This month was a mix of expectedly excellent releases and surprising standouts. Also worth mentioning is Calligram Records, a label founded last year that is producing some stellar recordings. Kris Davis’s Pyroclastic Records has quickly become a leading source for topnotch projects, including two releases this month that very well may earn some “best of the year” honors. As always there were more releases this month than I could cover here, including albums by: Jake Blount & Mali Obomsawin, John Chin, Alden Hellmuth, Walter Smith III, Mike Stern, Micah Thomas, David Weiss, and Alice Zawadzki. Drummer Dafnis Prieto — my colleague at the Frost School of Music — also released an album this month; he and I recently sat down to talk about for a forthcoming piece I’m publishing to this site. I’ll also publish separately a review of Caroline Davis’s new Portals record, another September release not to be missed.

Feel free to share your favorites from this month in the comments below and if there’s an upcoming release that you’d like me to feature, you can reach out here.

Thanks for reading!

The Month in Review – September 2024

When I travelled to New York this Summer for book research, I arrived just in time for the Eric Dolphy symposium at the New School. As part of the performance schedule Patricia Brennan played a solo set that stood out as particularly excellent amid 48 hours of star-studded programming. Before this record that solo set was the only music of Brennan’s that I had heard, though she appears on some of my favorite albums of 2024 (Braufman, Infinite Love, Infinite Tears; Crump, Slow Water; Halvorson, Cloudward; and Okazaki, Miniature America). Without a doubt Breaking Stretch belongs in the conversation for best releases of the year and, for all she’s accomplished in 2024, Brennan deserves a host of accolades. Musicians often have a first-call list for hiring the personnel they’d most like to work with; and it’s clear from her recent activity that Brennan is on many. I’ll admit to having a “first listen” list: artists whose work is so consistently exceptional that their existing records stay in my listening rotation perennially and their new releases always go to the top of the pile. For the stellar personnel, thrilling performances, and imaginative compositions, I’d suggest putting Patricia Brennan and Breaking Stretch on yours.

The visionary behind Pyroclastic Records, pianist Kris Davis released her most recent record as bandleader this month. Run the Gauntlet is a tribute dedicated to six women pianists personally and professionally influential for Davis: Geri Allen, Carla Bley, Marilyn Crispell, Angelica Sanchez, Sylvie Courvoisier and Renee Rosnes. Clearly in top form — as a composer, improviser, bandleader, and label exec — Davis is reflecting back on these influential musicians who have supported and lifted her up (as she is now doing for others via her leadership at Pyroclastic). But Run the Gauntlet doesn’t look back or get lost in nostalgia for a moment. On the contrary, Davis — together with drummer Johnathan Blake and bassist Robert Hurst — offers fresh ideas, engaging compositions, and abundant energy to the classic piano trio format and the pantheon of great ensembles and recordings of the past. As she pays tribute to six, specific musicians, Davis also honors the tradition of innovation that, more than any one sound or artist, defines this music.

Trombonist Ryan Kerberle is on my “first listen” list, too. Last year’s Considerando was one of my favorites of 2023; and, based on how much I’ve continued to listen to it this year, Shooting Star–Étoile Filante (the latest release by Reverso, the group he co-leads with pianist Frank Woeste and cellist Vincent Courtois) should have been. As Kris Davis pays homage to some of her predecessors on Run the Gauntlet, Bright Moments also finds Keberle in a reflective mood: the album’s tracks are a selection of compositions written during his first 25 years in New York City with updated arrangements for an octet of artists who frequently appear on the Positone label, including saxophonists Diego Rivera and Michael Dease, and a rhythm section of Art Hirahara (piano), Boris Kozlov (bass), and Rudy Royston (drums). The performers’ skills — Keberle including — are readily apparent on Bright Moments; moreover, I think it’s a tremendous credit to Keberle as a composer that he continues to hear and realize new possibilities in his own work.

As I’ve mentioned before on this website, the book project that I’m researching and writing was originally inspired by the histories of jazz musicians’ intercultural collaborations. As co-founder of Brooklyn Raga Massive, violinist Arun Ramamurthy offers a seasoned perspective on this approach to improvisational music-making. In his comments about New Moon‘s release Ramamurthy talks about all the different musical and cultural influences he has synthesized throughout his life and how, at times, it’s been difficult to feel grounded as an individual whose life and interests are pointing in so many directions. On this album he pays homage to his maternal grandmother Aaji who, in his words, “reminded me that there’s only ONE me.” And so New Moon represents his journey toward a holistic artistic vision that reflects the singularity of that ONE-ness. This vision is apparent in the compositional and improvisational languages that Ramamurthy articulates but also in the empathetic contributions of his bandmates, bassist Damon Banks and drummer Sameer Gupta (whom I had the pleasure of meeting and conversing with during the same NYC research trip when I first heard Patricia Brennan). The result is a beautiful synergy, a compelling and inspiring artistic offering that offers us all an opportunity to listen attentively and to reflect on our own journeys “mov[ing] together based on feel and intuition, conscious of our surroundings but with full force and intention.”

Additional releases to check out …! …! …!

Ainon, Within (WeJazz), released September 6th.

• Over the past year the Swedish label WeJazz has established itself as a constant source for imaginative and groundbreaking recordings. Ainon’s Within is yet another—a thrilling and immensely satisfying surprise from the Finnish quartet described as “avantgarde chamber jazz…that echoes the legacy of the likes of Abdul Wadud and Jimmy Giuffre.”

Geof Bradfield, Colossal Abundance (Calligram), released September 6th.

• This is a stand-out release from Calligram, one of the finest sessions of their first year led by one of the label’s founders. The record features thoughtful compositions and re-imagined arrangements of works John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Henry Threadgill and Jaki Byard, as well as a celebration of Bradfield’s collaborations, research, and connections to music from the African continent.

Anat Cohen, Bloom (Anzic), released September 27th.

• Another stunning release by clarinetist Anat Cohen with her group Quartetinho (with Tal Mashiach on bass and guitar, Vitor Gonçalves on piano and accordion, and James Shipp on vibraphone and percussion). A champion of Brazilian music, Cohen expands on that repertoire specialty with arrangements of Thelonious Monk’s “Trinkle, Tinkle” and Paraguayan guitarist-composer Augustín Barrios Mangoré’s classic “La Catedral.”

Bill Frisell, Andrew Cyrille, & Kit Downes, Breaking the Shell (Red Hook), released September 27th.

• I have Andrew Cyrille to thank for his role in one of the best concerts I’ve ever heard. That show changed the way I listened to “creative music.” I’m not used to hearing Frisell in “freer” contexts…and neither of them with pipe organ. I had no expectations when I turned Breaking the Shell on, except maybe that these masters would make music I wanted to check out. I think that might be the best way to come to any record…regardless of whether we recognize the personnel. Breaking the Shell surprised and delighted at every turn; and it’s definitely worth checking out.

Nubya Garcia, Odyssey (Concord Jazz), released September 20th.

• Garcia, the UK-based saxophonist who blends jazz, R&B, and dub invites Georgia Ann Muldrow and Esperanza Spalding as guests on this album. Odyssey is full of energy and adventurous in its genre-bending embrace of “jazz” as part of much larger tradition of Afrodiasporic popular music across time and (geographic) space. It’s music much too fresh for moldy figs.

Leo Genovese, Demian Cabaud, & Marcos Cavaleiro, Estrellero 2 (Sunnyside), released September 13th.

• Through a rich collection of original compositions this trio record reflects its members’ connections to communities around the globe through personal histories, professional travels, musical fascinations, and political sympathies…all bound together by intimate bonds of kinship that animate all the most compelling collaborative projects.

Rich Goldstein, Into the Blue (Truth Revolution), released September 27th.

• Goldstein’s debut for Truth Revolution finds just the right balance between individual virtuosity, responsive accompaniment, and the joy that comes with making music that grooves hard with musicians who excel at both. All of that energy translates to the listener…which isn’t always easy with a recording. Into the Blue is a lot of fun.

Jeremy Ledbetter, Gravity (CaneFire), released September 13th.

• Toronto-based pianist Jeremy Ledbetter — and his trio — were new to me and one of this month’s pleasant discoveries. Gravity is another album that traverses musical geographies, drawing on several Latin American cultures and song traditions, a reflection of Ledbetter’s travels and award-winning collaborations.

Nichunimu, Calados (577), released September 20th.

• One of my favorite releases — and surprise discoveries — from early this year was by Chilean trumpeter Benjamin Vergara. He returns to TRoS this month with his co-led group Nichunimu for another solid release on 577 Records. Calados consists of three long tracks teeming with invention and spanning an enormous spectrum of timbres, densities, instrumentations, and atmospheres. After these two records, I’m not sure I could articulately describe Vergara’s artistic ethos but I’m certain that I love lingering in his sonic worlds.

Ben Solomon, Echolocation (Giant Step Arts), released September 20th.

• One of two recordings Solomon released this month on Giant Step Arts, Echolocation is an homage to some of Solomon’s mentors and inspirations. The record is very much in dialogue with jazz traditions, sometimes via inference and sonic similarity…and at other times via direct quotation. This is an excellent date featuring Solomon on tenor sax, Davis Whitfield on piano, Rashaan Carter on bass, and Kush Abadey on drums.

Jason Stein, Anchors (Tao Forms), released September 13th.

• As a performer with a chronic injury, I’m particularly empathetic to Jason Stein’s personal journey with and recovery from career-threatening health conditions. (My interest was also piqued because I happen to be in the midst of a deep dive into the music of the Chicago-based Natural Information Society, a group with which he’s been performing since 2017). In Anchors I find both inspiration and solace in the compelling and vulnerable music he’s written and performed. Anchor‘s reverberating acoustics lend it a sense of groundedness on Earth and in the body. Echoing Milford Graves’s work, the musicians’ virtuosic interplay of breath-infused woodiness amplify Stein’s narratives about healthful and holistic approaches to music as a healing art.