Find Letter X, the eponymous release from the Brooklyn-based band led by drummer/composer Kate Gentile featuring saxophonist Jeremy Viner, pianist Matt Mitchell, and bassist Kim Cass. Gentile’s 2021 release Snark Horse – co-led with Mitchell – was a gargantuan six-volume set that Downbeat called “Monumental… Creating an abstract galaxy from scratch, they sound like they […]

Frédéric Maurin – direction, electronics Fanny Ménégoz – flute, alto flute, piccolo Catherine Delaunay – clarinet, basset horn Julien Soro – tenor saxophone, clarinet Fabien Debellefontaine – baritone saxophone, clarinet, flute Fabien Norbert – trumpet, flugelhorn Daniel Zimmermann – trombone Christiane Bopp – trombone Fanny Meteier – tuba Bruno Ruder – piano, synthesizer Stéphan Caracci […]

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

Mesmerism is a beautiful, swinging trio meeting led by drummer Tyshawn Sorey featuring two musicians whom he has considered his closest colleagues: pianist Aaron Diehl and bassist Matt Brewer. Sorey – a 2017 MacArthur Fellow, Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania, collaborator with Vijay Iyer, Kris Davis, Roscoe Mitchell, Hafez Modirzadeh, Myra Melford, […]

Continuing is drummer Tyshawn Sorey’s highly-anticipated follow-up to Mesmerism and The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism, his two critically-acclaimed 2022 release that features this avowed avant-gardist’s surprising forays into classic, swinging jazz. Those two releases were voted #4 and #5 best albums of the year, respectively, in the annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll of over […]