New Music From Souter, Tampelleni & Tognola, Clarke & Zilber, And More

World of Jazz 748

A selection of new releases with some excellent vocal performances and a mix of conventional and experimental. In addition four more albums from the recent re-release of Ivo Perelman’s Leo Records catalogue.

AUDIO

PLAYLIST

1. Tessa Souter “A Song for You (Gnossienne No. 1)” from Shadows And Silence : The Erik Satie Project (Noanara Music) 00:00

2. Stefano Tampelleni and Paolo Tognola “Oru” from Miniature (Ramble Records) 04:50

3. Mike Clark & Mike Zilber “I Get Along Without You Very Well” from Standard Deviations (Sunnyside Records) 08:38

4. Ivo Perelman, Mat Maneri, Tanya Kalmanovitch “Part 04” from Villa Lobos Suite (Leo Records) 14:46

5. Emilia Vancini & Guillermo Martín-Viana “Alfie” from Pigri (Espira) 18:56

6. Kaze & Koichi Makigami “Inspiration 2” from Shishiodoshi (Circum/Libra) 22:23

7. Peter Johnstone International Organ Quartet “The Riddler” from Resistance Is Futile (Self Released) 38:47

8. Antonia Bennett “See You On The Other Side” from Expressions 45:48

9. Ivo Perelman, Mat Maneri “Part 5” from Two Men Walking (Leo Records) 49:11

10. Lafayette Gilchrist “Move With Love” from Move With Love (Morphius Records) 56:03

11. Brittany Davis “Sun and Moon” from Black Thunder (Loosegroove Records) 1:04:59

12. Theon Cross “Affirmations” from Affirmations - Live At The Blue Note New York (New Soil/Division 81) 1:11:09

13. Rico Jones “The Moment” from BloodLines (Giant Step Arts) 1:25:02

14. Ivo Perelman, Mat Maneri, Joe Morris “Part 7” from Counterpoint (Leo Records) 1:32:54

15. Lauren Scales, Mike Flanagan, Chris Grasso “Spanish Joint “ from May Rivers (Truth Revolution Recording Collective) 1:36:39

16. Joshua Redman “Words Fall Short” from Words Fall Short (Blue Note) 1:41:23

17. Charles Tolliver “In The Trenches” from Live in Berlin at the Quasimodo (Strata East/Mack Avenue) 1:45:57

18. Sarah Wilson “Incandescence” from Incandescence (Brass Tonic Records) 1:53:07

19. Ivo Perelman, Karl Berger “The Well Of Memory” from The Hitchhiker (Leo Records) 1:58:31

NOTES

Tessa Souter

Acclaimed vocalist and lyricist Tessa Souter approaches the work of Erik Satie with jazz-inspired eloquence on Shadows and Silence: The Erik Satie Project. Featuring Luis Perdomo (piano), Yasushi Nakamura (bass), Billy Drummond (drums), Nadje Nordhuis (trumpet and flugelhorn) and Steve Wilson (soprano saxophone). Released June 27, 2025 via Noanara Music.

With her sixth album as a leader, Tessa Souter continues to explore her penchant for collaborating with a broad range of renowned composers, both living and dead. 100 years after his death, she has turned her attention to the music of eccentric French composer, Erik Satie, appending her haunting lyrics to new incarnations of some of his best-known works.

A fascinating collection which reflects both the music of Satie as well as two tracks from Miles Davis’ seminal album ESP.

Stefano Tampelleni and Paolo Tognola

A wonderful free improvised release from powerhouse Italian duo Stefano Tampellini (sax and flute) and Paolo Tognola (piano). Miniature came together seamlessly out of thirty years of artistic collaboration and deep friendship between the pianist from Brescia and the saxophonist from Lecco. Seven tracks, seven songs, seven improvisations, or rather seven inner journeys born from the impromptu dialogue between the two covering free improvisation and avant-garde.

Mike Clark & Mike Zilber

One of jazz music’s most heralded traditions is breathing new life into older material. Reimagining standards and well-known songs provide impetus and backbone for ensemble connection and creative improvisation. Saxophonist Michael Zilber and drummer Mike Clark utilize their understanding and mastery of the jazz canon and popular songs on their new recording, Standard Deviations, a recording seemingly familiar yet new. Clark has provided pulse to innumerable influential rhythm sections over his long and varied career. The drummer’s association with Zilber has blossomed over the last decade, focusing mainly on their love for New York City’s hard swinging jazz tradition. Though both originally hail from the West Coast, Clark from the Bay Area and Zilber from Vancouver, Canada, the musicians found their musical home with the driving sounds of New York hard bop via groups like those of Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

The musicians are separated by a continent, as Zilber lives in Los Angeles and Clark in New York City. But when they get together, they make their reunions count. In the Autumn of 2022, Clark and Zilber performed a very successful concert of new material at the Monterey Jazz Festival, where they were joined by up-and-coming New York bassist Alexander Claffy. Shortly thereafter, Zilber headed to New York City, where he and Clark rehearsed and recorded Zilber’s fresh, new arrangements. Recording Standard Deviations with a New York band was important to Zilber and Clark, as they wanted musicians who understood that distinctive approach, namely, to remain loose, swing hard, and be in the moment. For the recording, the duo brought in the aforementioned Claffy along with stalwart pianist Jon Davis, a seasoned veteran of the New York scene who had already played some of the material with Zilber and Clark.

Ivo Perelman

Concluding the second tranche of re-releases of Ivo’s catalogue with Leo Records with four albums appearing a various points in the show

• A 2016 release featuring Ivo Perelman: tenor sax, Mat Maneri: viola and Tanya Kalmanovitch: viola. One of the most interesting of Perelman's releases in as much as it presents a very personal take on his late, great compatriot composer Villa Lobos via a programme of original improvised pieces rather than interpretations of the latter’s work.

• Back two years for the second selection and with one less viola. Ivo and Matt embark on fascinating explorations of their respective instruments.

• Moving forward one year to 2015 and retaining the partnership with Maneri but adding Joe Morris’s guitar - the first time Ivo had utilised this combination of instruments. It feels like Morris is dominating on the featured track but closer listening reveals all three players are working together to create a unique soundscape.

• Back to 2016 for a partnership with Karl Berger who features on vibes on this album (as opposed to the piano used on the Reverie album from the duo two years earlier). Berger creates an almost incandescent soundscape over which Ivo creates emotive melodies and explosions of sound.

Emilia Vancini

Pigri is not your average jazz album. It’s a raw, minimalist collaboration between vocalist Emilia and drummer-composer Guillermo Martín-Viana. At its core, it’s a collection of beloved jazz standards, two intimate original pieces for solo drums, and a bold reinterpretation of Pigro, a 1970s protest song by Italian cantautore Ivan Graziani.

Recorded live in the studio without overdubs, re-takes, or elaborate arrangements, Pigri thrives on instinct and presence. The duo chose to abandon polished perfection in favor of emotional honesty, embracing the spontaneous imperfections that come with real-time performance. What you hear is what happened.

The title Pigri, Italian for "lazy ones", is both a nod to the Graziani song Pigro and a tongue-in-cheek reflection of the artists' decision to keep the project intentionally sparse. No other musicians, no full band, and only two original compositions. The result is a surprisingly rich, bold, and intimate album that invites listeners to rethink what it means to “do more with less.”

Pigro itself is as timely as ever. A sharp critique of passive mediocrity disguised as certainty, it’s a protest against complacency. That spirit runs through the album.

Emilia’s voice and Guillermo’s drums speak with clarity, wit, and subtle defiance. Pigri is their protest in softness, their challenge to convention.

Kaze & Koichi Makigami

No previous album in their 14-year history will prepare you for the gleeful lunacy of Shishiodoshi (July 11, 2025 via Circum/Libra), the latest CD from Kaze, the cooperative quartet featuring Japanese composer-pianist Satoko Fujii and trumpeter Natsuki Tamura along with French trumpeter Christian Pruvost and drummer Peter Orins. With guest vocalist Koichi Makigami along for the ride, Kaze unleashes an inspired blend of serious music-making and quirky humour. “We had so much fun making this record!,” Fujii says. “Koichi brought something unique to the music and it made us play differently.”

Kaze and Makigami, a legend of Japanese avant-rock and sometime collaborator with free improvisers, first met several years ago when Kaze performed at Jazz Art Sengawa, a festival for which Makigami is an artistic director. But they didn’t play together until early last year during Kaze’s tour of Japan. When Fujii learned that Makigami was going to be in Europe in the late spring, she invited him to join Kaze for a concert in Lille, the home of Pruvost and Orins.

Tamura’s “Inspiration 2” closes the CD with evocative musical hi-jinks. The opening section provides a temporary moment of serenity, with the group imitating the sounds of nature. But it is soon replaced by quiet percussion and a skein of breathy trumpets, shakuhachi, and strummed piano strings. A shockingly intense solo vocal outing from Makigami raises the energy level, ushering in a collective improvisation and an incendiary piano solo from Fujii. The music rushes on to an exuberant climax to end on a high note.

Peter Johnstone International Organ Quartet

Scottish keyboardist Peter Johnstone released Resistance Is Futile, the debut album by his International Organ Quartet on Friday 11th July. Featuring New York-based vibes virtuoso Joe Locke, leading saxophonist Tommy Smith and Johnstone’s Scottish National Jazz Orchestra rhythm section colleague, Alyn Cosker on drums, the quartet formed in 2023 after Joe Locke admired Johnstone’s work with the SNJO and suggested they might work together. A former Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year, Johnstone has toured internationally with vocalist Kurt Elling and Vienna-based American saxophonist Andy Middleton and has worked with guitarists Jim Mullen, Rob Luft and Nigel Price as well as appearing extensively as pianist with the SNJO. He is also Tommy Smith’s partner in a well-established duo and is the first graduate of the jazz course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow to return in a teaching capacity.

Resistance Is Futile consists of eight original compositions by Johnstone.

Antonia Bennett

Carving out her own career, the daughter of the legendary Tony Bennett, establishes herself in a straightforward and direct style eloquently weaving middle-of-the-road pop, adult contemporary, and swinging jazz into a delectable and pleasing sonic garden.

Expressions features pianist-keyboardist Christian Jacob, guitarist Larry Koonse, bassist Kevin Axt, and drummer Kendall Kay representing some of the finest musicians. Guest appearances by trumpeter Randy Brecker and special guest background vocalist David Thomas elevate the performances to even higher levels.

Often showcased as an opening act over the last 15 years for her father’s shows Antonia began pursuing an independent solo career debuting early recordings such as the EP Natural, and albums Embrace Me, Until The End Of Time, and Here For You.

Compared to many by reviewers one listen reveals the obviousness of her unique voice, interpretation and style. Her latest material is the most rewarding to date.

Layfayette Gilchrist

This live album, out July 25, 2025 via Morphius Records, features Gilchrist’s hip-hop and go-go inspired New Volcanoes ensemble on its first release in seven years. While the title captures the infectious, joyous, groove-heavy sound that New Volcanoes has honed over the last two decades, it’s also a plea for community during turbulent times. Move With Love arrives as Gilchrist embarks on a new chapter in his career, as he joins the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra in the piano chair inaugurated by the ensemble’s iconic namesake. The wide-ranging palette of the Arkestra, whose orbit pulls in influences from the earliest eras of jazz to the cutting edge of the avant-garde and beams it back to Earth through a dazzling Afrofuturist lens, seems a perfect fit for the eclectic tastes of Gilchrist. Though all of his music is informed by hip-hop and the D.C.-born go-go style, it manifests in different ways depending on the band that the keyboardist channels it through. With his quintet, the Sonic Trip Masters, Gilchrist hews closer to a traditional acoustic jazz sound, while the more expansive New Volcanoes delves deeper into his funky, groove-oriented side in the form of a combustible nonet.

On the band’s first album since 2018’s Deep Dancing Suite, Gilchrist unveils a retooled New Volcanoes. Guitarist Carl Filipiak and bassist Anthony “Blue” Jenkins return from the previous incarnation, while percussionist Kevin Pinder transitions onto the drum kit. They’re joined by trumpeter Leo Maxey, trombonist Christian Hizon and saxophonists Shaquim Muldrow, Ebban Dorsey and Efraim Dorsey, with guest percussionist Bashi Rose joining for four of the album’s six tracks. The album captures a rollicking live set on home turf at Baltimore’s Club Car, in the room that had previously housed the Windup Space.

Brittany Davis

Previously featured on World of Jazz 738 - another track from Brittany’s excellent new album.

Theon Cross

A contemporary document of live improvisation at its most fertile and free, Affirmations: Live at Blue Note New York steps into - and updates - a lineage that has seen the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Oscar Peterson record live at the Blue Note. Featuring a line-up that blends the best of London and Chicago talent, Cross is joined by rapidly rising saxophonist Isaiah Collier. Rounding out the ensemble is Collier’s drummer James Russell Sims and London-based guitarist Nikos Ziarkas, who has been close with Cross for several years.

While honouring the likes of John Coltrane’s Live at the Village Gate and Sonny Rollins’ Live at the Village Vanguard – from which Cross once transcribed all the bass solos to play on tuba – Affirmations arrives with a modern twist, structured like a DJ set to take listeners on a distinct and unique sonic journey. Spliced with improvisations devised on the fly, the record’s 12 tracks features music from Cross’ 2019 album FYAH (Gearbox Records) and 2021’s INTRA – I (New Soil), as well as 2022’s ‘Wings’ previously released as 7” single with his version of Aswad’s ‘Back to Africa’ on the B side. Since the release of his previous album three and half years ago, Cross has established himself as a consummate, versatile collaborator, working with Jon Baptiste, hip-hop royalty Common, and everyone from Ravi Coltrane and Makaya McCraven to Little Simz, The Smile and Stormzy. There is nowhere more iconic than the Blue Note in NYC for Theon Cross to make his return to centre stage.

Rico Jones

With BloodLines, Giant Steps Arts introduces a compelling new compositional voice, Colorado-native tenor saxophonist Rico Jones. The album is his New York City leader debut and features a multi-generation band of peer guitarist Max Light and two veterans in bassist Joe Martin and drummer Nasheet Waits.

In his budding career, Jones has already accomplished much. He has won the Vandoren and Yamaha Emerging Artist Competitions and Manhattan School of Music’s William H. Borden Award for Outstanding Achievement and was selected to participate in both the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program at the Kennedy Center and the JAS Aspen Workshop. During his time at the Manhattan School of Music, Jones won numerous DownBeat Magazine awards for his ensembles, including jazz soloist. In 2024, he co-led—with creator Julia Keefe—the first-ever all-Indigenous big band, a project he helped initiate in 2022, and later appeared at the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival with Esperanza Spalding. That same year, he was invited by Spalding to appear as a special guest for two nights at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York. Jones has been mentored by David Kikoski, Bennie Maupin, Charles McPherson, Bobby Watson, Eric Wyatt, and George Coleman, and studied under Vincent Herring, Buster Williams, Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo O’Farrill, and Miguel Zenón.

Critical to Jones as a musician is his multicultural heritage. “The Latino and Indigenous perspectives have always been a part of my life. I saw much of those cultural expressions in my mother and extended family, the art in my home and the food I ate growing up,” he says. “My ancestry can be traced back to the Manso people who lived from New Mexico to Juarez Mexico.” Furthermore, Jones has absorbed the traditions of African-Americans both through his love of jazz legends like Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Wardell Gray, Lester Young and others and by playing music in his youth each Sunday in a predominantly Black Catholic Church.

BloodLines, recorded live at Brooklyn’s Ornithology in August 2024, is, as the title clearly implies, a deeply personal album, comprising original compositions but also Jones’ decision to have the performance begin with the five sections of "Bloodlines: Suite of the Omnipotent and Eternal Spirit," the preposition "of" rather than "for" emphasizing how each piece is part of a larger whole. As well, Jones says, “Film and its accompanying scores have been a deep source of inspiration for me. I love the emotional weight that the great melodies in film carry,” he says. “Just as films transport the audience, I hope the music connects people to a musical narrative, a singular expression of the divine seen through different lenses—my ancestors, my departed friends, my creativity, and my lived experience.”

Lauren Scales, Mike Flanagan, Chris Grasso

Many Rivers is the effervescent trio debut from vocalist Lauren Scales, saxophonist Mike Flanagan, and pianist Chris Grasso — three acclaimed artists from divergent backgrounds united by creative chemistry. Due August 8 on Truth Revolution Recording Collective, the album features a soul-stirring program of seven covers and two originals by Scales, brought to life with support from Grammy-winning bassist Luques Curtis and first-call drummers Richie Barshay and Charles Haynes.

The project bridges geography and identity: Scales oscillates between New York and the Midwest, while Flanagan and Grasso are both rooted in Provincetown, MA. Scales, a Detroit native and 2016 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition finalist, describes her mission as crafting music that’s “uplifting, poetic, emotionally honest — and accessible across genres and generations.”

Flanagan, praised by The Boston Globe for offering “jazz that flies over nobody’s head — warm, tuneful, and swinging,” connected with Scales during their master’s studies at NYU. After relocating to Provincetown, he met Grasso — an esteemed performer lauded by 2024 NEA Jazz Master Willard Jenkins for having “carved out a niche that certainly qualifies him for the pantheon of great jazz vocal piano accompanists.” (Open Sky Jazz)

Many Rivers flowed from a U.S. tour by the three musicians in the winter of 2023, where they paid homage to classic albums led by vocalists and instrumentalists — 1955’s Sarah Vaughan with Clifford Brown, 1962’s Nancy Wilson / Cannonball Adderley. They expanded this template to include Carmen Sings Monk — Carmen McRae’s 1990 album of Thelonious Monk interpretations — and the extensive collaborations between D’Angelo and Questlove. The featured opening track and first single, “Spanish Joint,” from D’Angelo’s 2000 masterpiece Voodoo, reflects the latter — as well as the staggering impact of the late trumpeter Roy Hargrove, who performed on the original track.

Joshua Redman

A new collection of original compositions that serves as the introduction of his new quartet featuring pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Philip Norris, and drummer Nazir Ebo. The album also features special guest appearances by vocalist Gabrielle Cavassa, saxophonist Melissa Aldana, and trumpeter Skylar Tang.

The quartet formed as a working band for the world tour behind Redman’s 2023 label debut where are we, performing steadily on the road and developing a vibe that inspired the saxophonist to bring them into the studio to record a set of music he had composed during the pandemic. Cornish, Norris, and Ebo impress on each of the album’s eight originals, which embrace the shifting moods of wistfulness, sadness, and resolve. While the musicians have moments to emerge and take the spotlight, they also provide a distinctive ensemble personality, one in which spontaneity and sensitivity keep the music fluid yet coherent. They are a rhythm section with character, one in sync with the priorities of their leader. “My approach to bandleading is unchanged,” Redman says. “Play with the best musicians I can find, virtuosos who have mastered all the different jazz vocabularies, but who are also great listeners and collaborators — who know how to express their individual brilliance through group improvisation and collective interaction.”

Charles Tolliver

Recorded in July 1988, Strata-East co-founder and trumpeter Charles Tolliver’s Live in Berlin at the Quasimodo captures an explosive quartet delivering a high-energy performance in Germany. Originally released separately as Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Tolliver is joined by Alain Jean-Marie (piano), Ugonna Okegwa (bass), and Ralph Van Duncan (drums). This remastered set combines both volumes, includes a previously unreleased track, and is available digitally for the first time through the Strata East re-issue programme via Mack Avenue.

Sarah Wilson

Community spirit has been a constant in the work of composer and trumpet player Sarah Wilson, whose experiences and inspirations have ranged from socially conscious puppet theater to brass band and New Orleans traditions to her own illuminating style of jazz. When musicians are truly inspired and connected with one another, Wilson describes, time seems to stand still for artist and listener alike.

“Time just evaporates,” Wilson says, “and you’re completely immersed in feeling the euphoria and joy of being in this creative moment. You forget everything else that is happening in space and time, while paradoxically the music is moving through time.”

During a 2023 artist residency in Krems, Austria, the Bay Area-based Wilson experienced a similar epiphany when she encountered the paintings of Viennese artist Thomas Reinhold. One of the founding figures of German “New Painting” or “Junge Wilde,” Reinhold’s large-scale work combines architectural planning with the chance effects of time. Wilson’s reaction to the paintings inspired the music on Incandescence, the joy-fueled new album by her sextet Brass Tonic.

Out July 18, 2025 via Wilson’s own Brass Tonic Records and co-produced by Wilson and Grammy Award-winning producer Hans Wendl, Incandescence was commissioned by InterMusic SF’s Musical Grant Program. It draws equal inspiration from Reinhold’s bold, multi-hued abstracts and from the street-level, community-spirited traditions of brass band, marching and New Orleans parade music. In Brass Tonic, Wilson combines an all-woman horn frontline – herself, alto saxophonist Kasey Knudsen, and trombonist Mara Fox – with the buoyant rhythm section of guitarist John Schott, bassist Lisa Mezzacappa, and, for this recording, drummers Jon Arkin and Tim Bulkley.