Swiss saxophonist & composerChristoph Irniger extends his long-running trio of bassist Raffaele Bossard and drummer Ziv Ravitz with Brooklyn alto saxophonist Loren Stillmand and German trombonist Nils Wogram, combining arrangement and improvisation in the jazz tradition, performed with inventive clarity and a strong regard for melody, making this an upbeat and creative album of modern jazz.

The Triple D Trio of Aurora Josephson (voice), Jacob Lindsay (clarinet) & Damon Smith (bass) met with visiting European improvisers Philipp Wachsmann (violin) and Martin Blume (drums) to record these live concerts in Oakland and SF.

Some of Chicago's top improvisers in a set of new compositions by pianist Karayorgis, featuring reed players Rempis and Jackson in various powerful sax and clarinet combinations.

Referencing Wayne Shorter ("Footprints") and the lyrically free playing of Shorter's 60s influences, this 3rd album led by tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas, with the powerful support of pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Linda May Han Oh, and drummer Joey Baron, was recorded following a week at New York's Village Vanguard in January 2020.

Franz Hautzinger formed the orchestra in 1995 as an ensemble for experimental music, developing into an advanced improvising band that incorporates a shifting and diverse set of styles, heard here at Klangspuren Festival in 2019 with Hautzinger on trumpet, Christian Fennesz on guitar & laptop, Otomo Yoshihide on guitar & turntables, Luc Ex on bass, and Tony Buck on drums.

Guitarist Vitor Rua (GNR, Telectu) recorded the 15 pieces of this 2-CD set first as a series of overdubbed solo improvisations, using his virtuosic skills to create intriguing and compelling works, which he orchestrated and recorded with the quintet of Hernani Faustino on bass, Luis San Payo on drums, Manuel Guimaraes on organ, Nuno Reis on trumpet, and Paulo Galao on clarinets.

A comprehensive album of live performances from IST (Rhodri Davies: harp, preparations; Simon H. Fell: double bass, preparations; Mark Wastell: violoncello, preparations) between 1996 and 2000, beginning with their concert at Club Orange in London and including concerts in London, Billericay, Norwich and Cambridge, with a 20 page booklet of photos and text from the band & collaborators.

Netherlands pianist Martina Verhoeven's quintet with Goncalo Almeida on double bass, Onno Govaert on drums, Dirk Serries on guitar and Colin Webster on saxophone is captured live in their debut performance at the Roadburn Festival 2022 Paradox in Tilburg for an extended 2-part improvisation of both dense and thrilling interaction and deep introspection, a spectacular and informed set.

Capturing two exceptional concerts at London's Cafe OTO in 2021 & 2022, in the launch of a new quartet expanding the longstanding trio of NO Moore on electric guitar, John Edwards on double bass and Eddie Prévost on drums, with Alan Wilkinson on baritone & alto saxophones, and for one performance on each night, tenor saxophonist Nathaniel Catchpole joining.

In a nod to alto saxophonist Lee Konitz, Montreal trombonist Scott Thomson brings together four exceptional Canadian alto saxophonists with whom he has worked and who motivate his improvisational drive, heard here in four duos: two with Toronto alto saxophonists John Oswald and Karen Ng, and two with Montreal alto saxophonists Jean Derome and Yves Charuest.

Patrick Brennan's compositions propose a series of groove instances or cells, each laying out a contrasting polyrhythm in bass & treble so that at least two melodic lines can be played over them simultaneously and the series looped, cleverly accomplished with Brian Groder on trumpet, Rod Williams on piano, Hilliard Greene on bass, Michael TA Thompson on drums and Brenann on sax.

A frequent collaborator with NY saxophonist and composer Tim Berne, French guitarist Marc Ducret takes on Berne's compositions, at times in multiple interpretations of the same work or by merging pieces together, performed with the superb support of trumpeter Fabrice Martinez, flutist Sylvaine Helary, trombonist Christiane Bopp and Ducret's son, cellist Bruno Ducret.

Wabanaki bassist, composer and songwriter Mali Obomsawin presents a compositional suite that highlights the art and culture of her people, binding together blues, jazz, hymns and folk songs with an ensemble of exceptional NY improvisers: Savannah Harris (drums), Miriam Elhajli (guitars, voice), Allison Burik (reeds), Noah Campbell (sax) and Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet & flugelhorn).

Trumpeter & composer Sei Miguel's second O Carro De Fogo De Sei Migue continues his merging of electric jazz with ea-overtones, in three live recordings with Fala Mariam on trombone & Rings, Nuno Torres on saxophone & Rings, Bruno Silva on electric guitar, Pedro Lourenco on electric bass, Andre Goncalves on organs & ATMOS and Luis Desirat & Raphael Soares on percussion.

Part of the SmallsLIVE Living Masters series, masterful saxophonist Dave Liebman leads the stellar quintet of Peter Evans on trumpet, Leo Genovese on piano, John Hebert on bass & Tyshawn Sorey on drums through three Liebman compositions titled for their ordinal position, relaunching a highly focused Liebman post-pandemic with this stunning live concert at Smalls Jazz Club.

A live concert on a Sunday afternoon in 2017 at Green Mill in Chicago from the lyrically informed post-bop quintet Jimmy Bennington Colour And Sound, led by drummer Bennington with Fred Jackson, Jr. on alto saxophone & soprano saxophone, Artie Black on tenor saxophone, Dustin Laurenzi on tenor saxophone and Mike Harmon on bass.

The core trio of Cécile Cappozzo (piano), Patrice Grente (double bass) and Etienne Ziemniak (drums) release their second Ayler album, expanded to a quintet with Jean-Luc Cappozzo on trumpet and Guillaume Bellanger on saxophone, performing six works connected like a suite that flow beautifully through Cappozzo's warm compositions, including a piece dedicated to Carla Bley.

London's Apartment House in a quintet configuration performs four chamber works by Slovakian composer Adrian Democ, plus the Czech ensemble Ostravska Band / Fama Q performing one composition; gentle music of deceptive simplicity, using color, shade and hue through unique orchestration, his works built upon creative foundations steeped in historic reference.

A composed piece from guitarist Fages for a small ensemble of instruments and live electronics using shifting sinetones alongside sustained sounds from the acoustic instruments to create shimmering music that unfolds slowly and gracefully.

Between his work with Charlie Parker and before his own personal success, trumpeter Miles Davis joined the influential ensemble of pianist, composer and arranger Tadd Dameron, heard in six large ensemble pieces at New York's Royal Roost in 1949, and then in a quintet at the Paris Festival International De Jazz the same year, in both hearing a unique and confident facet to Miles' playing.

Meeting in Minneapolis, home of saxophonist & guitarist George Cartwright (Curlew), the quintet of Cartwright, Steve Hirsh on drums, Chad Fowler on stritch, Kelley Hurt on voice and Christopher Parker on piano have many collaborative and friendly connections, heard in their easy-going and informed dialog, with some quirks & comments tossed in to personalize these excellent studio sessions.

Ljug Aldrig, aka Roosen, a visual artist, guitarist and vocalist from Stockholm, is heard in a 2-song 7" + download release performing with Dennis Egberth on drums, Alexander Zethson on keys, Anton Toorell on bass, guitars and Isak Hedtjarn on saxophone.

A dark album of sound art from the quintet of mostly St. Louis improvisers--Damon Smith, Louis Wall, NNN Cook, Michael Williams and noted flutist Fred Tompkins on two tracks--starting through shrouded percussion and unidentifiable sources, the group's sessions are edited into a cohesive album that takes its listeners on a unique journey of electronic and acoustic interaction.

Better known for his bass work with his own free jazz trio and quartet, or as a sideman for Simon Nabatov, Chris Pitsiokis, &c. this album reveals another facet to the musician, presenting a chamber music album of strings, reeds and piano, where his role as composer and conductor brings life to works with references to Messiaen & Kafka.

Reissuing and remastering two Impulse! albums from saxophonist Ornette Coleman: 1969's Ornette At 12 with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and his then 12-year-old son Denardo on drums; 1972's Crisis adding Don Cherry on trumpet; and a lesser-known 1969 EP, Man On The Moon, with electronics from Dr. Emmanuel Ghent and Ed Blackwell on drums.

Arriving in NY in 1959, saxophonist, flute & bass clarinetist Eric Dolphy joined some of the finest avant jazz players, releasing his 1st album as a leader in 1960--Outward Bound--with Freddie Hubbard, Jaki Byard, George Tucker & Roy Haynes; subsequently tagged as an anti-jazz musician, it would be 4 years before his masterwork Out To Lunch would be released, both albums here reissued & remastered.

The cooperative Japanese/French quartet Kaze of pianist Satoko Fujii, trumpeter Natsuki Tamura, trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins are expanded for a second time with New York electronic artist Ikue Mori, embracing pandemic restrictions by creating this album through file exchange, adding complex layers of profound interaction to the virtual improvisations.

Somewhere between Acid Mothers, 70s Miles or Sun Ra's Arkestra, NY-based Japanese saxophonist Ayumi Ishito's second Spacemen volume with Theo Woodward on synth & vocals, Nebula and the Velvet Queen on theremin, Jake Strauss on guitar & bass and Steven Bartishev on drums, lives up to it's cosmic moniker through exploratory improv blurring jazz, electronica and psych.

Zurich tenor saxophonist & composer Christoph Irniger in his fourth album on the Intakt label with his creative and cooperative band Pilgrim of Stefan Aeby on piano, Dave Gisler on guitar, Raffaele Bossard on bass and Michael Stulz on drums, performing Irninger's lyrical and thoughtful compositions, along with one from bassist Raffaele Bossard.

The album title translating to Humanity, Polish improvising vocalist Natalia Kordiak demonstrates her skills both as a jazz singer and as part of the continuum of creative free improv vocalists, with a tremendous quartet of young musicians: Przemyslaw Chmiel on tenor & soprano saxophones, Mateusz Kolakowski on piano, Alan Wykpisz on double bass & bass guitar and Grzegorz Palka on drums.

Long a fan of his music, NY trumpeter Kirk Knuffke joined with saxophonist Joe McPhee and his quartet of Christof Knoche (bass clarinet), Michael Bisio (bass) and Jay Rosen (drums), following Knuffke's wife's advice to "keep the dream up" as the quintet recorded a series of exceptional collective improvisations, one Knuffke compositions and at Knuffke's request, a poem/"Invocation" from McPhee.

A frequent collaborator with NY saxophonist and composer Tim Berne, French guitarist Marc Ducret takes on Berne's compositions, at times in multiple interpretations of the same work or by merging pieces together, performed with the superb support of trumpeter Fabrice Martinez, flutist Sylvaine Helary, trombonist Christiane Bopp and Ducret's son, cellist Bruno Ducret.

Wabanaki bassist, composer and songwriter Mali Obomsawin presents a compositional suite that highlights the art and culture of her people, binding together blues, jazz, hymns and folk songs with an ensemble of exceptional NY improvisers: Savannah Harris (drums), Miriam Elhajli (guitars, voice), Allison Burik (reeds), Noah Campbell (sax) and Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet & flugelhorn).

Eight aquatic themed works from the Berlin-based quintet of Hui-Chun Lin and Uygur Vural on cello, Matthias Müller on trombone, Klaus Kurvers and Ulf Mengersen on bass; also known as Ensemble Discoveries, this album collects work from 2020-22, described as "improvised music and Echtzeit Compositions and the ideas of deep sea, their special living conditions: big pressure, eternity darkness".

Improvising over strings, winds & percussion from the Portuguese quintet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Joao Madeira on double bass, Bruno Parrinha on flute & bass clarinet and Monsieur Trinite on percussion, in a studio session of active, often pointillistic interaction offset with periods of introspection, reflecting concepts of Baudelaire & The Surrealists.

Saxophonist Sabir Mateen's NY based Shapes, Textures, and Sound Ensemble with Steve Swell on trombone, Matt Lavelle on trumpet, Matthew Heyner on bass and Michael T.A. Thompson on drums, run though a gamut of post-bop and collective, creative jazz forms with energy, incredible dexterity, and tremendous group interplay, a great example of the modern spirit of jazz.

Continuing the sense of film noir and consummate conceptual compositions, Dave Pett's Remote Viewers ensemble of four saxophones--Adrian Northover, Sue Lynch, Caroline Kraabel & David Petts--and the powerful and often drum-like double bass of John Edwards, continue their journey in this strange place with 10 new solidly crepuscular and complex works.

The third volume in West Coast/Montreal/Kansas guitarist David Lord's series exploring the concept of what makes a jazz standard, in ten beautifully warm and lyrically rich Lord compositions performed with Chad Taylor on drums & percussion, Christine Tavolacci on flute, David Tranchina on double bass and Nathan Hubbard on vibraphone, marimba & percussion.

The third album in Chicago 6- & 12-string guitarist Elijah McLaughlin's numbered album series of original compositions, rich flowing works of lyrical textures augmented with environmental field recordings and tape loops, performed with Jason Toth on upright bass, Katinka Kleijn on cello, effects, Joel Styzens on hammered Dulcimer and Adler Scheidt on piano.

Trumpeter Chris Williams in a limited white label cassette release of a post-processed/collaged live concert at Blue Whale in Los Angeles, 2018, performing on trumpet & electronics with a quintet of incredible free players: Patrick Shiroishi on saxophones & objects, Joshua White on piano, Eric Revis on acoustic bass & electronics and Guillermo Brown on drums & electronics.

The 19th Pere Ubu album brings members from the history and offshoots of the band that initiated in Cleveland with vocalist David Thomas, melded with members Keith Moline and Andy Diagram from Pale Boys, legendary drummer Chris Cutler (Wooden Birds & Pere Ubu), clarinetist & guitarist Alex Ward and bassist Michel Templem, for 17 wide-ranging songs, often eccentric, but always uniquely Ubu.

Recording in France in 1970, the Art Ensemble of Chicago (Malachi Favors on bass, Joseph Jarman on saxophone, Roscoe Mitchell on saxophone, Lester Bowie on trumpet) recorded the soundtrack to director Moshé Mizrahi's movie Les stances à Sophie, joined by vocalist Fontella Bass, releasing a classic and exciting album that stands as a great testament to the versatility of its players.

Giving homage to creative musicians before them, the Berlin quintet of Koen Nutters (upright bas), Heather Frasch (flute), Carina Khorkhordina (trumpet), Han-earl Park (electric guitar) and Quentin Tolimieri (bass & soprano melodica)--explore the notion of integrating open improvisations around melody and modal harmonies into a post-musical, conceptual, and social framework.

A tribute to jazz trumpeter & composer Don Cherry--a spiritual world traveler and influential free jazz trumpeter--performed by Chicago's equally spiritual Ethnic Heritage Ensemble led by percussionist Kahil El'Zabar with Corey Wilkes, Alex Harding, Dwight Trible, and the son of Don Cherry, David Ornette Cherry; sadly also an unexpected tribute to David Ornette's sudden passing in 2022.

Continuing the reissue series of Swedish drummer & accordionist based in Berlin, Sven-Ake Johansson, with this 1971 recording of an otherwise unrecorded quintet with Jeanne Lee on vocal, Gunter Hampel on vibes, flute & bass clarinet, Michael Waisvisz on synthesizer and Freddy Gosseye on electric bass, captured live in a then-radical concert at Berlin Jazztage.

Michel F Cote in a hybrid release of country and actuelle music that is unpredictable and funny with help from artists such as Bernard Falaise, Frank Martel, Billie Folliday, etc.

Three essential concerts remastered, from the legacy of be-bop trailblazers, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, with Don Byas, Al Haig piano, Curley Russell, Max Roach & Sidney Catlett at Town Hall 1945; with John Lewis, Al McKibbon & Joe Harris at Carnegie Hall 1947; and with Bud Powell, Tommy Potter & Roy Haynes at Birdland 1951.

Vocalist Lina Nyberg in a quintet with David Stackenas (guitar), Cecilia Persson (piano), Josef Kallerdahl (bass) & Peter Danemo (drums), singing original works plus one by poet Coleman Barks, and Paul Simon's "So Long Frank Lloyd Wright".

A remarkable feat of remastering, sound restoration and pitch correction from the tapes of this June 1950 radio broadcast at Birdland in NYC, finding the exceptional quintet of jazz pioneers led by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker in superb form, with Fats Navarro on trumpet, Bud Powell on piano, Curley Russell on double bass and Art Blakey on drums.

Trumpeter Dennis Gonzalez merges his Yells at Eel project with bassist Aaron Gonzalez and drummer/percussionist Stefan Gonzalez, with Texas-based experimental rock band Pinkish Black--Daron Beck on keyboards and Jon Teague on drums & synthesizers--for a gripping and masterful hybrid of improvisation, dark synthetic rock and heavy moods; a riveting journey.

Acoustic and sublime minimal acoustic improvisation with an emphasis on strings from the Portuguese quintet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Miguel Almeida on acoustic guitar, Andre Lanca on electric guitar, Bernardo Alvares on double bass, and Felice Furioso on percussion, performing live during the Small Format Materials Festival at Galeria Monumental, in Lisbon.

A live concert on a Sunday afternoon in 2017 at Green Mill in Chicago from the lyrically informed post-bop quintet Jimmy Bennington Colour And Sound, led by drummer Bennington with Fred Jackson, Jr. on alto saxophone & soprano saxophone, Artie Black on tenor saxophone, Dustin Laurenzi on tenor saxophone and Mike Harmon on bass.

An amazing journey in sound and voice from saxophonist/vocalist Joane Hetu with five singers/narrators/musicians/noise-makers and layered field recordings, a remarkable and sophisticated work about sex, loss, death, art, & politics.

Collecting five chamber works from prolific London-based composer Tim Parkinson, written between 1998 and 2017 and performed by the Apartment House ensemble: one piece for solo violin performed by Mira Benjamin, two duos for violin & piano (by Benjamin & Siwan Rhys), a quintet for winds and strings and a septet, both featuring flute and bass clarinet.

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The second album from drummer Rudy Royston's chamber-like ensemble Flatbed Buggy, featuring John Ellis on woodwinds, Gary Versace on accordion, Hank Roberts on cello, and Joe Martin on bass, in a concept album of the typical ups and downs, joys and sadness, gratitude and dreads a typical day would bring, ultimately culminating in a celebration of life and healing.

The Rempis Percussion Quartet in their French debut after 15 years of touring elsewhere through Europe, with Dave Rempis on sax, both Tim Daisy & Frank Rosaly on drums and Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass, performing an exuberant concert recorded at Le Petit Faucheux in Tours, with trumpeter Jean-Luc Cappozzo joining for one extended improv, plus a live workshop for young immigrants and a rare studio session.

A previously unreleased archival recording of drummer Drew Gardner's 1995 Bay Area quintet with a stellar set of free jazz collaborators--John Tchicai on tenor & soprano saxophones, Marco Eneidi on alto saxophone, Roberto De Haven on alto saxophone and Vytas Nagisetty on bass, beautifully recorded in the studio in Oakland, CA by Myles Boisen; exceptional!

Ngayon, the Filipino tagalog word for "Now" or "Today", effectively describes the immediacy of the second release from Bay Area guitarist and composer Karl Evangelista and his exceptional Apura band, performing five sophisticated original works.

Adding bassist Jon Short to their lineup, the 4th album from Das Rad continues the band's genre-merging approach of rock & improv forms rooted in prog, kosmiche, and jazz rock, this post-pandemic album bringing the band back together for live interaction, their enthusiasm evident in their energetic intercourse, particularly in the extended suite "Expergefactor".

One of New York School minimalist composer Morton Feldman's later works, this extended composition spread across two CDs invokes waves of beautifully suspended, weaving strings from four violinists and cello, performed by the UK Apartment House ensemble violinists Mira Benjamin, Chihiro Ono, Amalia Young & Bridget Carey and cellist Anton Lukoszevieze.

Having just formed the prior year, the San Francisco Bay Area saxophone quartet Rova of Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Andrew Voigt, and Bruce Ackley met with Italian percussionist Andrea Centazzo during his 1978 US tour, recording this exceptional album demonstrating creative approaches to thematic and structural jazz forms, particularly the nearly side-long "Trobar Clus".

A tribute to jazz trumpeter & composer Don Cherry--a spiritual world traveler and influential free jazz trumpeter--performed by Chicago's equally spiritual Ethnic Heritage Ensemble led by percussionist Kahil El'Zabar with Corey Wilkes, Alex Harding, Dwight Trible, and the son of Don Cherry, David Ornette Cherry; sadly also an unexpected tribute to David Ornette's sudden passing in 2022.

Two works written for a group of Australian performers living in Berlin--Jon Heilbron, Rebecca Lane, Jess Aszodi & Sam Dunscombe--by Australian composer and pianist Anthony Pateras, A Dread Of Voids developed for a residency at the Archipel Festival in Geneva after enduring a pandemic quarantine; and Patterned Language, composed for the Astra Chamber Music Society.

The third album from the genre-merging quintet The End of of Sofia Jernberg (vocals), Kjetil Moster (clarinet and tenor saxophone), Mats Gustafsson (flutes, baritone saxophone and electronics), Anders Hana (baritone and bass guitar) and Borge Fjordheim (drums), an experimental song-based project influenced by avant rock, jazz and soundscape in seven nuanced pieces.

The third album from the genre-merging quintet The End of of Sofia Jernberg (vocals), Kjetil Moster (clarinet and tenor saxophone), Mats Gustafsson (flutes, baritone saxophone and electronics), Anders Hana (baritone and bass guitar) and Borge Fjordheim (drums), an experimental song-based project influenced by avant rock, jazz and soundscape in seven nuanced pieces.

A fascinating conceptual work on CD and printed score that attempts to sonically represent celestial events through guided improvisations, providing the performers an abstract of the main musical ideas and options on how to execute them, exploring microtonal sounds, harmonic interactions and sound as moments within physical boundaries, here in a studio realization in Zurich.

The music to composer Craig Shepards performance work that presents listeners with text drawn from court testimony in the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, here concentrating on the quiet long tones generated by wind instruments and ebow strings, where pure tones pass between the musicians to build a pulsating chord that then drops away tone by tone.

A tribute to legendary audio engineer George Belle (1948-2019) who worked with a who's who including Horace Tapscott, Jimmy Smith, Gene Rodenberry, &c., in a set of compositions from Mal Waldron, Albert Heath, Herbie Nichols plus original work from leader James Bennigton, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi, saxophonist James Cook, and group improvisations.

A diverse set of works from Australian composer Cat Hope, employing acoustic instrumentation--strings, keys, flutes, reeds & percussion--along with electronics and field recordings, in chamber configurations from duos to quintets, performed by the Western Australia Decibel new music ensemble for which Hope is both director and a performer.

Zurich tenor saxophonist & composer Christoph Irniger in his fourth album on the Intakt label with his creative and cooperative band Pilgrim of Stefan Aeby on piano, Dave Gisler on guitar, Raffaele Bossard on bass and Michael Stulz on drums, performing Irninger's lyrical and thoughtful compositions, along with one from bassist Raffaele Bossard.

Jazz flutist and composer Joe Melnicove, Israeli-born and living in NYC, is joined by his mentor George Garzone on tenor & soprano saxophones, Ben Street on bass and Billy Hart on drums, with Jerry Bergonzi joining on piano for one piece, as the band performs a set of lyrical and upbeat Melnicove original compositions along with one from Garzone and one from Liana Catalano-Garzone.

Excellent pacing with introspective richness and detail through five improvisations, as US pianist Thollem McDonas joins Portuguese improvisers Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, Bruno Parrinha on alto clarinet, Flak on acoustic guitar and Jose Oliveira on percussion for this studio recording in Lisbon, each passage reflecting a word from the title; inspired and beautiful.

Part of the 2022 trio tour of violinist Ernesto Rodrigues, cellist Guilherme Rodrigues and saxophonist Nuno Torres is this studio recording in Berlin with free jazz legendary pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach and drummer/percussionist Willi Kellers, each of the 9 improvisations named for mythical beasts, appropriate to the fearsome force of these five masterful players.

Adding Chicago cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm to their string-oriented improvisation, the Portuguese collaborative quartet of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola and crackle box, João Madeira on double bass, Flak on electric guitar and percussionist Jose Oliveira perform an 8-part suite of entwined strings and subtle punctuation, a selfless blending of masterful skill.

An unusual quintet of prominent New York improvisers--Peter Evans on trumpet, Tim Dahl on bass violin, Matt Nelson on tenor saxophone, and Ron Stabinsky on bass--performing Nandor Nevai's compositions: two Quintets and the two part "Sap Gloves"--Nevai performing on tenor sax, voice and conducting, blurring modern improv, chamber jazz and bizarre spoken word moments; outstanding and unsettling.

After receiving interest in joining the Evil Clown collective from Count Robot and DNA Girl (Deb Angelosanto), and in parallel from guitarist Tim Mungenast, collective director David Peck scheduled a session for this 7th Expanse album, adding drummer Michael Knoblach to complete this quintet configuration of the band's electric-oriented approach to space and restraint.

A quartet of collective improvisors focused on the merging of percussion and electronics from the Boston project Simulacrum in an extended transmigration, here with Bob Moores on guitar and synths, former Cecil Taylor bassist Albey onBass, keyboardist Eric Zinman also performing on drum kit, and David Peck on reeds, winds, electronics and percussive devices.

Simulacrum is an offshoot of Metal Chaos Ensemble featuring 3 the core members David Peck on reeds & winds, an arsenal of percussive devices & narration, Eric Woods on analog synth, and Bob Moores on space trumpet, guitar, & electronics, joined on this set by Michael Caglione on saxophones, plate gong & spring & chime rod boxes, and Joel Simches providing perturbations.

A mix of original compositions and collective improvisations from the NY trio of cornetist Kirk Knuffke, bassist Michael Bisio and pianist Matthew Shipp, in a double album of exemplary creative jazz from three players steeped in both tradition and forward-thinking approaches to improvisation, filled with spectacular playing from enthusiastic to introspective; a superb release.

Composer and tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis' exceptional Red Lily Quintet quintet (Kirk Knuffke on cornet; William Parker on bass; Chad Taylor on drums; Christopher Hoffman on cello) pays homage to gospel and jazz singer Mahalia Jackson through a suite of original Lewis compositions, reimagining some of Jackson's best known works; CD & LP issues include a bonus download track.

Composer and tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis' exceptional Red Lily Quintet quintet (Kirk Knuffke on cornet; William Parker on bass; Chad Taylor on drums; Christopher Hoffman on cello) pays homage to gospel and jazz singer Mahalia Jackson through a suite of original Lewis compositions, reimagining some of Jackson's best known works; CD & LP issues include a bonus download track.