Joel Ross Quartet
Joel Ross - vibraphones, Melissa Aldana - saxophone, Matt Brewer - bass, Craig Weinrib - drums Last year, NPR’s Nate Chinen referred to Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based vibraphonist Joel Ross as “the breakout jazz star of the moment.” He goes on to describe the then 23 year old as seeming to “slip free of standard cognitive functions and into a bodacious flow state. Invariably, he's in the midst of a heated improvisation. Maybe he's bouncing on his heels, or bobbing like a marionette. His mallets form a blur, in contrast to the clarity of the notes they produce. The deft precision of his hammering inspires a visual comparison to some tournament-level version of Whac-A-Mole.”
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Derzon Douglas and Friends
Dezron Douglas - bass, Camille Thurman - saxophone, Darrell Green - drums, Keith Brown - piano
For Dezron Douglas, a musical career was a family legacy, and it began early. “I’ve been playing bass in church since I was seven or eight,” he recently recounted to graduate students at New York University’s jazz program. “I played with my brothers and my father and we were in a lot of [gospel] programs up and down—Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts. Then I got good at 12, and started to really study in Hartford. To this day, some of my favorite bass players are people you probably never heard of. But they were great local bass players on the gospel circuit.” Catching Douglas in performance—leading his own group, or supporting the likes of Ravi Coltrane, Makaya McCraven, Abraham Burton, David Murray, Louis Hayes, Brandee Younger, or many others—is to witness how consistently and economically he helps raise the level of the music, sometimes with just a nudge or a turnaround or a groove. It’s why so many wish to work with him. A personal joy of recent months is hearing Douglas lay down the confident strut of “Mr. Day” when Ravi Coltrane calls that tune from his father’s songbook. - JazzTimes
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Adam Kolker Trio
Adam Kolker - Saxophone, David Ambrosio - Bass, Anthony Pinciotti - Drums Three of the finest jazz musicians working today come together to play the music of two of the greatest jazz composers of the 20th century. Adam Kolker's new album, due out this fall, shines a spotlight on a handful of the more rare compositions of Wayne Shorter. Along with Ambrosio, Pinciotti, and Steve Cardenas (who was unable to perform on this evening) Kolker has been playing those tunes and the work of Thelonious Monk for decades; in their hands the music becomes pliable, with a deep sense of improvisation that can only be achieved when musicians play together for years. While this is a tribute to the compositions themselves, it's also a tribute to the compositions' enduring ability to elicit spontaneous creativity, improvisation at its best. For more information on these muscians click here

Marta Sanchez Quintet
Alex Lore - Alto Saxophone, Jerome Sabbagh - Tenor Saxophone, Rick Rosato - Bass, Marta Sanchez - Piano, Jay Sawyer - Drums
”Ms. Sánchez writes for her quintet with a melody-first approach — and melody-second, and melody-third. She weaves the alto saxophone of Roman Filiu together with the tenor of Chris Cheek and her own line-driven piano style. The music of this international group (the members all hail from different countries) is driven by intersections and rhythmic friction, but it remains fluid and acrobatic.” - NY Times, 2019. For more info on these musicians click here.
Recorded on July 1, Broadcast on July 12, 2020 on 88.3, WLIW-FM

Christian Li & Mike Bono Quartet
.Christian Li - piano, Mike Bono - guitar, Jared Henderson - bass and Lee Fish - drums
Piano/guitar duo Christian Li and Mike Bono have played together for almost a decade – a period which included a collaboration on Bono’s 2013 From Where You Are. In 2019, the pair released a joint album titled Visitors, as a souvenir of the past and a blueprint for the future. Li and Bono bring this nine-track collection of originals to life with the help of Alex Hargreaves on violin, Chris Marion on strings, Dayna Stephens on saxophone, Jared Henderson on bass and Jimmy Macbride and Lee Fish on drums. For more info on these musicians click here.

Caleb Curtis - saxophone, Noah Garabedian - bass and Vinnie Sperrazza - drums
The Brooklyn, NY based collaborative trio Curtis+Garabedian+Sperrazza finds itself at the crossroads of musical and personal exploration resulting in true band-hood and non-hierarchical playing. Each of the members – Caleb Curtis (alto saxophone), Noah Garabedian (bass), and Vinnie Sperrazza (drums) – are integral parts of the NY creative music community as leaders, collaborators and instigators. The music in this trio is organized but open and expressive. While they are highly versed in the classic tradition of jazz, their music opens up to the true freedom of improvisation, exploration, and creativity. For more info on these musicians click here