Terra – the captivating new album from drummer and composer Phil Haynes and his generation-spanning new trio with guitarist Ben Monder and tenor saxophonist Peyton Pleninger – is out Friday, May 1 via Haynes’ own Corner Store Jazz imprint!
“Since arriving in New York from Oregon in 1983, drummer Phil Haynes established himself as a potent force on the downtown composer/improviser scene.” – Bill Milkowski, JazzTimes
Since publishing his incisive, acclaimed 2023 memoir, Chasing the Masters, drummer/composer Phil Haynes has embarked on a prolific and wide-ranging new chapter of his already venturesome career. In part, that has involved reconnecting with a past reawakened by this writing process, reuniting with longtime and in some cases long-separated collaborators. At the same time he’s determined to push resolutely forward, searching for a new generation of sonic seekers that he can both mentor and learn from a la masters like Art Blakey and Anthony Braxton.
On the captivating new album Terra, Haynes does both at once, reaching out in both directions to form a thrilling new trio that spans generations. Out May 1, 2026 from Haynes’ own Corner Store Jazz imprint, Terra features Haynes with the singular guitarist Ben Monder, who he recorded with for the first time on 2025’s Transition(s), resurrecting a duo project that had been dormant for more than a quarter century; and the tenor saxophonist Peyton Pleninger, an inventive rising star with whom Haynes has discovered an unexpected but profound chemistry.
An hour-long group improvisation recorded live on the stage of Bucknell University’s Natalie Davis-Rooke Recital Hall, Terra marks the inaugural encounter for these three musicians, and the first time that Monder and Pleninger had ever made music together. Haynes had invited them as an experiment, hoping that the combination would be a harmonious one but never anticipating just how breathtaking the results would be. Haynes must have had some kind of premonition, however, as he invited his regular engineer Jon Rosenberg to capture the proceedings – just in case.
“I was curious about getting Ben and Peyton together, but no one could have imagined that the chemistry would be so good,” Haynes marvels. “It felt like a gift.”
In the album’s liner notes, Haynes describes the music that the trio created together as feeling like “laying down, stargazing.” The sentiment is an apt one for a continuous stream of creation that often seems to float in the stratosphere, its most audacious moments striving heavenwards while its contemplative silences are like breaths held in awe of the vast universe. The imagery, flooding into Haynes’ mind unbidden, suggested a subconscious theme of cherishing the Earth and its precious resources in the face of rapacious destruction. In that sense the album follows in the politically conscientious footsteps of last year’s protest-minded release by Haynes’ Free Country band, Liberty Now!
“We didn’t intend such a message or even discuss the subject beforehand,” Haynes insists. “But the collective subconscious of the ensemble was obviously working, and it’s reassuring not to be tone deaf to what’s happening in the world around us.”
The proceedings open with the faint sound of chimes, establishing a cathedral-like sense of spaciousness that sets the airy tone for the album. Haynes adds crunching bamboo textures before Monder enters with echoing guitar tones. Momentum accrues gradually with a stop-start intensity, suspended for a tactile duo between Monder’s ringing strings and Haynes’ hand drumming. Pleninger’s tenor erupts into this space, and their music metamorphoses almost continually from there. At points the saxophonist summons haunting vocalizations, a sound that Haynes likens to “the Earth calling.”
The only planning prior to the concert was the agreement on a few familiar standards to include as needed. A dreamlike “Skylark” coheres around the halfway point, drifting ethereally from the atmospheric surroundings, but otherwise the hour of music was wholly composed collectively and in the moment. “Playing free is dangerous,” Haynes admits. “We were blessed. This trio turned out to be more than the sum of its parts.”
photo by Nancy Workman
These days, Monder is best known as a member of The Bad Plus, as well as for his contributions to David Bowie’s final album Blackstar and his innovative collaborations with the likes of Theo Bleckmann, Maria Schneider, Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey. He and Haynes engaged in a series of duo explorations during the drummer’s early years in New York, often focused on John Coltrane’s classic “Transition” – which became the leaping off point for their duo album, which DownBeat lauded for the pair’s “still-vital, telepathy-like stream of communication.”
Hook-ups with peers like Monder came more naturally in those early days, when Haynes convened regular sessions at his Corner Store space in Brooklyn. His search for like-minded younger collaborators proved more difficult in recent years from the drummer’s current home in far more isolated central Pennsylvania. An invite from old friends Arnold Hammerschlag and Jim Yanda for an improv gig in the Hudson Valley led to his fortuitous first meeting with Pleninger.
“At one point the other guys dropped out and Peyton and I emerged,” Haynes recalls. “All of a sudden, heads were snapping to attention and I realized that we had crazy chemistry like I hadn’t found with a new musician for decades. We just instantly, inexplicably had this magic together.”
photo by Amir Sali
A self-professed “saxophonist, improviser, bandleader, astrologer and guerilla contractor,” Pleninger is forging a personal path that challenges the boundaries of what it means to be a musician. His experience involves a variety of disciplines centered around music, which also includes astrology, painting and sculpture, botany, construction, massage and medical inquiry. Pleninger worked as a mentee of the percussionist and polymath Milford Graves for the last two years of his life, and studied with the iconoclastic saxophonist Steve Coleman. He directs the upstate New York venue and arts research center The Tavern.
Photo by Pierre Rene Allain
Phil Haynes
Veteran drummer/composer Phil Haynes is featured on more than 90 releases from numerous American and European record labels. His collaborations include many of the seminal musicians of this generation: saxophonists Anthony Braxton, Ellery Eskelin and David Liebman; trumpeters Dave Douglas, Herb Robertson and Paul Smoker; bassists Mark Dresser, Ken Filiano and Drew Gress; keyboard artists David Kikoski, Denman Maroney and Michelle Rosewoman; vocalists Theo Bleckmann, Nicholas Horner and Hank Roberts; violinist Mark Feldman; and the composers collective Joint Venture. His outlets include the romantic “jazz-grass” string band, Free Country; contemporary saxophone trio No Fast Food with David Liebman; the classic piano trio Day Dream, featuring Steve Rudolph; and his seminal solo project, Sanctuary. In 2023 he published his captivating, wide-ranging memoir, Chasing the Masters: First Takes of a Modern Drumming Artist, hailed by Toledo’s WGTE as “an engaging blend of insight, curiosity, humility, and humor.”
Phil Haynes / Ben Monder / Peyton Pleninger – Terra
Corner Store Jazz – CSJ-0153 – Recorded March 1, 2025
Release date May 1, 2026
philhaynesmusic.bandcamp.com
cornerstorejazz.com
philhaynes.com
# # #