My must-listen pile is getting taller and taller—so many new releases from ear-worthy artists, both familiar and new to me. To lower the stack to a more manageable height and introduce a wider array of music worth your time, here are several short reviews, written after a single listen.

Carol Liebowitz and Nick Lyons
The Inner Senses (Steeplechase/LookOut)
A review
Aristotle is said to have explained close friendship by the concept of two bodies sharing a single soul. That seems to be as good an explanation as any for the extraordinary correspondence between pianist Carol Liebowitz and saxophonist Nick Lyons, who, on The Inner Senses, take off together on another voyage of real-time improvisation: music composed on the fly that is as coherent as any composed on paper. Of course, the fact that they’ve been playing together for almost two decades counts for something, too. The lithe, limber lyricism of Lyons is well-paired with the muscular, assertive lyricism of Liebowitz. It’s not that they respond to one another so beautifully, which they do. It’s rather that they often seem to be riding the same light beam. There are highlights in every one of the 10 tracks, including 9 originals. From the vigorous ear massage of Connie Crothers’ bluesy “Ontology” (is that a snatch of ragtime I heard?) to the delicately entwined lines of “Aurora,” from Liebowitz’s arresting solo on “Night Sunflower” to Lyons’ flutelike intro on “Imaginary Colors,” from the brainy and mathematical to the gut bucket to the otherworldly, all in “Phantasm,” The Inner Senses offers a splendid collection of deeply musical experiences for the attentive listener. Available on the usual streaming services.

Sorry for Laughing
Rain Flowers (Klanggalerie)
A review
I look forward to each new release from Sorry for Laughing the way a child looks forward to the carnival’s next arrival. It’s another world, touched by the antique and the fantastic and scored by a very distinctive music. The group’s latest release, the two-disc Rain Flowers, is as familiar as it is strange—just like the carnival. The contributions of an intercontinental collection of collaborators—Martyn Bates (vocals, whistles, melodica, upright piano, lyrics), Edward Ka-Spel (vocals, words), Janet Feder (prepared guitars), Patrick Q Wright (violin, viola, guitar), along with guests Larry Wilson (drums, percussion), Dave-id Busaras (vocals, words), and Tom Katsimpalis (spoken word)—are wrangled by Gordon H. Whitlow (Hammon B2, Hammon Concorde, and Conn electric organs; accordion; Rhodes piano; bass pedals; low whistle; editing; processing). Whitlow, who hails from the avant-garde audiovisual collective Biota, produces, arranges, and mixes the recordings. Most of the songs on the first disc are traditional folk tunes or songs composed in that style; the musical setting is anything but—a combination of jazz, psychedelia, electronic, classical, noise, and more. The group seems to mine the subtext of these deceptively simple tunes and translate it into a magical, mysterious, and sometimes magisterial musical environment, simultaneously intimate and otherworldly—and often dark. The second disc includes two tracks: “Will Be,” the preaching of an abrasive streetcorner prophet fixed on judgment day, and the title track, an organ instrumental that supplies an anthemic antidote to the preacher. The compositions are justifiably credited to the group, but it is wizard Whitlow’s editing, processing, and mixing that make it all come together. Check out these other Sorry for Laughing releases: See It Alone; Remember, You Are an Actor; and Sun Comes.

Lafayette Gilchrist and New Volcanoes
Move with Love (Morphius Records)
A review
It’s been seven years since the last Lafayette Gilchrist and New Volcanoes release. I hope we don’t have to wait that long for the next one because this is some sophisticated, elevating, groove-based music that gets you moving to its go-go-, hip-hop-, and funk-inflected rhythms. But the Baltimore pianist/composer, long associated with saxophonist David Murray, is a busy guy, what with recently taking over the piano bench in the Sun Ra Arkestra. As with his 2020 trio recording, Now, and his 2023 sextet album, Undaunted, the new album’s subject is the current state of affairs and the need to move past it. For Gilchrist, love is the answer—the kind of love that consistently speaks truth, seeks justice, demands reciprocity, equity, inclusivity—and you can feel that love on every track, especially the title track, an assertive celebration that lets you know ain’t nobody going to put out this light. Present are Gilchrist’s infectious, off-center melodies, his bracing horn charts, and his precision arrangements, all expertly manifested by Gilchrist on keyboards, guitarist Carl Filipiak, trumpeter Leo Maxey, trombonist Christian Hizon, saxophonist Shaquim Muldrow, bassist Anthony “Blue” Jenkins, drummer Kevin Pinder, and on four of the album’s six tracks, saxophonists Ebban Dorsey and Efraim Dorsey and percussionist Bashi Rose. Recorded live at The Club Car in Baltimore, the album finds the band tight as a drum and loose as a goose, with superlative soloing on every track. Check out “Bamboozled,” with the sneaky keyboard hypnotizing the listener until it gains control, just like the politicians; “Baby Steps,” with its tentative steps forward; the rousing “Crosspollination Aggregation,” which finds hope in bringing the entire community together. Available on Bandcamp, with a July 25 release.

Anita Donndorff
Thirsty Soul (Fresh sound New Talent Records)
A review
Argentinian vocalist Anita Donndorff has an appealing sweetness in her classically trained voice, an easygoing delivery, and a fluid phrasing that freshens familiar tunes. On Thirsty Soul, she also has a master arranger in bassist Paul Sikivie on the seven swinging tunes recorded live in Buenos Aires with an excellent band: Dante Picca (piano), Eloy Michelini (drums), Sergio Wagner (trumpet), Guido Baucia (tenor sax), Juan Canosa (trombone), Ramiro Penovi (guitar), Carolina Cohen (congas), Sikivie (acoustic bass), and on Curtis Lewis’s “The Great City,” Felipe Arce (acoustic bass). Two additional tunes, duets with guitarist Peter Bernstein, a favorite of Donndorff’s, on “Charade” (Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer) and “Anna Luiza” (Antonio Carlos Jobim), were recorded in New York City. Highlights include the steamy “No Moon at All” (David Mann and Redd Evans), the back-to-back pairing of “Lonely House” (Kurt Weill) and “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” (Cole Porter), the intimate “Anna Luiza,” and Donndorff’s “Thirsty Soul,” on which, joined by vocalist Sol Liebeskin, she drops the sweetness and opts for a bit of attitude. I think she might do well to go there more often. Available on the usual streaming services.

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