-pop; a new high point in Eivind Aarset and JanBang’s collective output.
14
Sep
[ September 22nd, 2023 release on Jazzland Recordings: Frode Haltli – Avant Folk Triptyk ]
release date: 22 September 2023 on Jazzland Recordings
«Ritualised choral chants and skronky electric guitar add textures and lustre, subverting possible expectations of an album whose principal instrument is the humble accordion. It may be called Avant Folk but it’s so much more than that.» – Sid Smith, Prog Magazine
07
Sep
[ September 8th, 2023 release on Rune Grammofon: Hedvig Mollestad – Weejuns ]
release date: 08.09.2023 on Rune Grammofon
Never one to rest on her laurels and always eager to break new ground, it’s full steam ahead for guitarist Hedvig Mollestad when teaming up with sublime keyboard player Ståle Storløkken (Elephant9, Supersilent) and young drummer ace Ole Mofjell in a new trio bearing her name. Beautifully subtle and fiercely burning, Weejuns is a solid step into shimmering, hardcore improvisation and breathtaking instrumental interplay, a temporary move away from the composed music of her regular trio and the ensemble projects. It was not the intention, but with this in mind and great recordings of a handful of concerts, it made perfect sense to make the trio’s debut a double live album.
07
Sep
[ September 15th, 2023 release on Resonance Records: Ivan Lins – My Heart Speaks ]
My Heart Speaks, the new album from Brazilian legend Ivan Lins, is out September 15, 2023 via Resonance Records.
The album features Lins – in intense performances of songs he hand-picked – with jazz vocal icons Dianne Reeves and Jane Monheit, rising star singer Tawanda and trumpet great Randy Brecker, along with the 91-member Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra. Lins’s core band on this album features pianist Josh Nelson, guitarist Leo Amuedo and bassist Carlitos Del Puerto.
“In my opinion,” says producer and Resonance founder George Klabin, Lins “is as great a composer of Brazilian music as Tom Jobim. The journey of creation of this masterpiece will remain with me as the most spiritual and loving experience I have had in the field of music production.”