Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock has established herself as an adventurous, innovative, and expressive musician and a compelling improviser. However, on her ambitious recent release, Purposing the Air, it’s not her saxophone that is heard, but her composer’s pen, which takes as its subject the poetry of Erica Hunt, specifically “Mood Librarian—a poem in koan,” from Jump the Clock. Together, the pens of Laubrock and Hunt create an evocative atmosphere as challenging as it is inviting.
Two musician-composers with distinct voices have graced us with intriguing new releases recently: The Lone Wild Bird, a solo album from accordionist Will Holshouser, and Every Journey, from pianist Claire Cope’s 11-piece Ensemble C. Both are definitely ear-worthy.
The latest release from saxophonist Chris Jonas, backwardsupwardsky (from his Music from the Deserts series), offers two CDs, two trios, one quartet, and 14 tracks of compellingly quirky Jonas compositions performed with stunning concision, inspired improvisation, and apparently effortless virtuosity.
The latest release from Avishai Cohen’s quartet, Ashes to Gold, eloquently expresses the breadth and depth of raw emotions provoked by the atrocities of October 7, 2023, and the tragedies of the ensuing war. Its heart-piercing five-part title suite gives voice to anger, horror, grief, tenderness, and a glimmer of determined hope, driven home by virtuosic performances. On March 21, Albuquerque will have the opportunity to hear the quartet—with Cohen (trumpet, flugelhorn, flute), Yonathan Avishai (piano), Barak Mori (bass), and Ziv Ravitz (drums)—live at the Outpost, part of the quartet’s first U.S. tour in five years.
Music, like love, has the capacity for altering your consciousness, your brain chemistry. These two releases—River of Eden, from Yosef Gutman and Peter Broderick, and The Berklee Sessions, from Scanner and Neil Leonard, each of which got past me in 2024, have the capacity to do just that, and they do it in completely different fashions, acoustically and electronically, respectively.
