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.
Giant Step Arts continues Modern Masters and New Horizons series with new live album by tenor saxophonist Rico Jones. Out July 25, 2025, BloodLines is a deeply personal album, exploring the saxophonist’s heritage, personal connections and spirituality in a stirring live context. With BloodLines, Giant Steps Arts introduces a compelling new compositional voice, Colorado-native tenor saxophonist Rico Jones. The album is his New York City leader debut and features a multi-generational band of peer guitarist Max Light and two veterans in bassist Joe Martin and drummer Nasheet Waits.
“Rico is one of the few original voices emerging. His musicianship and passion have forged to create an original voice we will joyfully be hearing more from in the future!” – Vincent Herring
Giant Step Arts launches its Modern Masters and New Horizons series with the first-ever live album as a leader from tenor saxophonist Mark Turner. Live at the Village Vanguard, out September 8, 2023, featured Turner with trumpeter Jason Palmer, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Jonathan Pinson.
“[Mark Turner is] a premier saxophonist, conceptual thinker and bandleader who plays a visionary role on today’s rapidly evolving, ever-expanding jazz scene.” – Ed Enright, DownBeat
“Light of tone and phenomenally agile, the sound of Mark Turner’s tenor saxophone is so beguiling that I’d happily listen to him playing from a book of exercises.” – Dave Gelly, The Guardian
release date: 18 September 2020 via Destiny Records
“…a guitarist of broad fluency and deep lyrical instinct…“ — Nate Chinen, WBGO’s “Take Five”
“Name any guitarist – Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, John Scofield – and the comparison falls short or fails entirely, because Tom Guarna is his own man.” — JazzTimes
Spirit Science showcases the New York-based guitarist in nine flowing, melody-laced originals inspired by the science of sacred geometry, complemented by a “dream team” of a band. Spirit Science – Guarna’s eighth album and second release via Destiny Records, due out September 18, 2020 – showcases the New York-based guitarist in nine flowing, melody-laced originals inspired by the science of sacred geometry.
The sequel to his acclaimed album 1954, Grilli’s third album draws inspiration from a decade’s evolution with a stellar quintet featuring Mark Turner, Kevin Hays, Joe Martin and Eric Harland
“Evocative, ethereal, and eclectic… Grilli hits that sweet spot somewhere between post bop and the avant garde.”
—Brent Black, Critical Jazz
“Ricardo Grilli is a postbop guitarist with a sideline interest in the cosmos [and] a taste for the ultramodern.”
– Nate Chinen, The New York Times
“Grilli’s considerable chops are in full effect in each setting…an admirable outing.” – Bill Milkowski, DownBeat
