Giant Step Arts continues its Modern Masters and New Horizons series with Tomorrow Is Today, the debut recording from The Phoenix Trio, a cooperative, deeply connected group featuring tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Marcus Gilmore. It’s out this Friday.
Recorded live in front of an audience at Brooklyn’s Ornithology Club in May 2025, the album fuses compositional depth, improvisational daring and powerful solos into a group sound both riveting and unique.
The Phoenix Trio is a new all‐star ensemble of tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, whom The New York Times called “possibly jazz’s premier [tenor] player,” bassist Joe Martin, hailed by JazzTimes for his “deep tone, quick ears, harmonic elasticity and beautifully clear solos” and drummer Marcus Gilmore, celebrated by TheNew York Times for ensembles setting “a new standard for sophisticated, accessible virtuosity.” Taking the creature for their moniker is more than just a name. It is a statement of intensity and purpose from these acclaimed bandleaders, all of whom regularly headline The Village Vanguard, as they fuse compositional depth, improvisational daring and powerful solos into a group sound both exciting and unique.
“Three in one is a common relationship throughout human culture and the physical world,” says Turner, who suggested the name to his partners. “It comes up in religion, mysticism, the human life cycle, music, art, science.12 bar blues, 12 keys, primary colors, rhythm/ melody/ harmony, Buddha/ Dharma/ Samgha, Father/Son/Holy ghost, Vishnu/Brahma/Shiva.Three is the Magic number to quote School House Rock. The Phoenix: rebirth, immortality, transformation. In short, the ultimate creative entity.”
And while the phoenix may be associated with fire, its namesake trio prefers a slower, evolutionary form of change to the more incendiary approach, exploring a through-line to older, similarly introspective and highly balanced examples. “I have always played a lot of saxophone trio and been drawn to the format,” says Martin. “I like the counterpoint between bass and tenor, the options and space that playing trio gives the three of us.”
It is telling that Turner and Martin both emphasize the number three, reinforcing the idea that The Phoenix Trio is an equal intersection of players with partnerships going back a few decades, whether each with one another, all together under others or as a discrete unit. They use the terms “cooperative” and “collaborative”, a fact reflected not only in the non-hierarchical sound world where each player is both a level and a fulcrum, but also the program, with all three bringing compositions. And even within those, the stamp of collective thought was engaged through a couple of tunes, which had, as Martin explains, “introductions that were free improvisations based on thematic material.”
Martin provided four tunes, two dedications to his family, bookending a composition each by Gilmore andTurner. Some of the music had appeared on earlier dates or been played by the group in a different setting, nallowing for what Martin calls “revisiting material and finding new pathways.”
Martin’s “The Fencer” and “Lioness” capture the titular characters’ respective pirouetting and watchful power.Turner’s “1946”, a tribute of sorts to Tom Harrell (the title his birth year) and loosely based on his piece “Helios”,opens slowly like a delicate scroll, followed by Gilmore’s “Harvest,” loamy and rich. The closing Martin tunes, the album’s title track and “Safe”, turn up the temperature slightly, yet under the keen eye of three master chefs who know that the process of creation is a delicate one.
TOMORROW IS TODAY was recorded in front of an audience at Brooklyn’s Ornithology Club over two days inMay 2025. Rehearsal was minimal and discussion limited to grounding the players in what Turner describes as”form and pacing” with Martin adding, “beyond that we just played our music and trusted the musical connection we have built over many years.” Even within only two days of recording, the trio experienced, in a time-lapse version, “growth as the band becomes more familiar with the material,” says Martin.
TOMORROW IS TODAY is the latest entry in Giant Step’s new series Modern Masters and New Horizons.Curated by trumpeter Jason Palmer and Giant Step Arts, the series features artists who have helped shape the modern jazz landscape along with rising voices doing the same for the next generation.
Giant Step Arts
Founded by Jimmy and Dena Katz in January 2018, Giant Step Arts is an innovative, artist-focused non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning and showcasing the work of some of modern jazz’s most innovative artists. In an era where it is increasingly difficult for musicians to earn a living, Giant Step Arts offers artists the creative and financial resources to create bold music free of commercial pressure and with total control of their artistic projects.
For the musicians it chooses to work with, by invitation only, Giant Step Arts:
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presents premiere performances
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records these performances for independent release
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provides the artists with digital downloads and CDs to sell; artists retain complete ownership of their masters
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provides the artists with photos for promotional use
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provides PR support for the recordings
Katz says: “Giant Step Arts exists to aid musicians in realizing their artistic dreams. It does not sell music and artists retain full rights to their music. We work tirelessly to raise funds with the goal of helping more musicians.”
Jimmy Katz
Through his award-winning photography with wife Dena Katz and his esteemed work as a recording engineer, Katz has spent nearly 30 years helping to shape the way audiences see and hear jazz musicians. Katz has been part of more than 600 recording projects—many historic—and has photographed more than 200 magazine covers. Whether taken in the studio, in the clubs, on the streets or in the musicians’ homes, his photographs offer intimate portraits of the artists at work and in repose and capture the collaborative and improvisatory process of jazz itself.Recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association award for jazz photography in both 2006 and 2011, Katz’s work has been exhibited in Germany, Italy and Japan. Among the world-renowned artists he has photographed are Sonny Rollins, Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes, Cassandra Wilson, Ray Charles, Dave Brubeck, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, John Zorn, Pat Metheny andDizzy Gillespie. His recording credits include such artists as David S. Ware, Joe Lovano, Harold Mabern, William Parker, Benny Golson, ChrisPotter, Mark Turner, George Coleman and Jason Palmer, among others