By the time Joni Mitchell made The Hissing of Summer Lawns, she had already entered the pantheon of the greats, with albums that can be talked about in casual conversation without having to say the artist (Court and Spark, Blue, Ladies of the Canyon, et al.). But the pioneering work in alt-folk and self-confessional singer-songwriting done, she started pushing her music in radical directions, incorporating jazz, African music (which was hard to actually hear in the States in the ‘70s) and a new, sprawling vision of pop music into her fold. The first moment that all those styles converge and lift Mitchell off into some new vista is The Hissing of Summer Lawns, an album we believe to be her masterpiece, an album that has tendrils of influence that are still being felt today. Remastered by Ryan Smith at 2xLP 45RPM from original tapes, this edition has to be heard to be believed.

The multi-award-winning tenor saxophonist, bandleader and composer Nubya Garcia’s new album, Odyssey, is out Sept. 20 (Concord Jazz). Following her critically acclaimed debut album, SOURCE, Odyssey is a majestic feat that blends orchestral arrangements with R&B, jazz and dub. Produced by Garcia in collaboration with Kwes, Garcia returns with Joe Armon-Jones (keys), Daniel Casimir (bass), Sam Jones (drums). Featured guests include Esperanza spalding, Georgia Anne Muldrow and more.

Asha Parkinson's vibrant, genre-busting LP Possession is a cinematic exploration of states of possession, blending Jazz, Contemporary Classical, Flamenco, Mediterranean, and Arab music. Tracks combine the intensity of a symphony with the concision of a pop single, addressing themes from obsessive love to mystical inspiration. Influences include fairy tales, Tolstoy, Huxley, Rumi, and the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic. The album features her Kalpadruma ensemble, a 14-piece mini orchestra combining jazz quintet, string quartet, woodwind, voice, and the distinctive qanun, showcasing melodic, rhythmically sophisticated, and sometimes groove-based material with Asha's inspired saxophone playing.

Acid jazz pioneer Chris Bangs returns with a brand new album for 2024, following his early-2023 release ‘Firebird’, and 2022’s collaboration with Mick Talbot, ‘Back To Business’. His latest long-player ‘Dream World’ is set for release on the Acid Jazz label on 20 September – a characteristic font of latin jazz from the maestro producer.

As a composer and bandleader, trumpeter David Weiss is dedicated to the proposition that there are still new stories to be told from within the bebop tradition. The several collaborative bands he's spearheaded over the last three decades—including the superband, The Cookers—are towering examples, but none more personal to his voice than this ongoing Sextet.

The album Who We Are is the first studio recording of the collaboration between pianist Leif Ove Andsnes and saxophonist/composer Marius Neset. They are joined on the record by flautist Ingrid Softeland Neset and cellist Louisa Tuck. The music, composed by Neset, was recorded at Oslo's Rainbow Studio in the course of three days in December, 2023.

This is the repeated call and the rallying chorus of the nearly 40-minute centerpiece to composer and percussionist Asher Gamedze’s new album Constitution. The expansive double album, a minoritarian fellowship in breath, is Gamedze’s follow-up to 2023’s Turbulence and Pulse (IARC0057/M3H013), and his first with The Black Lungs, a ten-piece ensemble. The album – recorded in one day at Cape Town’s Sound and Motion Studios – is an elaboration of the possibilities of autonomous constitution in and through polyrhythmic, modal, large ensemble music.

This debut from a Mexico City free jazz quartet sheds light on that region’s often-overlooked avant-garde music scene. Here, dueling saxophones provide discordant and angular melodies over solid irregular rhythmic patterns from double bass and drums. Sonically, Tulpas finds a balance between Euro-improv and American jazz, with structures that sound like they are about to fall apart but somehow manage to be coherent. Recorded live in 2021, Atisbo documents a fresh perspective on the scene’s veterans and new voices alike. The album will be released on September 13 by Astral Spirits.

Michael Ikhifa, also known as Mikifa Sax or simply Miki Ikhifa, is a Lagos, Nigeria-based saxophonist renowned for his versatile musical talent. Ikhifa's musical journey began in 1994 within the church, where he initially played the keyboard. Over time, he mastered a range of instruments including the bass guitar, electric and acoustic guitars, drums, and ultimately the saxophone. Ikhifa's style is deeply influenced by Jazz, Rock, and classical music. His mentors have played a significant role in shaping his approach to music, although specific names are not mentioned, their impact is evident in his performances and compositions.

Prayer for What Remains is pianist/composer, Leslie Pintchik’s eighth album. In a personal note that follows the liner notes of her new album, Pintchik writes that the title track “was inspired by a photo taken by the war photographer Joseph Eid. In it, a man smoking a pipe in Aleppo, Syria sits in his bombed-out bedroom, listening to music on a manual gramophone that operates without electricity. A tragic image of war, yes, but one that Eid said ‘talks about life’ as well.” When she listened in the studio to the playback of “Prayer for What Remains”, Pintchik says she was especially moved by the performance of the musicians who played “so true to the tune’s emotional core.”

Recorded live at legendary Cliff Bell’s in Detroit at the end their tour through Canada, the northeast and Midwest, Michael Sarian’s Quartet, with Santiago Leibson on piano, Marty Kenney on bass, and Nathan Ellman-Bell on drums, performed a selection of songs from their previous two records, as well as a few of Sarian’s new compositions featuring gritty swing, Armenian sensibilities and ample room for group exploration and interplay.

Paradise Cinema is a project led by multi-instrumentalist Jack Wyllie (Portico Quartet/Szun Waves) with contributions from Khadim Mbaye, Tons Sambe and Laurence Pike. The first, eponymous, Paradise Cinema record, released in 2020, was recorded in Dakar and featured the dense rhythms of Mbalax music combining with Wyllie’s textural saxophone and synth playing.

This perfectly harmonising duo focuses on strong contrasts and thrives on empathy and intense exchanges. – Deutschlandfunk. Having previously joined forces on several Louis Sclavis recordings for ECM, including the clarinettist’s last album Characters On A Wall, in recent years Sclavis and pianist Benjamin Moussay increasingly focused on their two-way communication, playing expansive and well-received concerts throughout Europe. Now, in a programme of originals – two-thirds from the pianist’s pen, the remaining third by the clarinettist – the French duo dreams up a world of chamber conversations that juxtaposes lyrical contemplation with whimsical inventiveness in a joyous, concentrated collaboration. Thoughtfully, the duo envelopes delicate themes in warm improvisations that never rush, but patiently explore the written material with rare creativity and in fluid dialogues. Recorded at Studios La Buissonne, Southern France in March 2024, Unfolding was produced by Manfred Eicher.

“Pure beauty is the common tone of Trygve Seim and Frode Haltli. There is something folk-song-like in this music – intersections where secular and sacred music meet to dance”. This is what the German weekly paper Die Zeit said on the duo’s debut release Yeraz back in 2008 and while the statement still holds up today, the rapport between the saxophonist and the accordionist has grown even more fluid in the meantime. On Our Time Trygve and Frode exchange counterpuntal glances, lyrical swells and textural explorations with grace, eloquence and utmost nuance, presenting a programme of originals, improvisations and evocative recastings of traditional folk songs from Ukraine and North-India. Recorded at the Himmelfahrtskirche in Munich, in 2023, and produced by Manfred Eicher, on Our Time the saxophonist and accordionist’s tones meet in a surreal and magical dance.

Idiosyncratic, large-scale and in its fundamental disposition one of a kind, Florian Weber’s Imaginary Cycle, conceived for the unique instrumentation of brass ensemble and piano, is a hybrid of multiple musical languages that seamlessly blends the harmonious with the oblique.