Cyndi Maxey And Kevin O'connor

‘New American Suite’ from the newly form trio Kevin Toney 3 is a quality collection of piano driven jazz of a standard that befits Toney’s track-record as leader of the legendary The Blackbyrds and thirty year recording artist in his own right. In fact with Toney on keyboards, Michael Bradford on bass and Chris Coleman on drums, Kevin Toney 3 are a collective united in both their religion and their music. They prayer together and play together while the album’s nine hugely cinematic tracks acknowledge in music what Toney identifies as a recent paradigm shift in the USA toward real, forward thinking change. This vibrant recording is not ‘easy on the ear’ smooth jazz but is a sophisticated collection that has the power both to defy genres and delight those who listen.

Innovative string trio Time For Three (TF3) – praised by Simon Rattle as “benevolent monsters, monsters of ability and technique surely. But also conveyors of an infectious joy that I find both touching and moving”– releases the new album Letters for the Future with the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Xian Zhang on Deutsche Grammophon on June 10. The album comprises world premiere recordings of two technically demanding and musically virtuosic concerti for trio and orchestra by two Pulitzer Prize-winning composers, written fifteen years apart but both commissioned for the group: Jennifer Higdon’s 2007 Concerto 4–3 and Kevin Puts’s brand-new Contact, the first track of which is available May 20.