5x GRAMMY Nominee Lakecia Benjamin Ushers In a New Era on “Noble Rise”, New Single featuring Immanuel Wilkins - out June 27, 2025
The Phoenix era — encompassing that 2023 album and its 2024 live counterpart, Phoenix Reimagined — has been good to Lakecia Benjamin.
Stemming from a car accident that nearly claimed her life, Phoenix netted 3 Grammy nominations for Best Instrumental Composition, Best Jazz Instrumental Album, and Best Jazz Performance — with Phoenix Reimagined matching it in the latter two categories. None other than Stephen Colbert announced Phoenix Reimagined, live on air, with the alto saxophonist and composer herself guesting in the Late Show Band.
But Benjamin — much like her heroes John and Alice Coltrane, who she memorably paid tribute to with 2020’s Pursuance — has never been content to rest on her laurels. “We’re not just rising from the ashes anymore—we’ve done that,” Benjamin proclaims, “Now, we’re stepping into a season that honors every side of who I am: the survivor, the sovereign, the storyteller. This is a more regal era—rooted, radiant, and fully claimed.”
The first offering thereof is “Noble Rise” — a simmering collaboration with fellow alto voyager Immanuel Wilkins, who released his acclaimed third album for Blue Note, Blues Blood, in 2024. Less a saxophone battle than a meeting of the minds, the track features Benjamin’s core band as well as guitarist Mark Whitfield.
Benjamin was drawn to Wilkins for many reasons — his Philly roots, his control of his image, his mastery of the instrument at a young age. “I was looking to showcase where Immanuel and I are at in our careers — some of the similarities, some of the differences,” she says. “And to highlight getting knocked down, but striving, trying to get through.”
“Noble Rise” is a riveting introduction to Benjamin’s new chapter. We’re leaning into a more regal expression,” There’s a sense of heroic elevation“The ashes are no longer her origin story—they’re her foundation. Benjamin now creates from power, not pain.”
The launch of “Noble Rise” coincides with the continuation of her international tour, as well as two key performances on the West Coast – on June 13, Lakecia will perform at the SF Jazz Festival and on June 14, she will make her debut at the world famous Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Her European tour dates will see her make stops in Germany, Slovenia, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Netherlands. She will return to the Newport Jazz Festival main stage in August.
Soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom is back in zero Gs with her latest recording Songs in Space, a constellation of duets and trios conceived and performed especially for the experience of surround sound listening. The saxophonist who has an asteroid named after her (6083janeirabloom) and long known for her association with NASA pairs with longtime bandmates pianist Dominic Fallaco (from the Grammy nominated ballad project “Sixteen Sunsets”) and bassist Mark Helias and drummer Bobby Previte (from the Grammy award winning trio recording “Early Americans”). There are nine stellar originals including “Better Starlight” and “Riding My Planet” and two gravitationally re-arranged ballad classics “I Could Have Danced All Night” and “My Foolish Heart” that showcase Bloom’s extraordinary connect with Fallacaro and full-throated abandon with her rhythm section. The music is both lyric and motion-filled, played by seasoned performers who know how to just set the soundscape in space. The sound, silence, and acoustic interplay of these improvising musicians has been captured both in high-definition stereo and immersive audio. After years of remote recording during the pandemic Bloom returned to the studio to record live for three days in high-definition surround sound at the Clive Davis Institute in Brooklyn, NY with her Grammy award team of engineering legend Jim Anderson and tonmeister Ulrike Schwarz. Audio science and improvisational art collaborate to make this recording a one-of-a-kind musical experience. Songs in Space is available as a stereo (OTL146) and immersive (OTL146i) digital release on June 26.
Jane Ira Bloom is WINNER 2024 DOWNBEAT CRITICS POLL for SOPRANO SAX
“she tries to capture in music the poetry she imagines of soaring in space.” – Fred Bouchard, JazzTimes
NEA Jazz Master Amina Claudine Myers Offers Profound Musical Meditation with Solace of the Mind, out June 20, 2025 via Red Hook Records
Red Hook Records is proud to announce the June 20, 2025 release of Solace of the Mind, a profoundly lyrical solo album from pianist, organist, vocalist, and newly minted NEA Jazz Master Amina Claudine Myers. This extraordinary recording – a follow up to her critically acclaimed duo with Wadada Leo Smith, Central Park’s Mosaic of Reservoir, Lake, Paths and Gardens, released via Red Hook last May – stands as a testament to the uncompromising vision of a seasoned leader in creative music who has traced a remarkable path from her beginnings in Arkansas church choirs to the forefront of avant-garde jazz.
Throughout her six-decade musical journey, Myers has consistently defied conventional boundaries, drawing from her rich roots in Baptist and Methodist church music, gospel, and rhythm and blues. Solace of the Mind represents a deeply personal exploration of her musical evolution, featuring Myers on piano, Hammond B3 organ, and voice, to create an expressive document steeped in tradition and modernity.
Produced by Red Hook Records founder and former ECM producer Sun Chung, the recording is a masterwork of sonic precision, meticulously rendering every musical nuance with extraordinary fidelity. The recording’s stunning clarity not only amplifies the enthralling subtleties of Myers’ performance but also creates an immersive soundstage that brings the music’s central intimacy into focus.
The album emerges as a meditation on musical memory, with Myers revisiting compositions like “African Blues,” “Song for Mother E,” “Cairo,” and “Steal Away” – pieces she has performed before, but has now reimagined with the nuanced perspective of a lifetime of musical innovation. “I wanted to play them differently this time,” Myers reflects. “‘Steal Away,’ I hated that song when I was a child, the way the old people sang it, so slow and sad. But now it’s one of my favorites.”
Myers’ meditative performances distill these songs to their essential core, presenting them with a stark, unadorned clarity that reveals the raw beauty of her artistry. Her deliberate pacing and nuanced spatial arrangements create an intimate listening experience that draws audiences deep into the music’s intrinsic power.
A longtime member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Myers embodies the organization’s pioneering spirit of musical exploration. “I found my home in the AACM,” she recalls. “Everyone was encouraged to make our own music, do our own things. I began to hear more. I wanted to try different ideas.” The AACM’s remarkable legacy included fostering a musical community that radically challenged conventions while celebrating individual artistic identity. Within the collective, Myers emerged as a singular voice.
Noted Jazz Journalist Howard Mandel, who contributes liner notes, eloquently captures the essence of Myers’ approach: “She relies on fine touch, inner calm and pure feeling to soothe the soul — hers and ours — using pure pianistic melody.” The album offers “respites from strife without rhetoric or faith professed in anything but sound itself,” with Myers demonstrating “the patience and discernment to let her chords resound, their overtones linger.”
From her early days organizing church choirs in her preteen years to becoming a celebrated jazz innovator, Myers has continuously pushed musical boundaries. Her career has included collaborations with legendary artists like Archie Shepp, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Charlie Haden, Muhal Richard Abrams, Wadada Leo Smith and Anthony Braxton, and she has been recognized with numerous awards, including her recent designation as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2024 and a Mellon Jazz Legacies Fellowship in 2025.
Robert Thurman, in his accompanying liner notes, illuminates the album’s underlying artistic vision: “In this album she reveals to us her inner peace, with renderings that are evocative and profound, while simultaneously showing the deft of one’s craft gained by decades of experience. It is Amina’s hope that these musical portraits will provide moments of comfort and solace in this ever-changing world.”
Despite her numerous accolades, Myers remains charmingly modest. “‘Jazz Master’ — I guess that means I’ve got to up my game,” she muses. “It calls for something masterful.” With Solace of the Mind, she transcends expectations, offering a masterful collection that is at once a personal reflection and a universal meditation. One that invites listeners into a deeply personal musical journey, promising moments of comfort, introspection, and profound musical expression.
Solace of the Mind will be available on June 20, 2025, via Red Hook Records in digital, CD and LP format.
Saxophonist/Composer Hillai Govreen to release recording "Every Other Now"
Release Date: June 20th, 2025
(Fresh Sound New Talent Records)
Something in my heart leapt, the first time I heard this music performed live. I was willing to respond to the new sound right away. I noticed others recognized that “this is new”. They sat on the edge of their seats, all keen on staying with it, giddy with anticipation that something great is about to go down. Listening, you catch a hint, a foreshadow from some “wild notes.” You hear someone say “oh shit, look out now.” Then the atmosphere on stage gets heavy, as someone begins to “stretch.”
A thread- bare existence, often unavoidable, often deemed the “artist way” lends uncertainty to life. I, myself, am most certainly uncertain. It’s common ground for many of us. Uncertainty brings doubts and emotions into the foreground, where, it may become “grist for the mill.” The starving artist archetype is our best emotional check on modern works- “keeping it real”, as they say. I want to feel the “real” when I listen to music. Lacking soul and spontaneity, being precise and perfectly rational, all the time, is simply “Square.”
The music presented here is quite “real.” It is streetwise and intuitive. Its imagery is fashioned by bare passion and powerful imagination. To musicians, playing standards, though challenging, may become not “real.” An original song is like your own child. Interpreting standards is like someone else's kids. You may play with someone else's kids, but your own, you teach.
Your own is an extension of who you are, an expression of your philosophy. “A lot is lost for the sake of originality” is the most common criticism.
But, what if, nothing is lost? What if, honest research was conducted, like “burnin’ the midnight oil”, “paying all your dues”, well then, I say, something special is about to happen, so, “get ready”, “hold on to your hats”, cause “here it comes” - Mitch Borden
Hillai Govreen is a clarinetist, saxophonist and composer based in New York. Hillai’s upcoming album Every Other Now is a collaboration with bassist/composer Ben Meigners, and features some notable names of the NY music scene such as Steve Cardenas (guitar), Eric McPherson (drums), Café Da Silva (percussion) among others. The album is set to be released in June 2025 under the Fresh Sound label.
Her previous album “Allusions” (2021) is a duet with pianist Nitsan Kolko. Their duet feature spontaneous musical dialogue and alludes to various ancient fables. In addition, Hillai arranged music for a nonet consisting of strings and woodwinds.
Hillai Govreen has collaborated with a wide range of international musicians, including George Cables, Allison Miller, Arturo O’Farrill, Anat Cohen, George Colligan, Steve Cardenas and Harold Rubin. She has toured across India, Europe, Israel, and the U.S. and has performed at notable New York venues such as Dizzy’s Club, Smalls, Mezzrow, Birdland, National Sawdust, and Ornithology. Hillai is an endorsing artist for P. Mauriat clarinets and saxophones.
She graduated with honors from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in 2020, where she studied with renowned musicians including Anat Cohen, Chris Cheek, Tony Malaby, Billy Harper, Steve Cardenas, and Reggie Workman.
Born and raised in Israel, Hillai Govreen developed a passion for music early on. She started learning classical piano at the age of 6, and at 12, she took up the clarinet, studying under Professor Michael Gurfinkel. During high school, Hillai was awarded musical scholarships from the American Israel Cultural Foundation for four consecutive years and played first clarinet in the Young Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. She was also honored as an "Outstanding Musician" and received a full scholarship to study at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin.
It all started with a word-of-the-day email. Harpist Brandee Younger, bassist-producer Rashaan Carter and drummer Allan Mednard were on the road when they learned about the gadabout — a carefree pleasure-seeker who is always in motion, seeking out fun no matter the circumstances. The word of the day turned into the word of the tour, and seemed to describe their mission. These three simpatico travelers, whose shared history as trusted collaborators reaches back two decades, were always chasing and finding joy both onstage and off — through music, art, food and new experiences.
For Younger especially that joy was a healing force. Over the past year she’s faced personal challenges, so the gadabout concept acted as a helpful reminder that life happens to everyone — and that pursuing radiance in the midst of struggle is essential. “When it came time to write a piece to represent happiness, ‘Gadabout Season’ felt like the perfect title,” says the harpist, a Grammy nominee and NAACP Image Award winner who has garnered widespread acclaim for her soulful, spiritual meld of jazz, R&B and hip-hop’s essence.
Gadabout Season, Younger’s third for the legendary Impulse! label, releasing June 13, 2025, is her most personal and exploratory album to date – a reflective, imaginative body of work on which she has written or co-written nearly every composition. “The album reflects the journey — the search for meaning and beauty amid life’s most complex moments, ultimately emerging with a deeper sense of self,” says Younger. “Musically Gadabout Season is more creative and slightly more cerebral than my other works.” Listen to the title track, “Gadabout Season”, out now.
Known for her revelatory interpretations of harp legends Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby, Younger now steps boldly into her own compositional voice, crafting music that carries her forebears’ language forward without paying direct tribute. “This writing process forced me to be completely honest,” she says. “I’m not hiding behind someone else’s work.” Self-taught as a composer, Younger draws instinctively from a hybrid of influences — jazz, classical, old-school R&B, and hip-hop.
Younger wrote most of this new music at her cousin’s cabin in bucolic upstate New York — a place where she could focus and where “you get a lot of peace and quiet and birds chirping and you can see the stars at night,” she says. Eventually, Carter and, later, Mednard joined her to workshop the new tunes, and the game plan coalesced: Carter would produce and engineer the entire album himself at Younger’s Harlem apartment. The bassist turned Younger’s second bedroom into a makeshift studio, and Gadabout Season was tracked over several months in the second half of 2024. “I’m used to doing one and done in the studio,” Younger says. “This recording process was slow and intentional, allowing the sound of the album to reveal itself over time and mirroring a journey of discovery.” The trio dedicated time at the end of each session to sketching out ideas and improvising, which led to the tracks “Reckoning,” “Discernment,” and “End Means.”
Along the way, Younger found transcendence in an instrument she calls “life-changing”: the harp that belonged to Alice Coltrane. Younger became its custodian last year, after it’d been restored in honor of “The Year of Alice,” a series of high-profile releases, events, and exhibits co-sponsored by Impulse! Reflecting on how the harp’s energy guided her performances, Younger explains that it took time before her comfort matched the instrument’s majesty and power. “It had to become my own,” she says. “This was not my first time playing the harp, but as this new music was unique to me, I had to become one with it at home.”
Gadabout Season also showcases Younger’s evolving use of electronic textures and extended harp techniques, culminating in what producer Carter describes as an “Afrofuturist sonic palette.” Additional sonic brilliance arrives courtesy of some extraordinary guests. The alternately dreamlike and inquisitive title track — an expression of Younger’s fun, quirky “external personality” — features vibraphonist Joel Ross and Makaya McCraven on percussion, as well as Shabaka drawing clarinet lines atop the staccato groove. “Surrender” was written for and features pianist-composer and MacArthur Fellow Courtney Bryan, a frequent Younger collaborator who shares the harpist’s rich church background, as well as her willingness to bring a church spirit to any musical context. Inspired by Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, “Surrender” summons up that moment of “going to the altar and giving all,” says Younger. “To me, this is the most revealing piece on the album. It’s about seeking solace in quiet surrender.”
Another highlight, “BBL,” is both airy and laced with a smoldering tension. “I think of it as a musical confrontation,” Younger says. “If it had lyrics, it would have an advisory warning. I left no room for a civil conversation.” At the recommendation of Younger’s friend and collaborator Meshell Ndegeocello, saxophonist Josh Johnson contributed to “Discernment,” where his dubby harmonies imagine classic soul in a psychedelic haze.
Shabaka also lends his flute to the ether of “End Means,” and his presence here comes on the heels of his own recent Impulse! release, Perceive its Beauty, Acknowledge its Grace, on which Younger appears. “I think of us as being part of the Impulse! continuum,” the harpist says.
Gadabout Season is a welcome new development in the Impulse! story, bolstering the label’s reputation for fearless original music from generation-defining voices. “When you take a step back and look at what was and what is now,” Younger reflects, “it’s really kind of beautiful.”
Among the most celebrated jazz artists to emerge in the 21st century, Brandee Younger is a harpist, composer, and bandleader whose music connects spiritual jazz and classical training to the rhythmic soulfulness of R&B and hip-hop. She grew up on Long Island, where she sang gospel, studied the harp classically, and became enamored of both hip-hop and the vintage soul that rap producers sampled. When Younger was a teenager, her father introduced her to Alice Coltrane’s music — a transformative moment that all but defined her life’s journey.
In Coltrane and, later, Dorothy Ashby, Younger saw two strong, empowering Black women whose brilliance on the harp inspired Younger to stake her own claim on jazz history. Over the past two decades, Younger has honored these two artistic heroines while carving a singular path. On top of recording their music, she has collaborated with John and Alice Coltrane’s son Ravi, a spellbinding saxophonist, and with iconic figures in the Coltrane legacy, like the late Pharoah Sanders. Along the way, she’s also become a go-to player in popular music, contributing to projects and performances by Ms. Lauryn Hill, Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder, the Roots, Common, John Legend, and many others. As the New Yorker wrote, “Her radiant playing is as cogent on hip-hop and R&B albums as it is set against classical and jazz backdrops.”
Her first LP for the storied Impulse! Records label — a.k.a. The House That Trane Built — was 2021’s Somewhere Different. A track from that album, “Beautiful Is Black,” earned Younger a Grammy nomination in the Best Instrumental Composition category, making her the first Black female solo artist to achieve this. Two years later, on Brand New Life, Younger revitalized newly discovered Ashby compositions, and that LP won the 2024 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album. Gadabout Season, released in 2025, is a more reflective and personal work focusing on Younger’s inimitable original music. In addition to her non-stop performance schedule, Younger is a dedicated educator, teaching on the faculties of New York University and the New School.
Two of the most highly respected figures in the world of jazz – Dee Dee Bridgewater and Bill Charlap -- document their critically acclaimed, sold out live concerts on their first collaborative album, Elemental. Bridgewater and Charlap curate a repertoire that only they can present: exploring the deep understanding of jazz tradition alongside impeccable phrasing and a once-in-a-generation dynamic range, bringing a level of sophistication that is sure to be considered a masterpiece for generations to come.
Ask any true jazz fan to draw up a list of the greatest vocalists of the modern era and the name Dee Dee Bridgewater will inevitably appear at the top. Repeat the exercise for contemporary pianists and you’ll just as assuredly see Bill Charlap on the short list.
Draw a line between the two however, and the most dedicated aficionado would have no chance of predicting the outcome. The prospect of a collaboration proved daunting even to Bridgewater and Charlap themselves, who had never worked together prior to their first meeting live on stage in 2019.
“Chemistry happens or it doesn’t happen,” Charlap insists. “And when it happens, it happens – boom! – instantaneously.”
That it happened and continues to happen for this inspired pairing of GRAMMY®-winning jazz masters is reflected in the title of their debut release as a duo. **Elemental**hints at the profound virtually subatomic level on which these two brilliant artists connect. In a relatively short but fruitful period of time – interrupted but not derailed by the pandemic – they have forged a camaraderie that soars past the chemical to the alchemical.
“The two of us have discovered a kind of musical melding that is completely inexplicable to the untrained ear,” says Bridgewater. “We’ve become a gentle force of nature, and people are astounded when they encounter it.”
The initial idea for the collaboration was Bridgewater’s, and appropriately for a project that has taken on such a mystical aura, it arrived like a bolt out of the blue. “I hear voices,” the singer explains. “I woke one morning and a voice said, ‘Bill Charlap.’ I was really quite dumbfounded because it seemed like such an unlikely pairing for me.”
But one thing that Bridgewater has learned over the course of her remarkable, nearly six-decade career is to trust in that voice. Her broad-ranging successes speak for themselves: three GRAMMY® Awards, a Tony Award, NEA Jazz Master honors, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, and the 2024 Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award, just to name a few of her myriad accolades.
So she took yet another leap of faith along a path riddled by such bold ventures, and set the wheels in motion. However surprised Bridgewater may have been by the concept, Charlap was downright shocked to receive the unexpected call from the duo’s shared booking agent.
“I have always been and continue to be a huge fan of Dee Dee Bridgewater,” the pianist says. “I was delighted at the prospect of us working together, but I assumed she would be guesting with my trio. When I was told no, Dee Dee wants to do this as a duo, all of a sudden a bunch of lights went on.”
Charlap of course is no stranger to working with incredible singers. He won a GRAMMY® Award in 2016 for The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, his acclaimed album with one of the all-time greats, Tony Bennett. He’s also recorded with Barbra Streisand, Diana Krall, Ann Hampton Callaway, Freddy Cole, Carol Sloane, and two beloved albums with his mother, cabaret and jazz singer Sandy Stewart.
The pair scheduled a few exploratory concerts to determine whether they in fact did possess that ever-elusive chemistry. The results were more exhilarating than the two had dared hope.
“My perception and my understanding of Bill changed completely after we got together,” Bridgewater explains. “I knew that he was steeped in the American songbook, but I did not know the degree of his extreme knowledge. I was blown away by Bill’s sensitivity as a pianist, his wealth of knowledge and the references that he can call upon when he’s playing. I mean, he’s an encyclopedia. I have never before in all of my years worked with a musician with whom I could so completely relax and be myself.”
Charlap is quick to return the compliments. “Dee Dee Bridgewater is a giant of a musician,” he says. “A brilliant vocalist, but just as much an actor, just as much a storyteller, just as much a risk taker. All of that is together in equal parts, with each piece stepping out into the follow spot at different moments. That makes her unlike anybody else historically.”
As singular as both musicians are known to be as individuals their pairing is wholly unique, calling to mind nonpareil duos of the past from Ella and Louis to Billie and Prez. Witness the way that Bridgewater’s vocal brushwork at the outset of “Beginning to See the Light” evokes percussive strikes from the piano; or the gravity-defying leaps that the singer takes atop Charlap’s jaunty, percolating lines on “Honeysuckle Rose”.
Bridgewater and Charlap journey across a vast panorama of emotions throughout Elemental, managing to maintain a simultaneous sense of play and heartbreak – Bridgewater proffers the word “whimsy” to describe the fanciful spirit at the core of this music, evident whether they’re careening through a breathless “Caravan” or basking in the fragile silences of “Here’s That Rainy Day;” twirling hip filigrees around one another on “’S Wonderful” or moanin’ the lowest of the lows on “Love for Sale.”
That all of these feelings can be conjured in such a captivating spirit of spontaneity speaks to the shared experience that these two masters bring to the collaboration. “I always say, ‘The heart knows everything the head knows,’” Charlap says. “But the heart also knows things the head doesn’t know. So trust the heart. Dee Dee knows that – she’s a force of nature, always willing to jump into the deep end of the pool.”
“There’s such a joy that emanates from what we’re doing,” adds Bridgewater. “Every time we perform together is a kind of spiritual release for me. I always know that it’s going to be something special and unique and tremendous and momentous. I’m really happy that we both said yes to this adventure.”
