The second collaboration between pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson, six years after Crop Circles and a product of their tours together and the result of their both writing compositions specifically for their duo project, showing a level of communication that allows incredible inventiveness and moments of poignant exchange; exceptional.

Essentially a piano trio, Portuguese pianist and composer Leo Genovese leads his trio with Demian Cabaud on bass and renowned drummer Jeff Williams (Lookout Farm, Dave Liebman), also joined by Argentinian vocalist Nadia Larcheron for four pieces, Genovese's compositions using interesting structures that balance warmly lyrical and experimental approaches to modern jazz.

A document of bassoonist Sara Shoenbeck's collaborations recorded between 2019-2021 in recording studios across North America, showing the inspired curiosity she brings to improvisation through a diverse set of duos performed with Harris Eisenstadt, Nicole Mitchell, Nels Cline, Roscoe Mitchell, Matt Mitchell, Mark Dresser, Wayne Horvitz, Peggy Lee and Robin Holcomb.

Drummer and composer Chess Smith in a 2-CD set of pieces merging jazz and traditional vodou rhythms, the band featuring Matt Mitchell (piano), Miguel Zenón (saxophone), Nick Dunston (bass), Sirene Dantor Rene (lead vocals), with Daniel Brevil, Markus Schwartz and Fanfan Jean-Guy Rene all on Haitian tanbou drums & vocals, released in a hardshell box with booklets.

A 2nd season from composer, improviser & bassist William Parker, after his 2000 Thirsty Ear release Painter's Spring, this new trio album with drummer Hamid Drake, wind player Daniel Carter performing on trumpet, flute and reeds, and Parker himself on bass, trombonium & shakuhachi, paint the season with sound as they celebrate the winter through visionary jazz music.

New York free jazz master bassist and composer in his first electric guitar trio album as a leader, performed with the innovatively inventive and solid rhythms of Gerald Cleaver on drums and the blazing deep blues work Ava Mendoza on electric guitar, presented as part of Parker's Tone World chronicle of instrumental suites, here following Sun Ra's Space Way.

Named after an Ornette Coleman composition from his album of the same name, alto saxophonist Tim Berne leads his duel-saxophone quartet with Chris Speed on tenor saxophone and the rhythm section from The Bad Plus, drummer Dave King and bassist Reid Anderson, through twelve melodic free jazz works honoring the legacy of Coleman, Redman, Haden & Hemphill.

An exemplary collective piano trio from Stephan Crump on acoustic bass, Kris Davis on piano and Eric McPherson on drums, their 2nd album as Borderlands Trio, recording in the studio for four exceptional, extended improvisations with an innate sense of lyricism and free flowing exchange of confident interaction, developing elegantly warm grooves and melodic progressions; beautiful.

The 4th album from saxophonist & bass clarinetist Silke Ebherard with her long-running powerhouse trio of Jan Roder on bass and Kay Lübke on drums, presenting all Eberhard compositions showing her strong writing voice under the influence of jazz greats like Dolphy, Mingus and Coleman, through nine well-balanced pieces from bluesy introspection to burning freedom.

Two decades after his last solo album, Michael Formanek returned to the studio to record these nine solo bass improvisations, each a profound spontaneous composition realizing structures and melodic development that incorporate journeys from abstraction into logical narrative territory as we follow the muse of a one of modern jazz' greatest bassists.

Taking his Bay Area trio with bassist Jason Hoopes and drummer Jordan Glenn on the "Road", guitarist and improviser Fred Frith first presents the trio itself in a wonderfully diverse extended set at the Week-End Fest in Koln, Germany; then invites trumpeter Susana Santos Silva at Old Cabell Hall in University of Virginia; and then saxophonist Lotte Anker at Altes Kino in Ebersberg, Germany.

With a clarity in both improvising and in composing, NY tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis' second album with the rock solid quartet of Aruan Ortiz on piano, Brad Jones on bass and Chad Taylor on drums further explores his concepts of Molecular systematic music through powerfully solid compositions that lead to both lyrical and ardent soloing; exceptional.

This 1995 double CD presents the London Jazz Composer's Orchestra 1987 performances at Rote Fabrik, in Zurich, Switzerland and at the 1988 Taktlos-Festival, in a large ensemble that included Barre Philips, Dave Holland, Paul Lytton, Tony Oxley, Howard Riley, Evan Parker, Paul Dunmall, Trevor Watts, Paul Rutherford, Radu Malfatti, Jon Corbett, Phillip Wachsmann, &c.

After a series of performances in Europe in 2020, the duo of German saxophonist Angelika Niescier (Angelika Niescier sublim) and British pianist Alexander Hawkins recorded this passionately charged and intimate duo at the Loft in Koln, Germany, finding the two in a high-speed dance of weaving notes and ardent expression, a brilliant set from two virtuoso players.

Perhaps one of the most complex piano trios active, Punkt.vrt.Plastik--Kaja Draksler on two different upright pianos, Petter Eldh on bass and Christian Lillinger on drums--explore unusual rhythmic approaches to jazz in exciting exchanges that fracture melody with rapidly veering impulse, always pulling back to reveal the mastery of their inventive playing.

A collection of jazz standards performed with a modern approach to free playing, updating these essential melodies for the 21st century while adhering to their original warmth, from drummer Tom Rainey's exceptional New York Obligatto band of Ingrid Laubrock on saxophones, Ralph Alessi on trumpet, Drew Gress on bass, and Jacob Sacks on piano.

Having performed together a number of times in festivals both in Europe and Chicago, the duo of drummer Hamid Drake and pianist Irene Schweizer reveals the familiarity and confidence their history brings to their improvisations, both in intense exchanges and playful melodic passages, as heard in this exemplary 2019 concert at Jazzgallery, in Nickelsdorf, Austria.

An absolutely impressive album of solo clarinet improvisations from reedist Chris Speed, known well for his saxophone work, here he displays inventive and implicitly lyrical approaches to this challenging reed instrument through great discipline, tone & technical skill as he presents succinct works inspired by John Coltrane, Julius Hemphill, Eric Dolphy and Paul Motion, &c.

Informed by the traditions of creative jazz; an interest in unusual time signatures; the music of Hinudstani and Brazil; through drummer Dan Weiss the influence of Indian Classical music; through Steve Coleman and Five Element compatriot, guitarist Miles Ozaki, an urban electric edge; making for an album both technically interesting and musically absolutely rewarding.

As part of NY composer, guitarist, bassist, saxophonist and electroacoustic artist Elliott Sharp's 70th birthday observation he performed a series of concerts under the moniker "E#@70", initiating the series with this remarkable concert at Roulette, premiering 4 new works performed by his SysOrk ensemble, dedicated to performing Sharp's algorithmic scores, graphic notation and conductions.

The pre-apocalyptic intertwining story of a woman named Reiko, living in a city scarred by climate change and burdened with the imminent threat of viruses, wandering the streets haunted by demons, abstractly envisioned in sound through stunningly effective electronics, field recordings, and developed in parts with Michel Banabila and Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek).

An album celebrating the unconquerable sun, imagined through rhythm, reeds, bass and sonic landscape, composed by Antwerp double bassist Hannes d'Hoine with multi-reedist Hanne De Backer on bass clarinet & baritone saxophone, slowly unfolding in light and dark tones and steady momentum, neither ambient nor excessive but richly building arrangements through which light emerges.

Featuring two pianists--Judith Wegmann and Marlies Debacker--and two percussionists--Lukas Briner and Nicolas Wolf (a duo who play concerts in the dark under the name of Night Shadow Noise)--in collective improvisations of two pianists or as a quartet of duel pianists and drummers, for seven exciting and sophisticated recordings of instant composition.

Never-before released recordings of tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler's 1966 band recording in his home town of Cleveland at club La Cave, recorded over two nights in a superb sextet with brother Donald on trumpet, Frank Wright on tenor sax, Michel Samson on violin, Clyde Shy on double bass and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums, performing Ayler's compositions and Don Cherry's "D.C.".

Drummer Hampus Ohman-Frolund (Apuh!) leads the Huvudbry septet of structured rock forms, with an intriguing orchestration of trumpet, lap steel, double bass, guitars, keyboard and voice, using intervals of unusual sonic experimentation and field recordings to create a unique album that bassist Mats Dimming refers to as "A mix of Captain Beefheart, Yann Tiersen & Swedish House Mafia".

Essentially a solo album from composer and improviser based in NYC Hampus Öhman-Frölund, this extended work uses a zither as its basis, augmented by a MicroKorg and the voice of Huvudbry bandmate Avery Leigh Draut, using no set tempo and framed and inspired around a picture of the woods near where Öhman-Frölund grew up; really lovely and inspired work.

The first collaboration between Brooklyn-based experimental improvising drummer Hampus Ohman-Frolund (Apuh!) and guitarist John Lindaman (True Love Always), blurring rock forms and experimental electronics into a hybrid space rock that takes unexpected twists and turns, with the goal to produce compelling psychedelic inspired sound; headphones recommended!

An intensely experimental journey in sound through guitars, electronics and percussion from the Brooklyn-based duo of John Lindaman and Hampus Ohman, a diverse set of pieces improvised using sound sculpting, noise and melodic elements, creating a great balance between darkness and light amidst solid conceptual and technical approaches to their instruments.

With many parallels to and collaborative work with Henry Threadgill, cellist Christopher Hoffman pens eight dynamic compositions for his superb quintet of Bryan Carrott on vibraphone, Rashaan Carter on bass, Craig Weinrib on drums and David Virelles on piano, merging melodic approaches to creative jazz with interesting structures and virtuosic soloing from all performers.

Recorded in 2021, one of late New York bassist Mario Pavone's final studio albums sees the composer extending his Direct Trio of pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Tyshawn Sorey with trumpeter Dave Ballou, a longtime collaborator who brings an additional level of lyrical excitement and sophistication to the group's work, in 9 substantial compositions and collective works.

An upbeat and energetic album of modern creative jazz compositions from Cuban-American saxophonist, woodwind player, and composer/improviser David Leon, leading his Aire De Agua with Sonya Belaya on piano, Florian Herzog on bass and Stephen Boegehold on drums, performing Leon's intricate compositions that elucidate each player's voice and great skill.

In a study of memory and the way we alter or prioritize what we remember, NY guitarist Wendy Eisenberg composed this intimately personal long form text score in four movements to be memorized and then performed using the nonlinear randomness of recollection, recorded in two performances at Firehouse 12 in 2019, once on acoustic guitar and once on banjo.

Brooklyn-based composer, bassist, and writer Nick Dunston in his debut album, blending jazz, contemporary, chamber and avant forms, in a uniquely voiced quintet with Louna Dekker-Vargas on flutes & piccolo, Ledah Finck on violin & viola, Tal Yahalom on guitar, and Stephen Boegehold on drums, in a sophisticated album of concisely fascinating compositions.

Recorded on the 7th of 8 concerts in a tour with the electroacoustic-improvising trio of Jason Kahn on percussion & electronics, Greg Davis on percussion & electronics and Jon Mueller on percussion & tape, an exemplary performance of close listening, highly textured and evolving ea-improv, each motion subtle and contributing to a richly diverse journey.

Known for his ensemble The Big Machine with Peter Evans, Carlos Homs, &c., NYC saxophonist Aaron Burnett steps out for a solo album of intense improvisatory exploration, demonstrating his background in classical saxophone studies that fuels an ardent intensity in personal expression, a tremendous balance between technique and passion.

Extending her interest in new forms for the solo viola, augmented by effects and voice, New York composer and improviser Jessica Pavone's fourth solo album of composed viola pieces is the result of years of concentrated long tone practice and an interest in repetition, song form and sympathetic vibration, a uniquely, sometimes quirky, and compelling album.

The second release from the New York-based OGJB Quartet of Oliver Lake on alto saxophone, Graham Haynes on cornet & electronics, Joe Fonda on double bass and Barry Altschul on drums & percussion, an exceptional band of masterful and legendary improvisers each contributing compositions for the album along with two collective improvisations; solid and superb.

Focusing on two collective improvisations for pianist Cecil Taylor, three renowned improvisers who worked with Taylor in his groups and ensembles--drummer Andrew Cyrille, double bassist William Parker and flugelhornist Enrico Rava--each bring original compositions alongside one jazz standard to this well-balanced album of consummate, creative jazz.

The first of two planned volumes from the quartet of John Dikeman on tenor saxophone, Pat Thomas on piano, John Edwards on bass and Steve Noble on drums, bringing the American saxophonist working throughout Europe together with this nearly telepathic collaborative grouping of UK frequent collaborators, captured in concert at Cafe OTO in 2019 for two absorbing improvisations.

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The improvising string duo of stalwart London improvisers, Daniel Thompson on acoustic guitar and Phil Durrant on the octave mandola, are heard in two settings of texturally rich, intricate interactions, first at Cafe OTO in 2022 for an extended improvisation, then at Cable Street Studios two months later for six succint, impressively diverse dialogs.