"SoundDance celebrates the 80th birthday of the hugely influential pianist Muhal Richard Abrams. Perhaps best known as the founder of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)—the organization from which sprung such giants of...

"A recording by Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis, or Roscoe Mitchell is occasion for notice and celebration.A recording by all three of them together is a historic musical moment.Abrams, founder of the AACM; Mitchell, founder of the Art Ensemble of...

"Much has happened since the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s last release, The Meeting, in 2003. The band had reinvented itself as a quartet again, with the return of Joseph Jarman. Their touring had increased consistently. They were all writing again with the

Kim Cass – bass, sampling
Matt Mitchell - piano and prophet-6
Tyshawn Sorey - drums
Laura Cocks - flutes
Adam Dotson - euphonium

“Bassist Kim Cass is among a vanguard group of Brooklyn-based improvisors who are creating works at the leading-edge of rhythmic acuity. Levs, his debut with Pi Recordings, features pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, who called Cass “a singular composer and player: the man can do things that doesn’t seem possible on the bass...

"The Mancy of Sound finds Steve Coleman at his creative peak, incorporating a lifetime of research into African Diasporic culture and cycles found in nature & astronomy into his musical methods. The current edition of his longtime band is perhaps his...

Steve Coleman - alto saxophone
Jonathan Finlayson - trumpet
Kokayi - wordsmith
Anthony Tidd - bass
Sean Rickman - drums

“Recorded live in performance at the renowned Village Vanguard in New York City, "Mdw Ntr," finds MacArthur Fellow Steve Coleman exploring new terrain in his use of non-linear performance practices in his music. Featuring his long-running flagship ensemble Five Elements, he utilizes spontaneous and pre-composed modules, or motivic cells that can be played in an

"Morphogenesis is the highly-anticipated follow-up to alto saxophonist/ composer Steve Coleman’s Synovial Joints, which was named the #1 jazz release of 2015 by the New York Times, as well as the top ten at NPR, Downbeat, Popmatters, Slate, and The Nation. Like on that release, Morphogenesis expands Coleman’s compositional scope, adding vocals, violin, clarinet, piano, contrabass and percussion to the mix, in addition to alto sax, trumpet and tenor sax. Partially due to the instrumentation, his use of...

Julia Ulehla : voice, effects, lotar
Aram Bajakian : guitars, bass, piano, synths, percussion
Peggy Lee : cello
Josh Zubot : violin

“Dálava, the genre-defying ensemble led by vocalist Julia Úlehla with guitarist Aram Bajakian (Lou Reed, John Zorn), returns with Understories, a deeply evocative new album that explores uncharted territories of sound, seamlessly weaving Moravian folk traditions with an experimental, improvisational approach into a captivating new soundscape. Their...

Liberty Ellman guitar
Steve Lehman alto saxophone
Jonathan Finlayson trumpet
Jose Davila tuba, trombone
Stephan Crump bass
Damion Reid drums

"Radiate is the long-anticipated new release from guitarist Liberty Ellman, his

Amir ElSaffar: trumpet
Ole Mathisen: tenor saxophone
John Escreet: piano
Francois Moutin: bass
Dan Weiss: drums

Trumpeter Amir ElSaffar’s Alchemy continues his investigations of tonal systems of other cultures within a jazz...

"Iraqi-American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar put his New York career on hold six years ago to immerse himself in the music of his father’s ancestral past, the Iraqi Maqam. Already an accomplished jazz and classical trumpeter, having performed with esteemed art

"Hailed as one of today’s truly original and groundbreaking ensembles by publications as diverse as The Wire, Mojo, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Village Voice, Fieldwork sets forth a dynamic, high-impact group sound that’s unlike anything you’ve e

"Your Life Flashes is a powerful response to European accusations of stagnation in America’s creative music; it is emotional, challenging, experimental, edgy, hard-hitting, and intense. The music comes in cascades and torrents, demanding the listener’s un

Jonathan Finlayson - trumpet
Miles Okazaki - guitar
Matt Mitchell - piano
John Hébert bass
Craig Weinrib - drums

"Moving Still is the eagerly-awaited follow-up to trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson's Moment and the Message, which was voted the Number One album by a debut artist in the NPR Jazz Critics Poll and called 'a great modern jazz record that also sounds like joy and feels like a dance' by PopMatters. One of the most highly regarded young musicians on the scene, Finlayson was..

“Electrical Field of Love is the brilliant new release from Harriet Tubman - the long-running trio of guitarist Brandon Ross, bassist Melvin Gibbs, and drummer JT Lewis, joined here by the fervent voice and imagination of Grammy-nominee Georgia Anne Muldrow.
Described as "black music at it's best" by NPR, Tubman has been a band that creates it's unique sound world through it's exploration of all tributaries of what the Art Ensemble of Chicago called "Great Black Music, Ancient to the Future." Jazz...

"The cohesive group's ethos is at once reflective and kinetic...this is exciting and eminently listenable stuff, intuitive in bearing and dynamic in execution. An essential for adventurous listeners, [it] could also serve as an ideal introduction to Iyer'

"Pi Recordings is proud to re-issue Grammy Award-nominated pianist Vijay Iyer’s Panoptic Modes. Originally released on the Red Giant label in 2001, this was his third CD as a leader and the one that first launched him to prominence, with rave reviews...

Fantastic performances and solid compositions. Note Bruno Ruder of Magma is in the ensemble!

“Ex Machina is a new collaboration between visionary saxophonist/composer Steve Lehman and the GRAMMY-nominated Orchestre National de Jazz (ONJ). It is a dazzling new work for jazz orchestra that sets a new standard for innovation in the large ensemble format. With compositions by both Lehman and ONJ’s artistic director, Frédéric Maurin, Ex Machina makes frequent use of otherworldly spectral harmonies...

Steve Lehman – alto saxophone
Mark Turner – tenor saxophone
Matt Brewer – bass
Damion Reid – drums

When composer / saxophonist Anthony Braxton burst into wider view in 1974 (I certainly had not known of him before his Arista albums), he really set off a seismic shock in the jazz/new music world.
Now, 50 years later, one of his students is honoring his mentor in the nicest and sincerest way possible!

“Steve Lehman – whom The New York Times has hailed as a...

“Xaybu: The Unseen is the sophomore release from Sélébéyone, the international avant-rap collective led by saxophonist and composer Steve Lehman, who has been hailed by The New York Times for his "sure-footed futurism" in the realms of modern jazz and contemporary classical music. Comprised of MCs HPrizm and Gaston Bandimic, saxophonists Lehman and Maciek Lasserre, and drummer Damion Reid, their eponymous 2016 debut was hailed as a game-changing synthesis of underground hip-hop, modern jazz and live...

"Hailed by The New York Times as a 'state-of-the-art musical thinker with a reputation for sure-footed futurism', and 'one of the transforming figures of 21st-century jazz' by The Guardian, saxophonist/composer Steve Lehman has built a career creating innovative new music that packs the visceral wallop of live performance. Acclaimed for his groundbreaking work of melding spectral harmonies with modern jazz, he was voted the '#1 Rising Star Jazz Musician' in the 2015 Downbeat International Critics Poll...

"Kinsmen is a groundbreaking project by alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa that melds jazz and South Indian Carnatic music into a single organic whole. Features Kadri Gopalnath, a living legend of Carnatic music and a true innovator in introducing...

"Rudresh Mahanthappa is widely considered one of the most important jazz musicians today, perennially at or near the top of the DownBeat Critic’s Poll. At the age of 75, Bunky Green is a significant, though unsung, trendsetter in the history of jazz...

The debut recording as leader by this amazingly great pianist with huge abilities and wide-ranging interest (who else has been a member of Thinking Plague, Claudia Quintet and Tim Berne's Snakeoil? Hmm? This is a duo album featuring Matt and Ches Smith...

Matt Mitchell: piano
Chris Speed: tenor saxophone, clarinet
Chris Tordini: bass
Dan Weiss: drums

"Matt Mitchell is one of the most in-demand pianists in jazz. As a member of Tim Berne's Snakeoil, the Dave Douglas Quintet, Rudresh Mahanthappa s Bird Calls, John Hollenbeck s Large Ensemble and Claudia Quintet +1, among many others, he has played an integral role on a huge swath of the most critically-acclaimed releases of the last few years. Highly regarded for bringing contemporary...