"This could be one of the best Frank Sinatra tribute albums ever" - Chicago Jazz Magazine
Not a pure jazz album, nor the too common Frank Sinatra “copycat” record, but Lamphere’s original brand of Rat Pack Jazz (Defined as a musical “bridge” between pop & jazz) Lamphere understands and agrees with many Sinatra aficionados, “Frank” is a genre, all its own. “Hey, what are you listening to?” Response “Listening to some Frank”. This long-contemplated project, began with the premise that nobody could equal, let alone surpass the quality of Frank Sinatra’s beloved recordings. To not invite comparisons, Frank Lamphere, took a group of mostly well-known “Frank Songs” and along with his musical colleagues, crafted fresh interpretations for them. Author-jazz historian Scott Yanow wrote "He avoids copying him and, while many of these standards are closely associated with Sinatra, Lamphere comes up with fresh interpretations that uplift the material"
My Way is the album’s opening track and is like no previous version. This My Way, unlike the Sinatra hit, is a foot-tapping, mid-tempo swinger. Similarly, the iconic Fly Me To The Moon, bears little resemblance to the Sinatra version. It was recorded as an energetic waltz and has an instrumental break that features solos by former Count Basie Band saxman Eric Schneider and acclaimed pianist Jeremy Kahn. Stellar guitarist Dan McIntyre who worked for Frank Sinatra Jr and currently on tour with Mark Tremonti, plays on all but one track. On That’s Life, The Shadow Of Your Smile and others, McIntyre demonstrates why he is a first-call guitarist in this setting. More (Theme From Mondo Cane) played as a bossa, appears twice on the album. One of the versions sung with its original Italian lyrics.
COMPOSER/SAXOPHONIST DAVE ANDERSONPAYS TRIBUTE TO JAZZ LUMINARIES, PERSONAL INSPIRATIONS ONNEW QUARTET ALBUM, SET FOR RELEASE ON5/20PROJECT REFLECTS ON THE WAYS PEOPLE PAY HOMAGE
.In Lieu of Flowers, the new album by composer and saxophonist Dave Anderson’s New York-based quartet, pays tribute to inspirations here and gone, while reflecting on the ways people honor those who shape our lives. The new collection of songs pays homage to jazz luminaries Wayne Shorter and Maria Schneider, while also honoring the lasting influence of music educators and personal inspirations in Anderson’s life and family.
Jung Stratmann Quartet’s upcoming album Confluence continues the Jung’s and Stratmann’s nature-inspired writing style, but also reaches out further to their musical influences. A heartfelt interplay of not only international and generation-spanning, but also genre-transcending personnel flows together in an evocative composition of four expressive entities, embracing the unifying spirit of jazz music and setting an example of what “passing the torch” can look like.
Dave Douglas to release new album Alloy, featuring two fellow trumpeters, a stellar rhythm section, and all new compositions. Produced for Greenleaf Music and Festival of New Trumpet Music.
Alloy is out September 5, 2025.
Featuring:
Dave Douglas, trumpet
Alexandra Ridout, trumpet
Dave Adewumi, trumpet
Patricia Brennan, vibes
Kate Pass, bass
Rudy Royston, drums
In a major new compositional statement, trumpeter Dave Douglas returns with Alloy, alongside two thrilling young trumpeters: UK native Alexandra Ridout, now living in New York, and Dave Adewumi, from New Hampshire and currently in the thick of the NYC contemporary improvised music scene. Far from a trumpet blowout session, this is a warm-hewed, lyrical release featuring original compositions that highlight the many rich shades of brass, plus a stellar band of improvisers convened for the first time here. Aiming to bring together musicians in community, the writing features everybody as an organic whole and speaks to our need to live and breathe together as a unit. To cohere and coexist.
glmstore.bandcamp.com/music
Joe Alterman & Mocean Worker - Keep The Line Open
Mocean Worker (aka Adam Dorn) and Joe Alterman have joined forces for ‘Keep The Line Open,’ a funky, feel-good tribute to the late soul jazz icon Les McCann. Designed to evoke the energy of a raucous after-hours nightclub circa 1967, the album features eight original tracks inspired by McCann, along with a reimagining of his classic “Burnin’ Coal.” The nine-track album channels the genre-blurring spirit that defined McCann’s music, while reflecting his deep influence on both Dorn and Alterman, who knew him as a mentor, collaborator, and close friend. With credits ranging from Eddie Harris and Ramsey Lewis to Hal Willner, Marcus Miller, and Brian Eno, Dorn and Alterman fuse their distinct artistry into an electrifying long-player that celebrates McCann’s essence while standing on its own as a joyous, party-starter.
Keep The Line Open is out September 26 on 180-gram, Orange Vinyl, CD and Digital formats. Pre-order available here.
For more info on Joe Alterman & Mocean Worker, contact Kevin Calabro at CMM: 917.838.4613 / kevin@calabromusicmedia.com
Play_Ground is an eclectic musical unit, founded by versatile New York City based multi instrumentalists, Slovenian born Jan Kus and Puerto Rican born Dan Martínez.
Meeting during their formative musical years in New York, Kus and Martinez immediately felt a kinship in the vastness of their musical taste and their common interests outside of music. After years of playing together in many numerous musical situations, ranging from Latin jazz to pop to Balkan music, flamenco and beyond, the two musicians were looking for a new platform, a vessel on which they can spontaneously switch between various genres in a borderless, free flowing conversation reflective of the eclectic, multivalent world we live in today. Play_Ground is their own musical laboratory, fusing the youthful creative spontaneous playfulness of Play, and heavy, groovy and tradition-rooted grounding of Ground.
Play_Ground is a unique musical treat, taking you on a musical journey spanning electronic beats, Puerto Rican Bomba, Balkan music, Jazz, Funk, and Hip Hop, and fusing Kus and Martinez's love for visual art, philosophy, Latin Jazz, backstreets of New York, jungles of San Lorenzo, Slovenian glacial lakes, outer galaxies, and much more. Welcome to their private "play_ground", in which they invite you to dance with the ancestors and lose and re-discover yourself on this unique musical journey, which is nothing like what you've ever been on before.
Darwin AI: Survivor Choice
Alex Otey’s latest alternative jazz album is a bold sonic experiment, mixing genre-blending compositions with the evolving tension between nature and technology.
Inspired by the principles of Darwinism, the album explores how natural selection, adaptability, and diversity play out in our modern digital age. Musically, it’s a hybrid of styles—rock, blues, Latin and even classical—which reflect some of the diversity that has evolved in music over time
It’s a musical Darwinian perspective describing our technological advancement toward Artificial Intelligence.
The album includes aspects of Darwin Evolution Theory such as: Natural Selection, Survival of the Fittest, Apex Predators, Competition in Nature and Adaptability, and broadens these focuses for technology. Man’s Advantageous Trait of invention has fostered Social & Technological change, which takes “Natural Selection” to a new level, being “Artificial Selection“ (the enduring technology we create as an adjunct to our own evolution). And, we are often challenged with choices to make in handling the technology we invent.
Exalge
by Matthew Ryals
Exalge is a live, fully improvised recording by American modular synthesist Matthew Ryalsand Italian violist effe effe out September 5th on Infrequent Seams. The album captures the raw energy of a chance first encounter between the two artists, who met while sharing a bill at the venue Exalge in Milan, Italy, in fall 2023. Marked by Ryals’ distinctive “acoustic” palette—crafted entirely in real time with his modular synthesizer—and interwoven with effe effe’s refined vocabulary of extended techniques, the album unfolds as a single unedited performance divided into five tracks.
Following the release of Exalge, Ryals will embark on an extensive concert tour with appearances at High Zero Festival (Baltimore, MD), Ex Nihilo Festival (Omaha, NE), Indexical (Santa Cruz, CA), West Oakland Sound Series (Oakland, CA), and performances at Vekks and Celeste (Vienna, Austria), with additional dates across Europe. In Milan, Ryals and effe effe will reunite for a performance at Exalge, alongside other regional concerts.
Active since the mid-2010s, Ryals shifted his focus to free improvisation in late 2022, inspired by New York City’s vibrant community of experimental musicians. His work spans three studio albums and a series of EPs released on labels including Oxtail Recordings, 3OP, SØVN, and Sound As Language. Performing internationally as both soloist and collaborator, he is the recipient of a 2025 Art Omi: Music Residency, a 2025 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant, a 2022–23 New Music USA Award, and a 2021 IEA Electronic Media Residency.
Federica Furlani, aka effe effe, is a violist and composer based in Milan. She works in sound design and composition for theater and institutions including Piccolo Teatro di Milano, Venice Biennale, Triennale Milano, and LAC Lugano. She has performed at festivals such as Triennale Milano, Santarcangelo Festival, and Tallinn Music Week, and released music on labels like NeMu, 7K!, and Impulse Response. She has collaborated with national and international artists including Einstürzende Neubauten, Blonde Redhead, Teho Teardo, Le Luci della Centrale Elettrica, and Baustelle.
Vocals - Svetlana
Remix Artists: Amber Navran, Melanie Charles, Sirintip, Cheryl B. Engelhardt, Annie Elise, Bryn Bliska
Track Listing:
1. Pure Imagination - Amber Navran (Remix) - 2:51
2. Moonlight - Melanie Charles (Remix) - 3:36
3. Moonriver - Sirintip (Remix) - 2:33
4. Young and Beautiful -Cheryl B. Engelhardt (Remix) - 3:25
5. It Might Be You - Annie Elise (Remix) - 3:09
6. Remember Me - Bryn Bliska (Remix) - 4:08
Release Date: April 18, 2025
British-Nigerian singer-songwriter Ola Onabulé, in collaboration with Swiss guitarist Nicolas Meier, releases a new album titled Proof of Life today.
Proof of Life produced and recorded at Onabulé’s Casa Del Funk Studios, showcases the synergy between the two artists as they explore culturally diverse concepts and themes. Their partnership, which began through a series of livestream performances during the pandemic, has evolved into a collection of ten original songs.
Proof of Life features a blend of Onabulé’s signature songwriting style of polyrhythms and melodies drawn from his African roots with Meier’s love of eastern, world and Jazz themes as well as his expertise with a wide range of stringed instruments. This has resulted in the creation of a work with a rich tapestry of sound that resonates with themes of love, life and philosophies of survival in tumultuous times. The songwriting process was marked by a process of organic collaboration, where both artists contributed ideas and melodies, resulting in a cohesive body of work that captures their individual strengths while exploring creative boundaries were new to both artists.
Links
www.olasmusic.com
www.facebook.com/oonabule
www.youtube.com/user/OlaOnabule
Exit Paradise is a dance-fantasy album by Daniel Gall, featuring The Miguel Vargas Ensemble, and violinist Laura Giannini. A programmatic work from a land of competing cults, loosely based on Gall's upcoming novel, The Lawn Cult, Exit Paradise tells a musical story about a wanderer on his first pilgrimage to the City of Cults. There he encounters all kinds of strange cult-like activities, and he's chosen to join the exclusive Cult of Paradise in their lavish resort-temple. But beware, for Paradise is not what it seems, and the chosen shall each be put to the test before the end.
releases September 1, 2025
The Miguel Vargas Ensemble
Miguel Vargas (flute), Nirvana Villegas (clarinet), Erick Bandres (horn), Luisana Hernandez (violin), Luis Portal (viola), Carlos Ruiz (cello), Fabian Zambrano (cello)
Featuring Laura Giannini (violin), performing "Eruption Regenesis"
Audio Production by Miguel Vargas
Dance films "Ducks Crossing" and "Eruption / Regenesis" by Charly Santagado
Graphic design by Vinicius Alves at Atma Studio
Cover art by Aaron McConnell
Loosely based on "The Lawn Cult," a novel by Daniel Gall
Music by Daniel Gall
ALBUM LINK
Cadence Jazz World
Album Previews- October 2025
DUENDE LIBRE releases new video for “Song For Seales”, the second single from their new album Invocation - a transformative reflection on the vulnerability, universality, and resilience of the human condition
LINKS:
Watch the ‘Song For Seales’ video here
Watch the ‘Ahmadish’ video here
Stream the album (download available upon request)
About the single: “Song For Seales” originated as a spontaneous studio jam between takes while Duende Libre was recording music for their new album Invocation (released June 7). Recognizing its potential, the band continued developing the song through live performances, recordings, and rehearsals. In time the track evolved into a tribute to the great West Coast jazz pianist Marc Seales (b. 1963), one of pianist and bandleader Alex Chadsey’s most inspiring mentors. “Song For Seales” is one of several such tributes to the bands’ influences featured on the new album. Marc’s influence is evident in the way Alex embraces space and silence while simultaneously pushing the edges of his dynamic range and technique while the bass and drums hold down a soulful groove reminiscent of the late musical icon Sly Stone (1943-2025). The track also features tasteful use of a Prophet analog synthesizer and expert percussion work by drummer Jeff Busch, including his deft handling of a mysterious Afro-Brazilian instrument called the berimbau, an instrument believed to have the capacity to communicate with ancestral spirits in traditional Afro-Brazilian culture. Alex Chadsey is available for interview.
About the composer: Duende Libre composer and bandleader Alex Chadsey is a professional improvisational pianist with over 20 years of experience as a performer, composer, arranger, and producer. With four albums of original music and credit on a GRAMMY award-winning record, Alex has harnessed his lifelong passion for music to grow a successful international career in the music industry. Chadsey, Jeff Busch, and Farko Dosumov, all having apprenticed with direct descendants and master musicians of Cuban, Brazilian, and West African traditions, consider themselves disciples of their teachers. The result: A euphoric new jazz that honors its historical roots, pushing open the boundaries of genre to invoke a powerful sonic freedom. DUENDE LIBRE celebrates the connections between jazz and music from Cuba, Brazil, and the Mediterranean. Their stewardship is a natural continuation of decades of dedicated apprenticeship with master musicians from around the world. DUENDE LIBRE's empathic on-stage chemistry, formed through years of performing, touring, and recording together, sets the band apart along with their eclectic sonic palette.
Even though Reel to Remix – Night at the Movies Reimagined is, on the surface, a collection of remixes, the album is unmistakably a cohesive artistic statement in the Alternative Jazz genre. Svetlana, the New York-based jazz vocalist known for her cinematic sensibility and genre-bending imagination as well as her past straight-ahead and swing efforts featuring such esteemed collaborators as Pasqualle Grasso, Wycliffe Gordon, and Sullivan Forter, revisits selections from her chart-topping 2019 album Night at the Movies - but hands over the reins to a trailblazing group of all-female producers, a renown award-winning musicians in their own right (including Grammy-Nominated Amber Navran and Cheryl B. Engelhart; Melanie Charles renown for her "Make Jazz Thrill Again" and her Verve recordings, and more).
The result is less a remix album and more a series of highly artistic reinventions. Tracks like "Moonlight", “MoonRiver” and “Pure Imagination” are filtered through prisms of lo-fi jazz, electronica, and alt-soul, retaining their melodic elegance while shedding familiar forms. Svetlana’s vocals glide between nostalgic and experimental - lush one moment, fractured and atmospheric the next - while each producer brings her own distinct sonic architecture to the table.
There is exactitude in the sound design, yet ample space for surprise and freedom - perhaps a reflection of Svetlana’s jazz roots and her trust in collaborative alchemy with the team of artists she assembled for this inspired and masterful effort. Reel to Remixshimmers with the spirit of reinterpretation, inviting listeners to experience classic material through a modern, subversive lens. It’s a concept album that doesn’t announce itself as one, but rather reveals its unity track by track - an homage to film, femininity, and fearless reinvention.Type your paragraph here.
Billy Hart Quartet · Multidirectional
SMOKE Sessions Records · Release Date: November 21, 2025
SMOKE Jazz Club · Release Shows: November 28-30, 2025
Drummer and NEA Jazz Master Billy Hart releases first live album with his longtime all-star quartet
Multidirectional, out November 21, 2025, via SMOKE Sessions Records, features saxophonist Mark Turner, pianist Ethan Iverson, and bassist Ben Street
Multidirectional Album Release Shows: November 28-30, 2025,
at SMOKE Jazz Club, New York City
Legendary drummer Billy Hart credits the great Rashied Ali for introducing him to the term “multidirectional” – a descriptor for the elusive, daring approach to the kit that Hart and others of his generation had developed intuitively in response to the increasing freedom and exploration of the era’s jazz experimentation.
Rashied Ali told me that ‘multidirectional’ was what John Coltrane called this freeform feel, where conventional structure was abandoned and the rhythms could cut in any direction,” he writes in Oceans of Time: The Musical Autobiography of Billy Hart, his captivating new memoir. Hart had begun to explore that style under the influence of Coltrane’s pioneering work, first venturing into the terrain while playing with Pharoah Sanders at the famed East Village club Slugs’ Saloon.
More than half a century later, Hart has refined and evolved the approach into a singular percussive voice of unparalleled elegance, finesse and intricacy – as exemplified on Multidirectional, the first live recording by his longstanding quartet featuring tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, pianist Ethan Iverson, and bassist Ben Street.
For more information on other Smoke Sessions Records releases, please visit:
SmokeSessionsRecords.com