The multicultural Ize Trio returns with an even more expansive reflection on jazz, classical and Middle Eastern cultural traditions
Global Prayer, out June 12, 2026, features pianist Chase Morrin, percussionist George Lernis and cellist Naseem Alatrash, with special guests including Grammy-winning bassist John Patitucci.
“[Ize Trio] are exuberantly and deliberately international, dedicated to finding new ways to meld their various musical and cultural traditions.” – Michael Ullman, Arts Fuse
“Ize Trio is a Boston-based trio redefining the traditional jazz piano trio sound… [blending] the American art form of jazz with Middle Eastern music, promoting a mission focused on social good.” – Tim Larsen, Jazz Views
On their 2024 debut album, The Global Suites, the Boston-based collective Ize Trio offered a bold, culture-spanning vision of music in service of unity and healing across borders, both real and imagined. The trio’s stunning follow-up is at once more expansive in its sonic ambitions yet more meditative and introspective. Global Prayer, out June 12, 2026, is just that – a prayer for a better world that gazes inward in a search for answers to universal dilemmas.
Ize Trio brings together three musicians from diverse backgrounds, who weave together traditions from jazz, Western classical music and maqam – the microtonal music that takes on various forms in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Palestine and other Arab countries across the Middle East. San Diego-born pianist Chase Morrin, Cypriot percussionist George Lernis and Palestinian cellist Naseem Alatrash originally met while studying at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, the Masters program founded by pianist and educator Danilo Pérez.
On Global Prayer the trio is also joined by a host of special guests who further expand the music’s already expansive worldview: Grammy-winning bassist John Patitucci, a mentor turned colleague who, along with Pérez, was a member of the legendary Wayne Shorter Quartet; saxophonist Lihi Haruvi; laouto player Vasilis Kostas; violinist Layth Sidiq, artistic director of the New York Arabic Orchestra; and bouzouki player and computer scientist Yaniv Yacoby, who previously recorded (as a marimba player) with Morrin on the 2016 duo album The Corn Knight.
Where the large-scale suites that made up their debut album were each hyper-focused on specific issues confronting the band’s membership and the world as a whole, Morrin explains that Global Prayer is, “a little more inward focused. A lot of the music is dedicated to our mentors or is more spiritually focused, thinking about how we exist within this crazy world right now.”
Given the prominent role that Danilo Pérez has played in bringing together and continuing to inspire the trio, it’s only fitting that the album opens with a piece dedicated to the Panamanian-born piano master. “Flying,” inspired by the Turkish maqam Neveser, was named for Pérez’s memory of an out-of-body experience achieved while playing on stage with Shorter – a moment of transcendence that Shorter noticed, and which he himself claimed to have experienced regularly as a member of the Miles Davis Quintet. The trio’s lively interaction balances sensations of floating and tension, bridging this more spiritual idea of flying with the more mundane and often stressful process of navigating air travel.
Shorter himself is the inspiration behind “From the Stars,” a title that encompasses the iconic saxophonist/composer’s otherworldly vision as well as his passion for astronomy and science fiction. “I tried to capture some of the spirit of Wayne’s unique music,” Morrin says. “He innovated the world of music with his language, so the cosmic title hints at the idea that we all come from stardust and are interconnected, at Wayne’s Buddhist beliefs and at his idea of zero gravity. I resonate with his spirit and his music so deeply.” Patitucci provides a direct link to Shorter’s legacy on the track, while Haruvi’s soaring sopranino channels the legendary saxophonist’s searching essence.
“Snaefellsjokull” is the name of a majestic glacier-capped mountain in Iceland where Morrin and his mother experienced a breathtaking yet harrowing excursion. Their literal ordeal grows in Morrin’s writing to become a metaphor for the unpredictable, winding and often daunting pathways we all travel through life. The tune, which draws from Irish and Greek influences, evocatively captures the journey’s sense of adventure, awe, beauty and trepidation. Kostas, Sidiq and Yacoby add drama and multi-cultural flourishes to the scintillating composition. The title track follows, the burden and hope of the trio’s “Global Prayer” evident in the fragile stillness of the achingly mesmerizing piece.
The remainder of the album is made up of free improvisations – three brief explorations as well as the more wide-ranging “Jam for the End of the World,” which ends up being more defiant than apocalyptic. While Morrin concludes the album alone at the keyboard for the hushed reflection “Epilogue,” the remaining improvisations – along with the vibrant interactions that grace every track on the album – reveal how deep and adventurous the trio’s chemistry has grown over its few short years together.
“We’re constantly digging deeper into how we all bring our influences and our different backgrounds to the table,” Morrin describes. “We’ve been able to add so much freedom to the music that no piece is ever the same twice. It’s always dynamic and constantly evolving. I think a lot of that is reflected on this album, which is a snapshot of a few moments of time that are constantly in flux.”
Ize Trio
Ize Trio is a multi-cultural ensemble featuring Chase Morrin (piano), George Lernis (percussion) and Naseem Alatrash (cello). The trio focuses on combining the American art form of jazz with classical, maqam and Middle Eastern traditions in order to create a more inclusive vision for musical communities. Through their different backgrounds and cultural traditions, the band’s members write original music and tell musical stories that are important in opening positive dialogue about the world around us and the melding of diverse cultures. The Ize Trio seeks to inspire musicians to add their cultural roots to the jazz tradition and display how music can be a bridge to understanding and connection. Their debut album, The Global Suites was released in 2024 to wide acclaim. Additionally they are recipients of the prestigious Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant, in which they have received funds to tour and work on new repertoire in Southern California.
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Ize Trio – Global Prayer
Self-released – Recorded January 12-13, 2023 & May 24, 2025
Release date June 12, 2026
izetrio.com
chasemorrin.com
lernismusic.com
alatrashmusic.com
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