"A visionary composer, an extraordinary jazz pianist and a very bright young rising star in the jazz world." — Jon Weber, host of NPR's PianoJazz   French-born pianist Romain Collin introduces an evocatively textured, melodically luxuriant sound on his new Palmetto album The Calling, slated for release on April 24, 2012. Flowing from his singular creative path as a classically trained musician besotted with jazz giants like Errol Garner, Oscar Peterson, Keith Jarrett and Bud Powell, his music is utterly idiosyncratic, yet fully part of a generational zeitgeist informed by indie rock and adventurous pop music. Building upon his highly responsive trio with bassist Luques Curtis and drummer Kendrick Scott, Collin has crafted a ravishing body of music featuring subtly textured flourishes added in post-production. An eagerly awaited follow-up to his acclaimed 2008 debut, The Calling is a quantum leap for Collin, a highly personal statement that embraces the musical currents that move him most deeply.  

“Ten Freedom Summers” is a collaboration between Smith’s celebrated Golden Quartet featuring pianist/composer Anthony Davis, bassist John Lindberg and drummer Susie Ibarra, and the acclaimed Southwest Chamber Music ensemble conducted by Grammy Award-winner Jeff von der Schmidt. The musicians will record the project in the days after the premiere for release on Cuneiform in the spring of 2012. In designing the sprawling multi-movement work, Smith focused on the formative decade framed by the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education that overturned the notorious Plessy v. Ferguson decision ratifying Jim Crow segregation, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed many forms of racial discrimination.

Check out the new video of the Marcus Shelby Orchestra live in concert, presenting snippets of an electrifying performance at Yoshi’s in San Francisco, CA. It features the music of Shelby’s acclaimed project, “Soul of the Movement: Meditations on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” For Marcus Shelby, history breathes music. Over the past decade, the San Francisco bassist/composer has created a series of captivating large-scale works that illuminate the accomplishments, spiritual fortitude and tribulations of African-Americans. In his debut recording for Porto Franco Records, Shelby delivers his breathtaking meditation on the Civil Rights movemen...

"It's a real ensemble record, without many solos in the traditional jazz sense; the musicians play in tight, arranged sections, but also go to the other extreme, teasing out weird timbres and textures." -Ben Ratliff, The New York Times "[O]ne of the most brilliant musicians I've had the privilege of working with." - Meredith Monk "John Hollenbeck [has] achieved a maturity and musicality that defy categories and stretch our sensibilities to new heights.... His world vi