Branford Marsalis Quartet Rises with Upward Spiral in June

It is no secret that the Branford Marsalis Quartet can be as freewheeling off the bandstand as in its

performances. Saxophonist Marsalis, and his Quartet made up of pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Revis and drummer Justin Faulkner are each bold personalities with strong opinions, equally intense in both musical and verbal exchanges. "The band talks about all kinds of things, many of which are unprintable," Marsalis admits. "But we have serious musical debates as well." One of these exchanges led to Upward Spiral, the new album from the Branford Marsalis Quartet with special guest Kurt Elling. The album will be released via Marsalis Music via OKeh Records on June 10, 2016.

"One topic we got into was picking the best singer to work with our band," Marsalis recalls. "My candidate was Kurt Elling, because he has the most flexible voice around, is always in tune and is a true jazz musician. When I met Kurt two years ago at a Thelonious Monk Institute competition, we had a conversation at the bar about doing a record together."

"I had bumped into Branford on the road a handful of times, and we always had significant conversations," Elling adds. "So when he mentioned making a record, I said 'any time!'"

Nonesuch to Release Two New Pat Metheny Albums on May 6: "The Unity Sessions" & "Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny"

Nonesuch Records will release a pair of new albums from guitarist, composer, and bandleader Pat Metheny on May 6, 2016. Metheny is well-known as a musical collaborator, and both records feature friends and colleagues with whom he has worked for years.  The Unity Sessions is taken from a filmed performance with Pat Metheny Unity Group that was recently released on DVD; the set comprises 13 songs by Metheny, one he co-wrote with Ornette Coleman, and one well known standard by Ray Noble.

And Cuong Vu Trio Meets Pat Metheny joins the guitarist with a trio led by longtime Pat Metheny Group trumpeter Cuong Vu.  The release comprises five tunes written by Vu plus one by Metheny and one by Andrew D'Angelo.

In 2013, for the first time since 1980, Metheny recorded with a band that highlighted tenor saxophone. The resulting Unity Band, which went on to win him his 20th Grammy Award, featured Chris Potter on sax and bass clarinet, longtime collaborator Antonio Sanchez on drums, and Ben Williams on bass. Metheny then took that same ensemble into new territory with the addition of his Orchestrion and a focus on more through-composed material and christened the ensemble Pat Metheny Unity Group. The Group's first record, Kin (←→), was released by Nonesuch back in 2014 and was named the best jazz album of the year in the DownBeat Readers Poll Awards. The Group went on a world tour of more than 150 cities; and at the end, they hunkered down in a small Manhattan theater to film new performances of music from the original Unity Band, the expansive Kin(←→), and touchstones from the entirety of Metheny's music catalog. The results were released on DVD last year as The Unity Sessions, and now Nonesuch releases the album of the same name.

Brad Mehldau’s "10 Years Solo Live" Out Now in 4-CD Box Set

This weeks marks the release of Brad Mehldau's 10 Years Solo Live as a four-CD box set on Nonesuch Records. The set, which was first released as an eight-LP vinyl box set last month, is culled from nineteen live recordings made over a decade of the pianist's European solo concerts and is divided into four thematic subsets of four sides each: Dark/Light, The Concert, Intermezzo/ Rückblick, and E Minor/E Major.

The new set "contains some of the most impressive pianism Mr. Mehldau has captured on record," exclaims the New York Times' Nate Chinen. It "also confirms that his pristine technique and prismatic elaboration are distinctive traits unto themselves," closing with a performance that is "an astonishment even by his lofty standards." Jazzwise, in a five-star review, calls it "a monumental achievement, and one of the most rewarding solo piano collections of the 21st century so far." The BBC Music Magazine five-star review says it's "a powerful picture of a renaissance artist at the height of his powers."

The Irish Times has named 10 Years Solo Live its Album of the Week. "To listen intently is to engage in the tangle of a great musician's mind, one whose influence may now be discerned in pretty much every jazz pianist that has come after him," says the five-star review. "Nothing can replace the thrill of actually being in the room when Mehldau is in the act of creation, but 10 Years Solo Live is a close second."

Columbia Records to Release "Miles Davis at Newport 1955-75..." Box Set

Miles Davis' 20-year association as an artist at impresario George Wein's renowned Newport Jazz Festival is a thriving tradition that will be celebrated with the release of MILES DAVIS AT

NEWPORT 1955-1975: THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 4. The four-CD box set, comprised of live performances by Miles' stellar band lineups in 1955, 1958, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973, and 1975, in Newport, Rhode Island, New York City, Berlin, and Switzerland, will be the lynchpin for a 60th anniversary commemorative weekend of events at this summer's annual Newport Jazz Festival (July 31, August 1 & 2). Ahead of the festival, MILES DAVIS AT NEWPORT 1955-1975 will be available everywhere on Friday, July 17, 2015 60 years to the date since Davis' breakthrough performance at Newport in 1955, through Columbia/Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. Fans are now able to pre-order the 4-CD set bundled with a poster exclusively from MilesDavis.com (http://smarturl.it/miles_newport_d2c ). The set is also available for pre-order on Amazon (http://smarturl.it/miles_newport_amzn).

The newest entry in Columbia/Legacy Recordings' critically-acclaimed Miles Davis Bootleg Series, NEWPORT 1955-1975 clocks in at 296 minutes, nearly four hours of which is previously unreleased. From Miles' debut performance at NJF in 1955 (a hastily arranged jam session featuring Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan, that immediately led to the trumpeter's Columbia signing), to his final public perform­ance of the '70s in 1975 (at Lincoln Center during NJF-NY, the singular "Mtume" named for Miles' favored percussion­ist of that decade), the box set traces the ascendance of Miles' music as the ne plus ultra of jazz. The full-length concert performances alone of Miles' famed "Kind Of Blue" Sextet (with Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb), and 'second great quintet in '66 and '67 (with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams) represent templates that reverberate in jazz and popular music to this day.

Drummer Buddy Rich "Birdland" Album Out May 25

Lightyear Entertainment and Lobitos Creek Ranch, in association with Scabeba Entertainment and the Buddy Rich Estate, have announced the release of a new live album featuring Buddy Rich and his Killer Force Band at the peak of their performing years.

This rare, previously unreleased, and all original production was recorded with Buddy’s permission by bandmate Alan Gauvin, who has also now mixed and edited the project together. The album was mastered by Tom Swift, and will be released May 26 through Caroline Distribution, the independent distribution arm of Universal Music Group, on the Lightyear/Lobitos Creek label.

The Birdland album is seen in the Academy Award winning film Whiplash, in the hands of the young
star Miles Teller, who plays an extraordinary drummer who idolizes Buddy Rich.