We All Break dedicates this album to the memory of pi bon zanmi nou Eddy Jean (1970—2020). Music composed by Ches Smith (Preposterous Bee Music, BMI). Song lyrics and melodies by Daniel Brevil (BMI) and traditional.

Celebrating the 20 year anniversary of highly revered Spiritual Jazz collective, Build An Ark from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 2001, they released albums and EPs between 2004 and 2010, Produced by Carlos Niño, including contributions from luminaries such Dwight Trible, Derf Reklaw, Nate Morgan, Phil Ranelin, Big Black, Adam Rudolph, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Dexter Story, Gaby Hernandez, Andres Renteria, Mia Doi Todd, Munyungo Jackson, Waberi Jordan, Avotcja, and many more.

It’s a kind of cathartic unburying of the subconscious. It absorbs particular mytho-spiritual features of South Indian Classical and Balinese Gamelan music and perhaps bridges sonic territories between post-jazz, experimental, and ambient music. It reflects on travels to places like Chennai, (studying oral traditions of South Indian classical music) Delphi, (exploring the myths of ancient Greece) and the Dordogne valley (delving into palaeolithic cave art of southern France).

A trio of legendary troubadours and innovators, trading blows as Tryp Tych Tryo presents a deep and pensive body of work that explores their inner worlds, experiences and perspectives as world-class musicians in a bespoke, conceptual improvisation. Jazz is most personal, is found and expressed in relation to and through one another.

Having plied his trade around the world for more than three decades, German guitarist, bandleader and musical explorer JJ Whitefield has always instilled in his craft a natural aesthetic of authenticity, a key component which has seen him amass a sizeable and varied catalogue of material which has remained timeless where some of his contemporaries have faded away.

Wadada Leo Smith defines his music as ‘Creative Music’, and his diverse discography reveals a recorded history of music centred in the idea of spiritual harmony and the unification of social and cultural issues of his world.

The first 12 volumes of our hugely popular Spiritual Jazz series have unearthed a wealth of historic recordings in the genre, collating a variety of works from the ‘50s to the ‘80s by artists from all around the world. And so, with Volume 13, we turn our attention to what’s happening NOW.

Spiritual Jazz 16is a focus on Riverside and its associated sister labels. Riverside itself was founded in 1953 by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, and became an important purveyor in that decade and beyond of what would be marketed as of modern jazz. That coinage was itself an amorphous, umbrella term that essentially created a demarcation from the vocabulary of pre-war classic jazz and inter-war big band swing, thus recognizing that improvising artists were breaking new creative ground that would subsequently give rise to a flurry of sub-genres, for example bebop, hard bop, cool, modal and Latin jazz. And it's from this multiplicity of sub-genres that we choose the deepest, most vibrant selections that the vast, pan-generational catalogue of Keepnews & Grauer has to offer.

“Fans of Alice Coltrane and Arthur Verocai will find succour in his ancient/modern arrangements.” 4/5 - Mojo

In January 2023, Tom Skinner and his ensemble performed material from his recently-released album 'Voices of Bishara' (Brownswood, IARC & Nonesuch, 2022) at London club “mu”— a venue founded by the curators at Brilliant Corners and named after the seminal Don Cherry live album. Their performance was augmented by three pieces by Abdul Wadud, whose 1977 self-released solo cello album, By Myself, was a primary inspiration for Voices of Bishara.

The title of Tom Skinner’s first release under his own name is a reference to cellist Abdul Wadud’s ultra-rare 1978 solo album ‘By Myself’, which Skinner listened to repeatedly during lockdown. Wadud’s album was privately pressed on his own label, Bisharra, and whilst Skinner’s title uses the more conventional spelling of this common Arabic name, they both have the same intention or meaning: it translates as ‘good news’, or ‘the bringer of good news’.

Kamasi Washington releases his new album, Fearless Movement, via Young. Washington calls Fearless Movement his dance album. “It’s not literal,” Washington says. “Dance is movement and expression, and in a way it’s the same thing as music—expressing your spirit through your body. That’s what this album is pushing.” Dance as an embodied form of expression signals a shift in focus for Washington. Where previous albums dealt with cosmic ideas and existential concepts, Fearless Movement focuses in on the everyday, an exploration of life on earth. This change in scope is due in large part to the birth of Washington’s first child a few years ago.

Channeling new age and spiritual jazz, the multidisciplinary artist’s debut solo album creates its own thoughtful and potent world with the help of many guests and many flutes.

Equal Spirits brings together a genre-defying mix of South African spiritual jazz, ambient improvised introspection, bursts of old-school hip-hop and electronica, soaring melodies, synths, samples and gospel-infused grooves, woven together with sung and spoken languages from Zulu, Sotho, Yoruba and Xhosa to Arabic and English.

'Altera Vita' is the first studio album by World renowned multi-award winning artists Tony Kofi (tenor saxophone) and Alina Bzhezhinska (harp) as a duo. The album is saxophone and harp in perfect harmony with Tony and Alina also providing the bulk of the percussion to accompany their recordings. Tony Kofi is widely recognized as one of the leading Jazz saxophonists in the UK and his duties include regularly lending his skills to legendary group Cymande for their live performances. Alina has been heralded as the "New Sound of Europe'' and the duo’s innovative and refreshing approach to recording is apparent on this album. The namesake and inspiration for this album; ‘Altera Vita’ (2023) was named in Downbeat’s jazz albums of 2023, which is very rare for a single release!