Out September 28th: Apex, the two-alto saxophone conclave of Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green! The CD features Jason Moran, Francois Moutin, Damion Reid and the legendary Jack DeJohnette! Check out the preview HERE.

posted August 10, 2010 by Yulun

Find out what interests the ever-fascinating Steve Coleman in these interviews with Josh Jackson on WBGO’s The Checkout and Jason Crane’s The Jazz Session.

posted August 10, 2010 by Yulun

The new release from Steve Coleman: Harvesting Semblances and Affinities has been receiving some incredible press. The Wall Street Journal’s Larry Blumenfeld calls the CD “dazzling” in his fine profile on Steve.

In a great review of the Undead Jazz Festival in The New York Times, Ben Ratliff wrote of Steve Coleman: “But it was hard for anything to top Mr. Coleman’s set… Whatever this festival represents, he’s one of the regents of it; his recombinant ideas about rhythm and form and his eagerness to mentor musicians and …build a new vernacular have had a profound effect on American jazz. Playing new music from a fascinating new record, “Harvesting Semblances and Affinities” (Pi), his sextet made Sullivan Hall, unbearably hot, a kind of pure-art pressure chamber… Above all, the band was an amazing system. Sweating through my clothes, I heard couple of good musicians behind me — there was almost always one within arm’s reach — reacting with kind of sickened wonder. “What is going on up there?” one asked, sounding almost worried. Exactly.”

Finally, the June issue of Jazz Times asks on the cover “Steve Coleman: The most influential figure since Coltrane?” Well, we certainly think so.

posted June 22, 2010 by Yulun

We’re proud to welcome the incredibly influential saxophonist/composer Steve Coleman to the Pi Recordings family with his release Harvesting Semblances and Affinities. Steve serves as the logical link between the original AACM masters on the label such as Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill and Roscoe Mitchell and the new generation of ace musician/composers Rudresh Mahanthappa, Vijay Iyer and Steve Lehman. The New York Times has already called the CD “bracing” and The Wall Street Journal calls it “dazzling.” Please check it out!

posted June 12, 2010 by Yulun

Some recent interesting Henry Threadgill stuff on the Internet: A nice interview with Jason Crane on The Jazz Session and a great VIDEO of Zooid performing at Roulette.

Also, Elliot Humberto Kavee, Zooid’s drummer and also erstwhile member of both the Rudresh Mahanthappa Quartet and Fieldwork, gets a great feature in Modern Drummer magazine. Check the stuff out!

posted May 9, 2010 by Yulun

Ben Ratliff of The New York Times wrote a fantastic review of Rudresh Mahanthappa and Bunky Green’s Apex premier show at the Jazz Standard in NYC. The band is in the studio today and tomorrow recording for Pi Recordings. Look for the release, featuring Jason Moran and Jack DeJohnette, in the fall.

posted April 22, 2010 by Seth

A must read article by Amir ElSaffar in All About Jazz about what he and Hafez Modirzadeh are trying to achieve musically on Radif Suite. Check it out!

posted April 18, 2010 by Yulun

Amir ElSaffar and Hafez Modirzadeh’s Radif Suite was selected by Nate Chinen as part of his New York Times critic’s Playlist column! Chinen writes: “The two leaders pursue the sort of brash polyphony once synonymous with Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman, and now open for sharply rigorous adaptation.”

posted April 5, 2010 by Yulun

Check out the really fascinating article by Amir Elsaffar in the most recent issue of All About Jazz New York (on page 13) discussing the theories behind his new CD Radif Suite. There is also a review of the CD in the same issue.

posted April 1, 2010 by Intern

Pi Recordings is proud to announce the new release from Amir ElSaffar and Hafez Modirzadeh: Radif Suite. The release has already been praised as:

“A rewarding collection thick with ideas and inspiration”
LA Times
“A new grammar for composition and improvisation”
Dusted Magazine

The CD is available for purchase from the website.

posted March 25, 2010 by Intern