Maria Schneider’s American Crow A New EP and Visual Narrative Exploring Listening, Connection, and Courage in a Divisive Age

Available here via ArtistShare®

“Improvisation asks everyone to risk what they think they know, and offers them an opportunity – through listening – to discover something new in themselves. Jazz shines a light on what we are allowing to slip away in our brittle and fractured world, making our art form more relevant today than ever before.” – Maria Schneider

Maria Schneider’s composition, “American Crow,” (originally commissioned by Emory University) carries a message that’s becoming more relevant with each day. “American Crow is an extension of my double album, Data Lords,” explains Schneider. “It speaks to the toxicity of our present social discourse that’s devolved into an impenetrable knot of curated rage. We crow about each other incessantly, having lost almost any ability or wish to really listen and understand those with whom we disagree.”

“For decades now, every time I hear my band play, I witness the magic of listening,” she continues. “A true jazz improvisor thrives on listening: waiting, responding, considering, reconsidering, responding again, sometimes in ways that surprise even the improvisor. Jazz is at its best when everyone is vulnerable. Improvisation asks everyone to risk what they think they know, and offers them an opportunity – through listening – to discover something new in themselves. Jazz shines a light on what we are allowing to slip away in our brittle and fractured world, making our art form more relevant today than ever before.”

“American Crow” begins with distressed Americana, but soon enough submerges and dissolves into retrospection, a place and time Schneider remembers from her Midwestern childhood, when people could listen to one another. Space existed. And generally, people would look for compromise and consensus. People who saw things differently could still speak respectfully – they could like one another, even love one another. Mike Rodriguez on trumpet begins his improvisation in a fashion of listening, never talking-over, as he encounters a pastoral theme in the ensemble and rhythm section. But in time, the intensity of language ramps up, the volume increases: spewing, sparring, impenetrable statements, a society at verbal war, screaming from their echo chambers. When the vitriol morphs into just a single churning dark din that feels impossible to untangle, Jeff Miles on guitar longingly recalls the pastoral theme. Mike's responds to Jeff’s guitar over the dark din, as if to ask, "Do we want to find our way back?" or "Can we find our way back?"

After hearing “American Crow” performed in Denver, Colorado in 2024, Michelle Mercer (author of “Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter) wrote in Call and Response: “This Denver performance was the only time I’ve heard the unrecorded “American Crow.” Once was enough to hear the benefits of Maria’s uncompromising work with the same ensemble for decades: She connected the peculiarly personal to a social critique in instrumental music incisive, evocative, and lovely enough to reach everyone in the concert hall. Once was enough to hear a masterpiece offering clarion hope in the babel of a divisive age. As Wayne Shorter told Maria, Miles Davis loved music that didn’t sound like music. The Maria Schneider Orchestra doesn’t play big band jazz tunes or even orchestral music per se. Her ensemble renders the very stuff of life into music.”

Maria_Schneider photo by Katharina Poblotzki

American Crow will be released on CD as an EP that also includes a newly recorded version of “A World Lost” (reimagined as a guitar feature), a field recording of American crow vocalizations that segue into “American Crow, Revisited,” an alternate take. The visually captivating package was designed by Cheri Dorr and includes original commissioned artwork by Aaron Horkey, the renowned artist from Schneider’s hometown of Windom, MN. Horkey also painted the leaf on Schneider’s Data Lords release.
“American Crow: A Narrative in Notes and Frames” in its longform music video format was created by Four/Ten Media. It is being released worldwide and is free to all.

Schneider say: “My hope is that every aspect of this release, visual and aural, will make us all question whether we want to untangle ourselves from the knot of curated rage ravaging our society. I hope it makes one ask, ‘Can I find it in myself to listen and engage in respectful conversation to someone I disagree with? Can I be vulnerable enough to ask questions rather than preaching and yelling? Can I envision being courageous enough to taking that first step that opens the door, possibly inviting a reciprocal open ear from someone with whom I disagree? Can I embrace in my daily life the attributes that have made jazz great.’"

“American Crow” is being made, funded and documented through ArtistShare, the world’s first directto-fan funding platform that would later spark an entire industry, which Schneider first used in 2003. This is her seventh ArtistShare project. “My work has been buoyed for over 30 years by the support of many many incredible people I’ve connected with through ArtistShare. I continue to love opening my creative world to these wonderful people who have enabled me to fulfill my creative dreams.”

Maria Schneider website click here

Thank you to Ann Braithwaite for sharing with us

OUT NOW N∆BOU:UNPERSUADABLE EXTERN

Unpersuadable Extern: Single release date: October 31st 2025. Purchase here

Indigo: Album release date: January 30th 2026 Preorder here

Label: Edition Records

Indigo the third album from N∆BOU - quartet led by Belgian trombonist and composer Nabou Claerhout, marks a striking new phase in her creative evolution. Following Hubert (2019) and You Know (2021), Nabou Claerhout presents a refreshed N∆BOU line-up with Trui Amerlinck (double bass), Gijs Idema (electric guitar) and Daniel Jonkers (drums).

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The album explores change, renewal and shifting human connections, building on the strong foundations N∆BOU has established in Belgium and the Netherlands while signalling Claerhout’s growing international reach. It is an album of metamorphosis: new collaborators, new perspectives, and deeply personal compo- sitions transformed into music that feels raw yet refined, intimate yet powerful.

The soundworld of Indigo moves between dreamy atmospheres and melancholic resonance, from lyrical, contemplative passages to playful, groove-driven energy. Haunting tributes such as Light Blue Shawl (for Stijn) and Consent (for Stijn) sit alongside the structural suite of Ruin & Redemption, Lost Soul and Consent, each piece reimagining itself through form and texture.

Claerhout’s trombone remains the guiding force, shaped by subtle effects and ghost-like solo interludes that thread fragility, weight and release into the music. With its balance of intimacy and power, Indigo signals a bold step forward, an album that opens Claerhout’s music to new audiences with a compelling and resonant voice.

Following two critically acclaimed albums, trombonist Nabou Claerhout is taking the next step with her quartet, N∆BOU. Indigo an album that simmers and sparkles, giving jazz the oxygen it needs to breathe and transform, will be released in January 2026.

The title is no coincidence: when the colourless sap from the leaves of the indigo plant comes into contact with oxygen in the air, it turns vibrant colours after a fermentation process. This metaphor runs through the entire album, which moves between darkness and light, mourning and beauty, tension and breathing space.

At its heart is a suite of four interwoven pieces – ‘Lost Soul’, ‘Ruin & Redemption’, ‘Consent’ and ‘Light Blue Shawl’ – that resonate with each other both thematically and musically. Motifs return in new forms, melodies are turned upside down and chords shift subtly. The result is a continuous sound story that reveals itself layer by layer.

However, Indigo is more than just a conceptual exercise; it is personal. Two songs are dedicated to Stijn, Nabou’s childhood friend whose sudden death left a deep impression. ‘Light Blue Shawl’ refers to the uni- form scarf of their youth movement, a symbol of an unbreakable bond. Consent sounds, unintentionally but unmistakably, like a reflection of that loss.

The unique sound of N∆BOU is the result of the close collaboration of a quartet of musicians. Trui Amerlinck (double bass) has been a permanent fixture in the band since its inception, providing a reliable foundation with her soft, steady playing. Gijs Idema (guitar), one of the original members, has been shaping the quar- tet’s sound from the outset. Although his studies in New York temporarily interrupted their collaboration, he returned to bring new depth to the ensemble. Daniel Jonkers (drums) brings an intuitive, almost primal drum sound that always reconnects the music with its essence and heart. Together, they create a sound that is both versatile and uniquely recognisable, providing a foundation on which composer Nabou Claerhout’s trombone can float, whisper and tell stories.

While others start with the melody, N∆BOU often starts with the rhythm, which gives their music a capricious and layered quality. On Indigo, the sound is richer, warmer and more emotional than ever. It ranges from introspective depths to unexpectedly light-hearted moments, almost nodding to country music.

Indigo is an album that constantly shifts between contrasts — dark and light, loss and beauty, experimenta- tion and melody — taking listeners on a personal and musically layered journey of transience.

Just like those three sides of the triangle in the band’s name, Antwerp based trombone player Nabou Claerhout surrounded herself with her three favourite musicians to found her own group N∆BOU. With Trui Amerlinck on double bass, Gijs Idema on electric guitar and Daniel Jonkers on drums, this quartet unites some of the most diversely talented young musicians in the Benelux. N∆BOU rapidly made their way up in the newest jazz-&-beyond wave, catching the attention of both the audience and sector professionals thanks to their refreshing trombone sound, innovative use of effects and original approach of compositions.

With ‘Hubert’ (2019), the band showed their unique sound for the first time on a praised debut EP, and then in 2021, with the first full album ‘You Know’, they measured themselves internationally and visited an impressive series of renowned venues and festivals: the foursome has already played at Ancienne Belgique, Gent Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, HA Concerts, Cologne Jazz Week, Edinburgh Jazz Festival, EJC showcase Ghent, Münster Jazz Festival, La Petite Hall Paris, OLT Rivierenhof, Bimhuis, Transition Festival, Brussels Jazz Weekend, KAAP, Leuven Jazz, and many more.

On these first releases and during their live shows, the band’s strong interplay and interesting interaction creates both up tempo grooves as well as a more contemplative atmosphere. Their exploration and stret- ching of the boundaries of both the trombone and the jazz genre, awards N∆BOU with a unique position in today’s scene.

Thank you to Aubergine Artist Management for sharing with us

Release Date: 30th January 2026 on Discus Music Format: CD / DL Recorded: 2025

Maggie Nicols, Robert Mitchell and Alya Al-Sultani present their new album 'Immersion'

Maggie Nicols - voice Robert Mitchell - voice, piano Alya Al-Sultani - voice

Alya writes: When Maggie and I went into a studio to record their album Free, Free back in January 2024, Maggie brought one of Robert's poems for exploration. Once recorded, the music was sent to Robert who liked it enough to suggest we record a trio album and the trio was born. The album is a sonic interpretation drawn from three of Robert's books of poetry, three poems chosen by each of us.

Robert writes: This was a unique experience recording for me in a studio that I have had several fantastic experiences in over 20yrs. We have not performed, had not rehearsed and were formulating a sonic world in real time as the takes proceeded. Copious light came into the room and never left! I believe we have more than a book within each of us. Sometimes a day provides a sentence. An hour provides a paragraph. A week provides a comma, and a minute provides a whole page. As Wayne Shorter says ‘Our instrument is our humanity’. Our most human job surely is to keep our antenna clean and functioning, and to keep as many channels open as possible. As a result - we might even receive the coordinates to the most important treasure: living in peace. The daily distractions, and thus the deliberate weakening of our abilities to work together while benefitting from our naturally occurring ‘differences’ - are some of the most pressing challenges of these times. It is a great privilege to have these two vocalists give a number of these writings stunningly bespoke clothing to now wear in a part of the universe far from where they were conceived! If any of this can provoke you to turn even the most difficult of days into a sentence, the most lonely of nights into a stanza or the most busiest of periods into a verse lying somewhere between now and an ideal destiny - the time you have given to this recording has been truly well spent.

Maggie writes: I first heard Robert’s wonderful poetry at one of Nod Knowles Bath Jazz weekends. I loved it and was very grateful when I was sent a book of his poems. Alya and I have been exploring musically together in deeply inspiring ways so when it was suggested that the three of us record together, I was very excited. I love the weaving together of our voices with Robert’s words and his beautiful piano playing.

BIOGRAPHIES

Maggie Nicols has been an active participant in the European improvisational community since joining the Spontaneous Music Ensemble in the late ’60s. As a co-founder of the Feminist Improvising Group, she has also worked to further women in improvised music, dancing and other creative arts not only by example but through workshops and extensive collaboration.

Robert Mitchell has released 16 albums, 3 poetry collections, 2 eps. He leads Little Black Book, and his other groups have included Panacea, 3io, Epiphany3 and True Think. He is a Jazz Piano professor at Guildhall School of Music, has toured widely and has had his work performed by the Grammy winning Bournemouth Symphony Chorus amongst others.

Alya Al-Sultani is a dramatic soprano, improvising vocalist and opera-maker from Basrah, Iraq. Her work is focused on the themes of liberation and love. Playing with poetry with great improvisers has become one of my life’s great joys. It has given me access to poetry in a way I never imagined, bringing it to life for me, opening my awareness to the power of it. I spent much of my life seeing poetry as inaccessible, although my parents both had dozens of poems committed to heart, by Nizar Qabbani and other great Arabic poets. It has been a wonder and a gift to work with Maggie and Robert, both teachers and friends to me.

Discus on Bandcamp here

Bévort 3: A Cup of Joe (January 23rd, 2026)

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"Pernille Bévort displays all her customary rhythmic verve and melodic invention on a stirring homage to Joe Henderson that swings hard and simmers beautifully" Ian Patterson, All About Jazz.

The Danish saxophone trio Bévort 3 represents the essence of modern jazz, where tradition and innovation meet in a vibrant musical universe. The trio is led by Pernille Bévort, an award-winning saxophonist and composer with a colorful and original voice in jazz. The trio also includes the outstanding musicians Morten Ankarfeldt on bass and Espen Laub von Lillienskjold on drums. Together, they create a soundscape that exudes personality, dynamism, and creativity. Highly responsive, dynamic and interactive, the absence of a harmony instrument puts Bévort’s imaginative saxophone playing as well as the trio’s complex musical conversations in the spotlight. The intimate world of organic instrumental textures provides an aptly personal vessel through which the composer’s stories are told.

With the release of their new album, A Cup of Joe, the trio Bévort 3 marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Joe Henderson, one of jazz's central figures. Here, Pernille Bévort draws inspiration from Henderson's universe and compositions, while the music clearly bears her own personal signature. The album will be released in January 2026 and promises a musical experience full of surprises, energy, and presence.

In connection with the release, two prominent jazz connoisseurs have already shared their brief thoughts on the album "This music is so well played that it gives surprises the whole way through. I listened to the entire repertoire nonstop and was with the flow all the way. Pernille has control over her art form. She knows where she is and where she is headed. That is how I hear Joe Henderson’s work. She has really made an album in which I can hear Joe, but through her own personal aesthetic. Make no mistake - this is a real band, a working unit. And this new recording highlights the unity they have” Bob Rockwell (formerly known from Thad Jones/Mel Lewis etc.)

Within the last five years Bévort 3 has released several critically acclaimed albums, including “On Fire” (2021), “Live 2020-2021” (2022) and “Northbound” (2024). These releases have received five-star reviews and several nominations at the Danish Music Awards Jazz. Pernille and her trio Bévort 3 were awarded a grant as 'Band of the Year' (Danish Music Awards Jazz dec. 2022). Sept. 4th, 2024, Pernille received an honorary award from the composer association 'Autor' for her creative compositional work in jazz over the years.

The group's music is characterized by a colorful and imaginative blend of Nordic sounds, bluesy grooves and lively communication, where the sound of the individual instruments and the musicians' expressions blend into a cohesive, dynamic whole. With music that embraces both tradition and innovation, and with a fascinating interplay, Bévort 3 stands as a very exciting jazz trio in the Nordic region.

Pernille Bévort: tenor saxophone/band leader and all compositions Morten Ankarfeldt: double bass Espen Laub von Lillienskjold: drums All tracks recorded by Thomas Vang at The Village Recording, Copenhagen April 29th 2025, except Ballad for Dreamers, recorded at Soundscape Studios by Louise Nipper May 2023. Mixed May and July 2025 by Louise Nipper and Pernille Bévort. Mastered Aug. 2025 by David Elberling. Graphic design by Niklas Antonson – Notation

This album was released with support from Danish Conductors Association, Koda’s Cultural Funds and Danish Arts Foundation.

Website click here

Grammy-winning pianist/composer Kris Davis confronts the existential crisis of climate change on a striking new piece for piano and string quartet.The Solastalgia Suite, out January 9, 2026 via Pyroclastic Records, joins Davis with Poland’s world-renowned Lutosławski Quartet

Available here

“Davis’ music is precisely and unmistakably the sound of today.” — Downbeat Magazine

When Thomas Wolfe famously warned, “You can’t go home again,” the author saw nostalgia as a transformative sensation that placed our past out of reach. The global-scale damage that climate change has wrought in the decades since Wolfe wrote his novel has evoked a new, more profound emotion. The philosopher Glenn Albrecht coined the term “solastalgia” to define, “a form of homesickness while we are still at home.”

Grammy Award-winning pianist and composer Kris Davis viscerally captures those feelings of yearning, dread and desperate hope on her breathtaking new work, The Solastalgia Suite. Her first piece for piano and string quartet, the album features Davis with Poland’s world-renowned Lutosławski Quartet. Alternately elegiac, bracing, defiant and warily optimistic, the eight-movement suite stirs the complex emotions described by Albrecht: “Our environment is transforming around us,” he writes, “and we grieve for the landscapes and ecologies we knew.”

Set for release on January 9, 2026 from Pyroclastic Records, The Solastalgia Suite further expands the broad scope and incisive exploration of Davis’ compositional vision. The music was commissioned by the Jazztopad Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, and premiered there and at Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. Named for the 20th century Polish composer Witold Lutosławski, the Lutosławski Quartet was founded in 2007 and has collaborated with jazz artists like Vijay Iyer, Craig Taborn, Kenny Wheeler, Uri Caine and Benoît Delbecq; and with classical musicians including Garrick Ohlsson, Piotr Anderszewski, Kevin Kenner and Bruno Canino.

The music of The Solastalgia Suite grew directly out of the fears that Davis has harbored in light of the increasingly dire environmental crisis. “I see the changes when I go back home to Canada,” says the Vancouver native. “The environments are different, the climate's different – the whole connection with nature is different, from climate change and from our relationship to technology. I was looking for a word to describe this feeling of loss and mourning for my home and came across Glenn Albrecht’s term solastalgia, which described the feeling perfectly.”

There’s no sense of surrender in Davis’ music, which opens with the strident “Interlude,” a title that suggests that we enter the album in medias res – but not, with any luck, too late. From the seed of one mournful violin grows the moving, elegant web of “An Invitation to Disappear,” while “Towards No Earthly Pole,” with its scraping strings and percussive prepared piano, suggests an existence at the extreme fringe of survival. The bold string outbursts of “The Known End” frame a concerto-like showcase for Davis’ bristling piano; “Ghost Reefs,” haunted by the loss of bleached coral reefs, was directly inspired by the composer’s study with Henry Threadgill. The violent, erratic “Pressure & Yield” pictures the cracks and fissures of an Earth in upheaval, while “Life on Venus” floats eerily as through an alien environment. “Degrees of Separation” concludes the suite on an appropriately unsettled note of unpredictable and constant change.

Coming across Albrecht’s coinage gave a name to the overwhelming feelings that Davis had been contending with. She has since struck up a correspondence with the philosopher, and linked her work with fellow artists investigating similar concerns: the images and films of the French-Swiss conceptual artist Julian Charrière have provided vibrant and thought-provoking visual backdrops for performances of the suite, while the composition of the piece drew influence from Olivier Messiaen, in particular his “Quartet for the End of Time.” The French composer has been a guiding force for Davis, who sampled his voice on both releases by her venturesome ensemble Diatom Ribbons.

Photo of Davis and Lutoslawski Quartet by Wiktoria Smedra.

Kris Davis Kris Davis is a Grammy award-winning pianist and composer described by the New York Times as a beacon for “deciding where to hear jazz [in New York] on a given night.” Davis has released 26 recordings as a leader or co-leader and collaborated with artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Dave Holland, John Zorn, Craig Taborn, Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey and esperanza spalding. She was named a 2021 Doris Duke Artist alongside Wayne Shorter and Danilo Perez, Pianist of the Year by DownBeat magazine in 2025, 2022 and 2020, and Pianist and Composer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2021. In 2019, Davis’ Diatom Ribbons was named jazz album of the year by both the New York Times and the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll. Davis is the Associate Program Director of Creative Development at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, the founder of Pyroclastic Records and co-founder of the International Creators and Collaborators Workshop. Davis is a Steinway Artist.

Pyroclastic Records Pianist-composer Kris Davis founded Pyroclastic Records in 2016. By supporting artists in the dissemination of their work, Pyroclastic empowers emerging and established artists to continue challenging conventional genre-labeling within their fields. Pyroclastic also seeks to galvanize and grow a creative community, providing opportunities, supporting diversity and expanding the audience for noncommercial art. Its albums often feature artwork by prominent visual artists—Ellsworth Kelly, Julian Charriére, Dike Blair, Raymond Pettibon and Gabriel de la Mora among recent examples.

Thank to Ann Braithwaite for sharing with us

Kris Davis website click here

Release date January 2nd, 2026. 33 Jazz Records (UK)

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The Jasna Jovićević Quinary presents Simply Joy, the ensemble’s new album on 33 Jazz Records, expanding its distinctive sound world of contemporary chamber jazz. The group unites the lyricism of a string quartet with woodwinds, voice, and percussion, creating an uncommon and resonant blend of textures that bridges contemporary jazz and modern chamber music.

Featuring guest vibraphonist Pasquale Mirra, Simply Joy explores vibrant instrumental dialogues, layered soundscapes, and subtle rhythmic interplay. The music moves fluidly between composition and improvisation, revealing clarity, balance, and emotional depth. Their innovative approach to 21st-century contemporary jazz and conscious music creates a collective expression that mirrors togetherness and compassion in these extraordinary times.

Continuing the trajectory set by Flow Vertical (FMR)and Sounding Solitude (Mascom/ The state51 Conspiracy Records) ), this album captures the Quinary’s signature blend of imagination, precision, and openness, reaffirming their role as a leading voice in new European jazz.

Members of the Quinary are musicians working in very different musical disciplines, yet deeply united in this ensemble for years now: Jasna Jovićević ( alto and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, voice), Filip Krumes (violin) Rastko Popović (viola) Pavle Popović (cello) David Sič (double bass)

All songs are composed and arranged by Jasna Jovicevic

Jasna Jovićević is a saxophonist, composer, and scientific researcher in transdisciplinary artistic studies, internationally recognized for her distinctive voice in contemporary jazz, free improvisation, and experimental music. She has released seven solo albums and collaborated with numerous artists across Europe, the USA, and South Africa, performing with own ensembles such as the JJ Quinary, ANJALI Trio, and Jovicevic/Miklos/Wojcinski Trio. Her work unites composition, improvisation, and sound exploration with mindfulness, yoga practice, and artistic research, creating a unique synthesis of music, philosophy, and creative consciousness.

Check out Quinary`s website

Check out Jasna`s website