One of the nicest records we've heard from Jeff Parker in years – a trio date with some wonderfully rich sounds, and a great showcase for some of the more lyrical sides of his music! Parker plays in these great chromatic modes throughout – using some slight effects with his hollow-body electric, in the company of bassist Chris Lopes and drummer Chad Taylor – the latter of whom really helps make the album great, thanks to a fluid, open sense of rhythm – yet one that still always knows how to swing! There's more of a groove here than you might usually expect from Jeff, and a sensitivity too – and the album almost feels like the beginning of a rich new chapter in his career. Titles include "Mainz", "Swept Out To Sea", "Freakadelic", "Istvan", "Occidental Tourist", and "The Morning Of The 5th". CD

A pretty wonderful set of tracks led by guitarist Jeff Parker, one of the most enormously talented, and one of the busiest guys in Chicago! Jeff spends time working with a number of avant garde jazz and rock combos like the Chicago Underground Quartet, Aesop Quartet, New Horizons Ensemble and Tortoise – but steps into a pretty straight up bop-learned jazz mode for his first full length as leader. He's leading a trio with Chad Taylor on drums and some light guitar, and Chris Lopes on bass and a little flute. Parker's sprays warm, fluid guitar lines throughout that really light the thing up. It's really warmly captured by producer John McEntire, too. Tracks include "Like-Coping", "Miriam", "Days Fly By", "Holiday For A Despot", "Omega Sci Fi", "Roundabout" and more. CD

A seminal record in the growth of Jeff Parker as a musician – a set done when Parker was a key member of Tortoise, and issued on the same label as that group – but a record that really shows the richness of Jeff's guitar talents that would explode in years to come! The set is definitely a jazz record, and maybe does hold some slight sonic semblance to some of Parker's other projects of the period – and the whole thing is a wonderful showcase for his creative phrasing on guitar, and a sense of tone and timing learned in his other collaborations, brought back to jazz in a really great way! The set features sublime drums from Chad Taylor, plus Sam Barshehet on Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric, and Chris Lopes on bass, guitars, and flute as well – on titles that include a sublime remake of Marvin Gaye's "When Did You Stop Loving Me When Did I Stop Loving You", which the group turns into more of an after hours sweet spot than a mournful soul lament – plus "Istanbul", "Mannerisms", "Sea Change", "Beanstalk", "Toyboat" and "Rang (For Michael Zerang)". CD

Charles McPherson on alto saxophone, Randy Porter on piano, Jeff Littleton on bass, and Charles McPherson Jr. on drums. CD

A great back-to-basics set for Sadao Watanabe – a live date that almost echoes the spirit of one of his youthful Columbia sessions in Japan! The group features James Williams on piano, Charnett Moffett on bass, and Jeff Waits on drums – and Sadao blows alto on titles that include "Billie's Bounce", "Parker's Mood", "Lament", and "Stella By Starlight". CD

One of the most ambitious albums ever from Rob Mazurek – and a set that really continues the legacy of community building and world healing that's become such an important part of his music! Rob's a player who was great at the start – a hell of a trumpeter, and a great experimentalist with electronics – but in recent years, he's matured to become a real messenger for the farther, future reaches of jazz – with an energy that makes a collaborative project like this come off in a way that might never have occurred in the hands of any other musician! Mazurek is at the head – director, composer, arranger, and instrumentalist too – and the large lineup is filled with heavyweights from the Chicago scene that Rob helped shape over the past few decades – plus others as well – players who include Damon Locks on voice and electronics, Nicole Mitchell on flutes, Tomeka Reid on cello, Joel Ross on vibes, Jaimi Branch on trumpet, Jeff Parker on guitar, Ingebrigit Haker Flate on bass, and Chad Taylor, John Herndon, and Mikel Patrick Avery on a variety of drums and percussion. There's a richness here that tops other Exploding Star Orchestra performances – and more of a focus, too – so that the whole thing comes together as even more than the sum of its mighty parts, as one of the best International Anthem releases to date. Titles include "Galaxy 1000", "Parable Of Inclusion", "Autumn Pleiades", "Minerals Bionic Stereo", "Dimensional Stardust", "Abstract Dark Energy", and "The Careening Prism Within". CD

The most cosmically expansive and exciting work yet from composer/coronet player Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra – dedicated to Amiri Baraka, and infused with the righteous, poetic spirit of Baraka's work with Sun Ra! The Exploding Star players include some Chicago underground heroes and heroines of longstanding brilliance, including flautist Nicole Mitchell, guitarist Jeff Parker, drummers John Herndon and Chad Taylor, bassist Matthew Lux, and Damon Locks on electronics and with some subtly righteous spoken word – along with Mazurek's Sao Paolo Underground cohorts Mauricio Takara and Guilherme Grandando, and last but not least, pianist Angelica Sanchez – all of whom have ample space to shine. Galactic Parables Vol 1 is a 2 disc set, one featuring the compositions as performed in Sardinia, and a second CD of their performances at the Chicago Cultural Center, which is a smart approach, given the improvisational nature of the material. There's plenty of space for the players to explore, and the differing performances are no doubt colored and shaded in different ways by different environments. Amazing stuff! Titles include "Free Agents Of Sound", "Make Way To The City", "The Arc Of Slavery #72", "Helmets Of Our Poisonous Thoughts #16", "Collections Of Time" and "Awaken The World #41". CD

Damn great work from Chicago flautist Nicole Mitchell – and another new chapter of her mighty talents! The album's a quartet session that beautifully swings between straight jazz modes and some more creative sounds – never as far out as some of Mitchell's more avant work, but always pushing the boundaries in really great ways. The set's quite different than some of the fuller, more ambitious projects Mitchell has undertaken in recent years – and it's also a change from some of the more intimate solo and duet modes she's used too – and the group features heavy contributions from guitarist Jeff Parker, plus bass from Harrison Bankhead, and drums from Avreeayl Ra. Titles include "Curly Top", "Center Of The Earth", "Snowflakes", "Awakening", "There", and "FOC". CD

A stunner of a set from Ken Vandermark & co as Powerhouse Sound – a riveting 2CD batch of rhythmic juxtaposition inspired by dub, sound collage production, and free rock caterwauling – done with a pair of line-ups in both Oslo and Chicago! The Oslo group is heavy with bass and stuttering electronic manipulations, and features Vandermark, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and Nate McBride on electric bass, Pall Nilssen-Love on drums and Lasse Marhaug on electronics. The Chicago crew runs through variations of the material and changes up the instrumentation with Vandermark, John Herndon on drums, Jeff Parker on guitar and McBride on bass. Disc one (Oslo version) includes "Shocklee (For Hank Shocklee)", "King To Crown (For King Tubby), "Coxsone (For Coxsone Dodd)", "2-1-75" (For Miles Davis), "Acid Scratch (For Lee Perry)", "Exit-Salida (For Burning Spear)" and "New Dirt (For The Stooges)". Disc two (Chicago version) includes "Old Dictionary (For Bernie Worrell)", "King To Crown Pt 1/Acid Scratch Pt 2", "Coxsonne", "2-1-75" and "New Dirt/King To Crown Pt 2". CD

Joshua Redman continues the wonderful groove he first began on his Elastic album – a well-named sound that's filled with lots of modal rhythms and a very soulful spirit! The style's a bit like that growing, more open-ended style of organ jazz at the end of the 60s – especially the sort that was showing up on some of John Patton's later albums, or the looser recordings of Groove Holmes and Lonnie Smith. Redman's working here on a variety of saxes, alongside great organ and keyboards from Sam Yahel, and exceptional work on drums from Brian Blade and Jeff Ballard. The album features guest work by Stefon Harris, Jeff Parker, Nicholas Payton, ?uestlove, and Meshell Ndegocello – and titles include "Soundcheck", "Sweet Nasty", "Just A Moment", "Shut Your Mouth", "The Crunge", "Riverwide", "Greasy G", "Lonely Woman", "Swunk", and "Put It In Your Pocket". CD

Nice little underground session from the burgeoning young Chicago scene – oddly released on a UK label! Drummer Ted Sirota leads a lively little quintet that includes Jeff Parker on guitar, Kevin Kizer on tenor, and Rob Mazurek on cornet – and the band has a warm lyrical feel, and a surprisingly mature approach to playing. The whole album features original compositions by the members of the group – many with the kind of creativity that we've come to expect from Mazurek's Chicago Underground groups. Titles include "Geronimo's Free", "Carolynn's Blues", "Lonely People", "La Danse De Janvier", and "Little Spots". CD

A huge step forward for the mighty, expansive Exploding Star Orchestra – having recruited free jazz trumpet titan Bill Dixon as a band member and featured composer, if not the de facto leader – on this incredible second album for Thrill Jockey! The previous Exploding Star Orchestra set balanced a fiery, unpredictable intensity with a 70s style pulp soundtrack groove – while this one has more delicate and sublime moments at the outer edges, while ratcheting up the intensity all the more when the spirit hits! The group is made up of mainstays from the genre defiant Chicago scene – with group harbinger Rob Mazurek on coronet, Nicole Mitchell on flute, Jeb Bishop on trombone, Jeff Parker guitar, Jim Baker on piano, Jason Adasiewicz on vibes and tubular bells, Matthew Lux on bass, Jon Herndon on drums, Damon Lock with a spoken text read, and others. Heavy, spacious and truly beautiful! Titles include 3 long pieces that add up to over an hour all together, with the Dixon compositions "Entrances/One" and "Entrances/Two", and the killer centerpiece "Constellations For Innerdelight (For Bill Dixon)" composed by Rob Mazurek. CD

An amazing blend of astral jazz and atmospheric orchestral soundscapes – composed and directed by coronetist Rob Mazurek! Exploding Star Orchestra is an apt name, but it's more of a bright and glorious explosion than a calamitous one – a sweeping couple of soundtracky suites that's the culmination of a couple years of work by Mazurek and a major contribution from Nicole Mitchell on flute – plus Jeb Bishop on trombone, Corey Wilkes on flugelhorn, Jeff Parker on guitar, John McEntire on marimba and tubular bells, John Herndon on drums, Jim Baker on piano & ARP, Jazon Adasiewicz on vibes, Matthew Lux on bass, Mike Reed on drums, percussion & saw, and others. It's part informed improvisation, part boundary free composition, and pretty wonderful all the way through! We expected something special, but this one goes above and beyond. Following the Frequency project by about 6 months, this is the second near classic avant garde jazz album on Thrill Jockey in a relative short stretch! 2 multi-part titles: The 70s style soul jazz groover "Sting Ray And The Beginning Of Time" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 – Psycho-Tropic Electric Eel Drum and Part 4), "Cosmic Tomes For Sleep Walking Lovers" (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 – Fifteen Wais Towards A Finite Universe, and Part 5) – and the mellow, piano led centerpiece "Black Sun". CD

A sublime session that's co-led by two of the greatest figures on the Chicago jazz scene at the time of the recording – drummer Hamid Drake and tenorist Fred Anderson – both musicians that had been working in the city for years, but who really seemed to blossom in the new light that the 21st Century was bringing to their music! The tracks here are long and beautiful – maybe more spiritual than most anything else that Anderson ever recorded – still with enough edges to please his fans of freer improvisation, but building with more rhythmic currents and modal energy – thanks in part to contributions on the record from the great Jeff Parker on guitar, and bassist Joshua Abrams – a player who's really starting to find his way on a record like this! Harrison Bankhead plays piano – but throughout, it's the work of Anderson and Drake that really shines in the spotlight, as it should – on long titles that include "Planet E", "Strut Time", "For Brother Thompson", "From The River To The Ocean", and "Sakti/Shiva". CD

Ernest Dawkins' New Horizons Ensemble – with Ameen Muhammad on trumpet and conch shell, Steve Berry on trombone, Jeff Parker on guitar, Yosef Ben Israel on bass, Avreeayl Ra on drums, and just about everyone on percussion. CD

Maybe the crowning achievement of drummer Makaya McCraven so far – a double-length set that stands as a huge testimony to all the many waves he's been making in jazz for the past few years! The album features four slices of live performance – recorded in New York, Chicago, LA, and London – and as with every one of his different projects, Makaya seems to bring a different voice to each live track here – recording with Brandee Younger on harp and Joel Ross on vibes in New York, Shabaka Hutchings on tenor in Chicago; Nubya Garcia on tenor and Ashley Henry on Rhodes in London; and Josh Johnson on alto, Jeff Parker on guitar, Carlos Nino on percussion, and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on violin in LA! The rhythms are as amazing as the contributions from the different soloists – and the sound of the record is maybe something we'd call post-spiritual – moving past that Coltrane-inspired mode that's been revived so well in the 21st Century, while still holding onto its best sense of energy. The whole thing is fantastic – and titles include "The Count Off", "Brighter Days Beginning", "Universal Beings", "Mantra", "Young Genius", "Holy Lands", "Wise Man Wiser Woman", "Prosperity's Fear", "Atlantic Black", "Flipped Out", "Voila", and "Suite Hans". CD

Mindblowing sounds from Chicago flute player Nicole Mitchell – a set of work inspired by the science fiction writings of Octavia Butler – with a striking style to match! Although the music has some arch qualities that live up to the darkness of Butler's writings, the performance here is also still mostly acoustic – in the mode we're used to from Mitchell's Black Earth group – but with odd tones and weird bits of phrasing that keep have us checking the notes to figure out the different instruments! The approach is a bit like the early cosmic visions of Sun Ra – especially when Mitchell hits more spiritual and rhythmic moments – and the well-matched ensemble of players features Nicole on flute, David Boykin on tenor and bass clarinet, David Young on trumpet and srali thom, Renee Baker on violin, Tomeka Reid on cello, Josh Abrams on bass, Jeff Parker on guitar, and Avreeayl Ra on percussion. Mankwe Ndosi sings just a bit on the record – and titles include "Dripping Matter", "Web Of Hope", "Fields Of Possibility", "Resisting Entanglement", "The Inevitable", and "The Ooli Moves". CD

With Jeff Parker on guitar. CD

A very cool group headed by percussionist Hamid Drake – one that features some deeply soulful work from the contemporary Chicago underground! There's a more righteous feel to the set than some of Drake's other recordings – a quality that stretches back to the Chicago scene of the 70s, with complex interplay between a range of different sounds and spirits – performed by a lineup that includes Joe Morris on guitar and banjo, Jeff Parker on guitar, William Parker and Josh Abrams on basses and percussion, and Dee Alexander on vocals – adding in some surprising wonderful elements to the record! Alexander's vocals almost remind us of some of Dee Dee Bridgewater's more outside expressions from her earliest years in the 70s – a very soulful fit for the group, and one that moves it past the usual improvisational combo. Titles include "The Beautiful Name", "There Is Nothing Left But You", "My Blissful Mother", "Visions Of Ma", "Supreme Lady Victorious In Battle", and "Playful Dance At Soma". CD

First album from this great little Chicago combo – and one that features a mix of hardbop and freer styles, with the kind of energy that characterizes some of the better work coming out of the current Chitown scene. The group includes guitarist Jeff Parker, also known for his work with Tortoise – and the tracks include versions of Ornette's "WRU", Monk's "Brilliant Corners", and Rollins' "East Broadway Rundown". Original titles include "Mannerisms", "Wait", and "Four Folks". CD

An incredible feather in the already-large hat of Rob Mazurek – work that more than lives up to some of his boldest visions on previous recordings, but does so in a completely new direction! The album features a set of larger-form compositions all put together by Rob – in ways that show a remarkable ear for mature colors and concepts – handled by players who are both from the third coast of the Chicago scene, and from Brest in France – where all the music here came together! Even if you already know and love Mazurek's other music, there's something very different and special here – as Rob's cornet and direction shape the sound of a lineup that features incredible performances from Nicole Mitchell on flutes, Christiphe Rocher on clarinets, Jeff Parker on guitar, Lou Malozzi on electronics, Steve Berry on trombone, Christofer Bjurstrom on piano, Philippe Champion on trumpet, Tomeka Reid on cello, Nicolas Peoc'H on alto and soprano sax, Irvin Pierce on tenor, and Avreeayl Ra on drums. There's also some beautiful texts penned by Alexandre Pierrepont and background voice from Yannick Leblay – and while the idea of such trans-Atlantic avant jazz collaboration is nothing new, there's a very special, very unique quality to this set – almost as if the players had been working together for many years to realize Rob's vision. Titles include "Under The Hearts Snow", "The Game Circle", "Wild Gale", "On The Trapeze Of Minds Ferns", "Cobalt Of Chance", "This Is The Atoll", and "Drinkable Gold With Shadows' Liquor". CD

An instrumental album from this Chicago trio that includes Jeff Parker on guitar, Tatsu Aoki on bass, and David Pavkovic on drums. At times, the sound is almost funky, with a groove that's nicely laid down by Pavkovic's drums. At others, the record's a bit more open-ended, with less of a jazz-oriented sense of playing. Parker's plays in a warm chord style that recalls some of the more soulful work by John Abercrombie in the late 60s or early 70s. Titles include "Pep", "Go Free", "Thrive", "Chicago Cool", and "Quick Pay". CD

A beautiful tribute to the genius of trombonist/arranger Melba Liston – and a set that doesn't just copy her music, but really opens up a whole new spirit from its inspiration! Reedman Geof Bradfield composed all the tracks in the set, and puts things together with a spirit that's not unlike some of Melba's best arrangements for middle-sized groups – that way she had of making things tight, and rhythmically soulful – yet still allowing plenty of room for improvisation and individuality amidst the fuller picture of the tunes. Bradfield gets in plenty of great moments on tenor, soprano sax, and bass clarinet – and the rest of the group features Victor Garcia on trumpet and flugelhorn, Joel Adams on trombone, Jeff Parker on guitar, Ryan Cohan on piano, Clark Sommers on bass, and George Fludas on drums. Titles include "Central Avenue", "Dizzy Gillespie", "Detroit/Kingston", "Randy Weston", and "Homecoming" – and the set ends with vocals by Maggie Burrell on the tune "Let Me Not Lose My Dream". CD

The New Horizons Ensemble is Steve Berry on trombone, Ameen Muhammad on trumpet, Jeffrey Parker on guitar, Yosef Ben Israel on bass, and Avreeayl Ra on drums – with Ernest Dawkins on saxophones and flute. CD

A beautiful update of the music of Charlie Parker – one that takes off from the first vocalese recordings that were inspired by Bird's music in the bebop years – but served up here in a much wider array of styles! As with the early vocalese recordings – lyrical sides based around Parker's saxophone solos – these tracks all have lyrics set to Parker's compositions, sung by different artists on each tune – in a lineup that includes Kurt Elling, Gregory Porter, Jeffrey Wright, Kandace Springs, Melody Gardot, Luciana Souza, and Madeleine Peyroux – a diverse lineup that really makes for an amazing record. Core instrumentation is from a group that features Donny McCaslin on tenor, Craig Taborn on acoustic and electric piano, and Ben Monder on guitar – and titles include "Meet Charlie Parker", "The Epitaph Of Charlie Parker", "So Long", "Every Little Thing", "Los Angeles", "Life My Love For You", and "The King Of 52nd Street" – all new vocal versions of Charlie Parker tunes. (Vocalists, Jazz) CD

One of the weirdest, wildest albums ever from Eddie Jefferson – a real standout classic that shows him retooling his sound for the 70s! After years of writing lyrics to James Moody and Charlie Parker tunes, Eddie lays out some crazy lyrics for modern jazz standards like "Freedom Jazz Dance" and "Bitches Brew", as well as "Night In Tunisia", which he'd never done before – and also offers up a great take on Cannonball's "Things Are Getting Better", not to mention Sly Stone's "Thank You Fallentinme Be Mice Elf Again"! There's a few more standard bop number in the mix too – like "Billie's Bounce" and "I Just Got Back In Town – and support is from a great group that includes Billy Mitchell on tenor, Joe Newman on trumpet, Sam Jones on bass, and Mickey Tucker on keyboards. (Vocalists, Jazz) CD