24 Bit Julian Lage

Nels Cline is a major force as a guitarist and improviser, ever since he debuted on record in 1978 and as a leader in 1988. Named by Rolling Stone as one of 20 “new guitar gods” and one of the top 100 guitarists of all time, Cline has gained his widest fame as a member of acclaimed rock band Wilco since 2004. With ROOM, Cline returns to Mack Avenue label, creating a world of melodic beauty but also hard sonic edges and technical brilliance in the company of Julian Lage. At just 26, Lage has taken the world of jazz guitar by storm. The New York Times hails the “disarming spirit of generosity” in Lage’s music and notes the young guitarist’s "roots tangled up in jazz, folk, classical and country music".

For the 2018 opening celebration of the Berklee Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice, Teri Lyne Carrington asked her students to select and perform songs from the famed jazz Real Book - a compilation of lead sheets or scores of jazz standards - written by women composers. When she released there was only one in the entire book, Carrington, a Grammy Award winning virtuoso jazz drummer, composer, inter-disciplinary artist, activist and educator, who has worked tirelessly over the last decade to advocate for inclusivity and raise the voice of women, trans and non-binary people in jazz, set out to shift the narrative.

Recorded at the Village Vanguard on May 27 and 28th, 2022.

“How often do we step back and realize what a gift it is to have this music in our life?” asks acclaimed trumpeter, composer and Greenleaf Music founder Dave Douglas. On Gifts, his newest Greenleaf project, Douglas harnesses that feeling of simple wonder with a new book of pieces and four intriguing takes on Strayhorn songs, premiering a new quartet with poll-sweeping tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and two members of the Oscar-nominated post-rock trio Son Lux: guitarist Rafiq Bhatia and drummer Ian Chang. The sound is harmonically spacious, with no bass, but a full, sonically adventurous guitar palette from Bhatia that frames the group’s trumpet-tenor melodic concept in fresh and unexpected ways.

Rather beautiful this poetic solo guitar album from Danish player Casper Hejlesen. Just 23, from northern Jutland, he studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Amsterdam Conservatory and the Jazz Institute of Berlin and is completing a jazz masters in Trondheim. Influenced by Jakob Bro, Julian Lage, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Ted Greene there's a lot of poise and weight in these balladic tracks some of which neatly fold in quite ambiently atmospheric overdubs and sport strong sonic production values. Hejlesen debuted four years ago with the album Overture. On the upcoming album there's a beautifully harmonised version of the standard 'Body and Soul' one of the highlights here as is the highly endearing 'Waltz van Amsterdam'.

The follow-up album to his GRAMMY-winning Tree Falls, the pianist-composer-bandleader’s ninth album and GroundUP Music label debut boasts twin masters in each instrumental slot—featured guest (vocalist Lisa Fischer, trumpeter Terence Blanchard); vocals (Gretchen Parlato, Becca Stevens); saxophone (Ben Wendel, Dayna Stephens); guitar (Charles Altura,

Celebrating the life-giving power of light, the Lux Quartet is an exploratory new quartet co-led by two of the most celebrated and visionary artists in modern improvised music: pianist Myra Melford and drummer Allison Miller. Drawing on a shared passion for the preservation of nature and a boundary-stretching approach to music, the two innovative composers and bandleaders are joined by saxophonist Dayna Stephens and bassist Scott Colley, together crafting a sonic environment that glows with its own intense yet nurturing radiance.

Saxophonist Charles Lloyd is a musical free spirit and visionary, unique in the international music scene for more than six decades and still in full possession of his creative powers at the age of 84. As productive as ever, Lloyd released a live album in 2020 with "8: Kindred Spirits", which was included in numerous album leaderboards of the year, recorded on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 2018.

The third full-length from Margaret Glaspy, Echo The Diamond emerged from a deliberate stripping-away of artifice to reveal life for all its harsh truths and ineffable beauty. Like the precious gem of its title, the result is an object of startling luminosity, one capable of cutting through the most elaborately constructed façades. “This record came from trying to meet life on life’s terms, instead of looking for a happy ending in everything,” says the New York-based musician. “The whole experience of creating it felt like effortless catharsis.”

El Siempre Mar, the latest output from heralded pianist Emilio Solla and in-demand saxophonist and vocalist Antonio Lizana. El Siempre Mar follows the critical reception of Solla’s Latin GRAMMY® Award-winning Puertos (2019), the rapturous, propulsive fruits of his 17-piece Tango Jazz Orchestra. Upholding his devotion toward Tango music and its history on his 13th leader recording, the multi-GRAMMY nominated Solla returns alongside the prolific Lizana for a virtuous welding of jazz-infused, cross-continental Latin styles.