Welcome to more new jazz with a vibes special – four contemporary vibraphone artists and their new(ish) releases – and we’ve got time to include another ‘doing it different’ (one tune; two ways). Check out music from Sacha Berliner, Patricia Brennan, Jackie McLean, Charles Tolliver and more.
- Amanda Whiting – Mary Over There from Can You See Me Now? (Deluxe Edition)
Welsh harpist Amanda Whiting is making waves on the UK jazz scene and this special edition of her 2025 EP includes her previous record The Liminality of Her. Production is by Adam Scrimshire (see our previous show) and there are guest appearances from vocalist Alice Russell, Chip Wickham and others. Whiting’s style is laidback, thematically inquisitive and – like the great Alice Coltrane – definitely on the spiritual side. It’s something that the contemporary use of the harp in jazz seems to inspire – think of current players like Brandee Younger from the US, Alina Bzhezinska from the UK and Edmar Castañeda from Colombia. For more check out this special feature on Bandcamp Daily – lots of new jazz harp for you to investigate
2. Sacha Berliner – Jade from Onyx
This is a terrific record from San Francisco-born Sacha Berliner and her stellar group featuring Marcus Gilmore on drums, Burniss Travis II on upright and electric bass and James Francies on piano and Fender Rhodes. Special guests include Jaleel Shaw on alto saxophone, Julius Rodriguez on analog synths and vocalist Thana Alexa. Onyx is only Berliner’s second album and this 2022 issue captures her fiery, dense sound beautifully with production from analogue specialist Steven Mandel and engineering from GRAMMY® winning Ben Kane. Very highly recommended.
3. Patricia Brennan – Antlia from Of the Near and Far
Another acclaimed vibraphonist, Brennan describes the inspiration for this late 2025 release: I’ve always been captivated by the night sky, endlessly wondering about what lies beyond. Amidst the vast expanse of stars, there is a sense of balance and symmetry that fascinates me—an order within the chaos. The innate patterns of the constellations sparked my curiosity, prompting me to explore how these celestial forms might be translated musically. In the summer of 2024, I developed a process that allowed me to collect pitch and numerical data from constellations. I overlaid the shapes of constellations onto a circle of fifths, intrigued by whether the symmetry of the constellations could translate into musical symmetry—whether harmonic or melodic. The circle of fifths is already a highly symmetrical structure that organizes pitches in a sequence. By mapping the constellations’ shapes onto this circle, I discovered new relationships between pitches, chords, and even key signatures. These relationships emerged purely from the constellations’ symmetry, not from traditional music theory. Err – wow! The instrumentation for this record is a traditional jazz quintet – piano, bass, drums, guitar, and mallet percussion – along with a standard string quartet and additional electronics. Another highly recommended album and available in all three formats from your local specialist record store or Bandcamp right here.
4. Lewis Wright – Mettle from The Color of Intention
Neil saw young vibes player Lewis Wright many years ago at a local pub jazz gig in Suffolk. Since then, he released a first album in 2018 before going on to perform internationally with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and working with Hugh Masekela, Tony Allen and Melody Gardot. The Color of Intention features drummer Marcus Gilmore along with bass player Matt Brewer and was originally released in 2019 but is now available on vinyl – again, check it out here on Bandcamp.
5. Ben Wendel – Clouds from BaRcoDe
Saxophonist and composer Ben Wendel releases his new album BaRcoDe next month on Edition Records. It’s a daring new electroacoustic album for saxophone and mallets (vibraphone and percussion). The project features four leading vibists and percussionists – Joel Ross, Simon Moullier, Patricia Brennan, and Juan Diego Villalobos – and was recorded at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn. There’s a blurring of the line between chamber music, modern jazz, and electronic experimentation and this takes Wendel’s creative language into new territory. The question, of course, is – Does it work? And the answer is resolutely, Yes. There’s something of Steve Reich’s minimalist music here – and you can certainly hear it in the album’s opening track Clouds. Not surprisingly, this is another highly recommended release – and it looks and sounds spectacular in the rosewood coloured vinyl version.
6. Jackie McLean – On the Nile from Jacknife
Up next on the show is another of our ‘doing it different’ features – one tune in two different versions. This time it’s something of a modern standard – On the Nile. This is a Charles Tolliver composition but it first appeared on McLean’s 1965 classic Jacknife, just reissued by Blue Note in the Tone Poet series. Jacknife captures the saxophonist in a post-bop mode with trumpeters Lee Morgan and Charles Tolliver, pianist Larry Willis, bassist Larry Ridley, and drummer Jack DeJohnette. There’s modal explorations, churning rhythms, and good old hard bop grooves – and, of course, this Tone Poet vinyl edition is produced by Joe Harley from the original analog master tapes and sounds amazing. If you’ve not experienced these pristine vinyl reissues yet then treat yourself to this one.
7. Charles Tolliver – On the Nile from Music Inc.
Tolliver waited until 1969 to record On the Nile for his first album with the Music Inc. quartet, formed with pianist Stanley Cowell. The recording first came out on Freedom Records but then appeared on Arista Records. But this shorter and more powerful version of On the Nile comes from a slightly later release – Tolliver’s first on the label he created with Cowell, Strata-East. This 1971 version compares well with McLean’s take but there’s the additional power of a huge horn section augmented by Bobby Brown, Wilbur Brown, Jimmy Heath, Clifford Jordan, Howard Johnson, Garnett Brown, Curtis Fuller and more. By the end of its life, the label had released 58 albums of near-uniform artistic excellence – a remarkable achievement for an independent company run on a shoestring by two musicians with no previous business experience. We’ve featured the Strata East/Mack Avenue collaboration on previous shows and these Kevin Gray produced reissues are really worth looking out for. Neil already has some of them and they sound excellent – up there with the best of the Tone Poets. We can’t wait to hear more of these as they emerge.
8. Horace Parlan – Up and Down from Up and Down
Pittsburgh-born pianist Horace Parlan recorded seven records for Blue Note, of which Up and Down is probably the best. The quintet is top drawer – Booker Ervin on tenor, Grant Green on guitar, George Tucker on bass and Al Harewood on drums. The sound is more soul-jazz than hard bop and all six tunes give space for the soloists to shine. Better still, this was one of Neil’s favourite Blue Note Tone Poets from 2025: all have great depth and spaciousness, but this is one of the best. We’ve chosen the title track Up and Down – a Horace Parlan original – but the whole album is hard to beat.
9. Gerald Clayton – For Peace from Ones and Twos
Alluding to the DJ reference in the title of his latest album, Gerald Clayton explains that it’s a record where the A side can be played simultaneously with the B side… you hear two separate pieces at the same time. Each side of the twelve-track album is meant to be heard separately and simultaneously. The music in the latter experience is obviously twice as dense as on the detached tracks. Neil’s not tried this yet but the tracks certainly work individually – and that’s probably down to the calibre of the musicians involved – Marquis Hill, Elena Pinderhughes, Joel Ross, Kendrick Scott and drummer of the moment, Kassa Overall. Spotify (which Cosmic Jazz will never normally endorse because of the long-standing criticism of their scandalous royalty payment structure) does have an Expanded Edition of Ones and Twos featuring a second ‘disc’ with two tracks played simultaneously. This still doesn’t appear to be available in other formats – but watch this space.
More from Cosmic Jazz soon – and an extra right now. As we went to press, we received the news of the death of salsa and Fania Records legend, Willie Colon. We’ll play more of his music in upcoming shows but here’s a starter – and one of Neil’s favourites – the 12in Latin Jazzbo Version of Set Fire to Me. Enjoy!
Neil is listening to:
- Pharoah Sanders – Love is Here – Part 2 (Live in Paris 1975)
- Miles Davis – If I Were A Bell (Live at the Plugged Nickel, Chicago 1965)
- Ahmad Jamal – Poinciana (Live at The Olympia, 2012)
- Sonny Rollins – To a Wild Rose (Live at Ronnie Scotts, 1974)
- Charles Lloyd – C L Blues (Live at the Padova Festival, 2021)