The Norwegian jazz scene has it all: cutting edge-contemporary, orchestral and vocal jazz, jazz rock…and a growing audience, jostling and responding to the music while getting younger and younger. It has a background in folk music, with original instruments and sounds, traditions carried forward and transformed by the people of today. It has a classical music heritage with prominent composers who have left a deep mark. All of this has pushed the nation’s music… ANNE YVEN
19
Aug
[August the 26th, 2022 new release on Miel Music: Miguel Zenón – Música de Las Américas]
Out August 26, 2022 on Miel Music, Música de Las Américas features all-new music from Zenón for his long-time working quartet plus master percussionists from his native Puerto Rico.
“This music is inspired by the history of the American continent: not only before European colonization, but also by what’s happened since—cause and effect,” says Miguel Zenón of his latest album of all original works, Música de Las Américas. The music grew out of Zenón’s passion for the history of the American continent, and the resulting album pays tribute to its diverse cultures while also challenging modern assumptions about who and what “America” is.
11
Aug
[August the 19th, 2022 new release on Hubro: Kim Myhr – Sympathetic Magic]
release date: 19.08.2022 on Hubro Records
Sympathetic Magic is an ecstatic, delirious, and deeply touching piece of music; a towering new work in Kim Myhr’s increasingly substantial output as an artist and composer.
18
Jul
[ July the 29th, 2022 release on Pyroclastic: Nate Wooley & Columbia Icefield’s – Ancient Songs of Burlap Heroes ]
Trumpeter/Composer Nate Wooley releases breathtaking second album by his singular quartet Columbia Icefield – Ancient Songs of Burlap Heroes, due out July 29, 2022 via Pyroclastic Records, features Mary Halvorson, Susan Alcorn and Ryan Sawyer
“Columbia Icefield [feels like] a mixture of quiet exaltation, wild exaltation, melancholy, fear, curiosity, struggle to keep warm… the prettiest (if most progressive) campfire music ever written.” – Zachary Woolfe, New York Times
“Columbia Icefield, with its long stretches of atmosphere interrupted by jarring dissonances, [is] something weird, haunting, lonely, and endlessly fascinating.” – Michael J. West, JazzTimes
Album Release Concert Monday, July 25 at TV Eye, Brooklyn, NY
13
Jun
[ June the 17, 2022 release on Attaboygirl Records: Gordon Grdina, Matthew Shipp, Mark Helias – Pathways ]
release date: 17.06.2022 on Attaboygirl Records
“Never content to follow one musical shape, as if following the hard winds of wanted or unwanted change, Grdina’s unerring investigative prolificacy hits on a new geometry each time out.” – Mike Jurkovic, All About Jazz
Pathways (Attaboygirl Records) is the second release by Grdina, legendary pianist Matthew Shipp, and bass innovator Mark Helias. Since their 2019 initial meeting on Skin and Bones, these three extraordinary artists continue their musical evolution with a tightly coiled, laser focused recording full of abundant ideas packed into concentrated, intense bursts of creative energy.
13
Jun
[ June the 17, 2022 release on Astral Spirits: Nomad Trio – Boiling Point ]
“[Grdina is] an accomplished free improviser and player with strong instincts for motivic improvising in the post-bop tradition… he crosses the borders of harmonic and rhythmic daring without much fuss.” – Will Layman, PopMatters
Vancouver-based guitarist, composer, and oud master Gordon Grdina is on a roll. After releasing two acclaimed albums in February, he returns on June 17, 2022 with two adventurous new trio albums, with the first featuring masters of improvisation Matt Mitchell on piano and Jim Black on drums,
11
Jun
[ June the 17th, 2022 release via Tapestry Records: Felipe Salles – Tiyo’s Songs of Life ]
release date: 17.06.2022 via Tapestry Records
“Felipe Salles blends the visceral and the cerebral… infusing classical modernist strains with the buoyant rhythms of his Brazilian homeland.”
– Carlo Wolff, JazzTimes
“ [Salles has] gravitas as an authentic, original voice… an artist who presents the full gamut of musical possibility.” – Jay Deshpande, All About Jazz
Tiyo’s Songs of Life, out June 17 via Tapestry Records, features pianist Zaccai Curtis, bassist Avery Sharpe and drummer Jonathan Barber, premiering compositions written while Salah-El served a life sentence without possibility of parole.
05
Jun
[ June the 10th, 2022 release: John Yao & Triceratops’ – Off Kilter ]
release date: 10.06.2022
“Yao’s compositions hold the kind of steady, swinging cadence of classic Blue Note bop, but with a definite post-bop edge in their spikey harmonies.” – Jackson Sinnenberg, DownBeat
“[Yao’s] music swings, lopes and races forward. All five of the bandmembers share command of their instruments and a likeminded sense of joy that makes the album feel like an amusement park ride: energetic, exciting, yet safe.” – Franz A. Matzner, All About Jazz
Trombonist/composer John Yao and his audacious three-horn quintet Triceratops release their bold, inventive second album Off-Kilter on June 10, 2022 via See Tao Recordings.The album features Yao with saxophonists Billy Drewes and Jon Irabagon, along with bassist Robert Sabin and drummer Mark Ferber. They celebrate the album on Sunday, June 12 at Culture Lab LIC, 5-25 46th Avenue, Long Island City, NY.
03
Jun
[ June the 3rd, 2022 release on Rune Grammofon: FIRE! w Stephen O’Malley & David Sandtröm – Requiēs EP ]
release date: 03.06.2022 on Rune Grammofon
Fast & Furious FIRE! Trio releases their latest Requiēs EP , with Stephen O’Malley & David Sandtröm, the first thing from the last year’s Defeat. Swedish Trio led by multi reed player Mats Gustafsson and completed by Johan Berthling on electric bass and Andreas Werliin on drums needs no further introduction to the fans of unpredictable, ferocious Scandinavian jazz. The limited to 1000 copies vinyl pressing had been sold out in just few days and became unavailable since three months to the official launch time. Impressive, huh ?
02
Jun
[ June the 3rd, 2022 release on Astral Spirits Records: RedGreenBlue – The End and the Beginning ]
release date: 03.06.2022 on Astral Spirits Records
The debut LP from RedGreenBlue posits a mesmeric, minimalist extension of Chicago’s groove-based improvised music tradition. Over the course of two introverted, side-long pieces, the band patiently crafts hypnotic—yet still dynamic—sonic spaces using languid pulsations, careful shifts in colour, and occasional bursts of virtuosic urgency. It’s music that hovers between worlds,