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)
It’s not easy to equal the original version of Rising to the Top from Keni Burke, but we think one of our favourite funk outfits Lettuce have cracked it. Founded in Boston, US, Lettuce are lead by drummer Adam Deitch and we love this take on the soul classic from the latest album Cook. Released in December 2025, the eleven tracks include funk, soul, jazz, hip-hop and more. As we noted in January when we featured the title track, Lettuce have been described as groovy, soulful and fresh – and we’d agree.
Neil came across the Japanese husband and wife team – neo-soul guitarist Toshiki Soejima and trumpeter/multi-instrumentalist Nahokimama – in an online search for some new music. Their 10 track album was released in December 2025 on the new Sterofox label and includes this chilled example of their craft. Check our 
Drummer Yussef Dayes has been making waves since he appeared on the South London jazz scene in 2016 with fellow Londoner Kamaal Williams on the self-titled Yussef Kamaal album. Better still was the collaboration on Blue Note with songwriter Tom Misch, What Kinda Music. Then on Brownswood in late 2020 came the Live at Joshua Tree EP with the ambitious 19 track release Black Classical Music following in 2021. Since then, Dayes has released another live EP (recorded in the mountains above Malibu) which will be joined by this new recording due in March 2026. It features the extraordinary Japanese vocalist and sanshin virtuoso Minami Kizuki and Dayes noted that Kizuki came with her vibes, and we just tapped in. And it was literally that feeling of when you’re on edge and you’ve just got to be listening, you’ve got to be in the zone, regardless of the circumstances. The drummer is joined by his longtime collaborators Rocco Palladino, Venna, Elijah Fox, and Alexander Bourt. We’d recommend both this album and the 
New Zealand/Aotearoa’s finest The Circling Sun have released two albums that have been on Cosmic Jazz turntables in recent years. Second LP Orbits channels the cosmic energy of 1970s spiritual jazz, filtered through synths, layered percussion, and an eight piece choir of Maori and Pacific Island singers. The personnel on this album includes Cameron Allen on tenor and alto saxes, John Bell on cornet and tenor horn, Guy Harrison on synths and Julien Dyne on drums and percussion and this track comes from the new download that features an additional three tracks. You can find it 
Producer, multi-instrumentalist and DJ Adam Scrimshire’s latest album is available on download and vinyl with the record being available from just £1 – but we’d recommend that you pay more as 90% of that money will go to three charities – The Refugee Council, MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians) and Earth Percent. The album includes various guests – all friends of Cosmic Jazz – including Nat Birchall, Idris Rahman, Tamar Osborn and Faye Houston. New music blog 
Saxophonist Dave Liebman and the late pianist Ritchie Beirach formed Quest in 1981 with bassist George Mraz and drummer Al Foster. Later versions of the group had the equally talented Ron McClure on bass and Billy Hart on drums. You won’t find it easy to track down this extended take of the Billy Hart composition, Redemption where Dave Liebman very clearly channels his inner Coltrane – even Discogs doesn’t show it! Beirach is not as well known as he should be: for more information check out 
We end this show with an excellent tune from the live in the studio album from German collective Jazzanova. As far as Neil is concerned, Jazzanova don’t put a foot wrong – whether their studio albums or their remixes. This new record celebrate 20 years of Jazzanova’s groundbreaking debut album In Between with a new live reinterpretation. On its release in 2002, In Between set something of a benchmark for what would come to be known as nu jazz – a 
Dinah Washington (1924-1963) recorded this version of What a Difference a Day Makes in 1959. It was based on the tune originally written in 1934 by Mexican songwriter Maria Grever. The tune became a pop hit, in fact, Derek has it on a vinyl compilation Cruisin’ 1959 which features top Black popular music tunes on station KGFJ in Los Angeles. The DJ on the record describes it as Dinah Washington’s latest big hit. Washington was a versatile artist – primarily a jazz singer, but equally at home singing pop or the blues. She was given the title ‘Queen of the Blues’ This tune is complete with choir and strings, but I particularly like the constant beats from the brushes and Dinah’s sultry voice with a tone that’s almost casual and dismissive. What a Difference is a love song but Washington sings it in an almost detached and matter-of-fact way – and this all adds to the appeal of this version.
Ledisi is probably best known as an R&B singer and is a 2021 Grammy winner (for best traditional R&B performance), but the crossover between R&B and jazz is a substantial one – think of Dianne Reeves for example. And at this point we should make clear that the Cosmic Jazz view is that R&B connections should never be a cause for suspicion among jazz lovers. This tribute to Dinah Washington is an excellent jazz album and interestingly, Jazzwise magazine recently included insightful comments from Ledisi in an article on Ella Fitzgerald. The arrangement for this tune and most others on the album come from bassist Christian McBride. Drummer McClenty Hunter is on brushes for this one, with piano from Michael King – outstanding on this track but throughout the album. Look him up here at 
The tune Moonlight in Vermont, written originally in 1944 by Karl Suessdorf and John Blackburn, linked in Derek’s mind to the 2025 compilation of essays in 
We have played this tune before on the show – and although it’s not called Moonlight In Vermont Kira Neris samples a Mel Tormé’s famous version of the tune in a number he calls Open Doors. Born Hervé Poudoulec in Nantes, France Neris has worked on and explored the links between jazz and house music – often a great combination as here. The music is somewhat introspective and austere with an opening that sounds ominously gloomy and threatening – but the tune is actually beat-driven and rhythmical. We rate this tune and the album as a Cosmic Jazz favourite – once more, strongly recommended. Of course, there are many more versions of the tune to explore – but start with that great 
This version of the tune written by Thomas Bell and Linda Creed was released originally in 1974 but re-released by British label Mr. Bongo in 2020 – very welcome as the original was a Japanese only release. The making of this record illustrated the reference to ‘people’ and ‘world’ in the title of the tune – and, of course, we note the perennial truism that music does indeed make the world go round. There are three US-born Bridgewaters on the record but there’s also the global family of Czech-born bass player George Mraz and Japanese drummer Motohiko Hino along with T. Ishikuzi and director H. Matsumoto. Not surprising, then, that the album was recorded in the A.O.I. studios, Tokyo. It’s difficult to go wrong with the universal sentiments of lyrics that demonstrate just how people really do make the world go round. Add to this some terrific deep soul jazz music and you have an album that should be on your short list. The powerful, assertive voice of Dee Dee Bridgewater is accompanied throughout by delicate piano from Roland Hanna and brushwork from Motohiko Hino with a blast in the middle from Dee Dee’s then husband trumpeter Cecil Bridgewater in the instrumental break and as the tune ends.
The Jazzmeia Horn version of the tune was recorded on her first album in 2017. it is somewhat different to the Dee Dee Bridgewater version and radically different to the original by 
is the original version from trumpeter Freddie Hubbard of the tune Little Sunflower recorded on the 1968 Atlantic album Backlash. There is a later version he made from 1979 with vocals from Al Jarreau – both are included on the excellent Soul Jazz Records compilation Anthology 1966-82. Both are superb – with the latter featuring an extraordinary fading coda from pianist Chick Corea. This original is performed by an acoustic sextet, with Freddie Hubbard on trumpet and flugelhorn, James Spaulding on flute and alto sax, Albert Dailey on piano, Bob Cunningham on bass, Otis Roy Appleton on drums and Ray Barretto on percussion. James Spaulding is very much to the fore with a flute solo before trading notes with Freddie Hubbard. This is a relaxed, gently lilting recording with a hint of Latin swing. Check out that later 1979 version with its gorgeous strings and woodwinds 
The mention of Latin swing above and the presence of Latin percussionist Ray Barretto in the original suggested the tune might be an ideal one for Latin Jazz interpretation. So it proved. Los Angeles conga player Johnny Blas produced an instrumental version featuring an octet with four trombones, piano, bass and timbales alongside Blas. It is on the first of a series of Viva Cubop compilations from Ubiquity Records – with our final tune from Francisco Aguabella coming from the third in the series, The Blas version of Little Sunflower is also a gentle swinger, a degree faster in pace than the Freddie Hubbard original but with a sense of restraint and order, as is often the way with Latin Jazz. It is not music for avant-garde free expressionists but it is highly polished, tight and demonstrating some intricate musicianship. On this recording, the congas of Blas are upfront with the trombones either in unison or on solo alongside. Images of sunny summer days , sunflowers and Los Angeles all come to mind – the best thing to think about on a dull UK January day… And if you want to get that feeling right now, then check out the Viva Cubop compilation which is still available as a DL 
every jazz lover knows My Favorite Things by John Coltrane? We’ve played it more than once on the show so it’s not included here. Instead, the show ends with another jazzy version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein standard – but one with definite references to the Coltrane version. Listen to Francisco Aguabella’s take alongside the Coltrane recording – remind yourself here. Conguero and percussionist Aguabella was Cuba-born but resident in the USA from the late 1950s. While his version doesn’t reach the heights or the spirituality of the Coltrane interpretation it is well worth a listen because Aguabella has turned My Favorite Things into a joyful Latin Jazz number. You’ll get the flavour from the personnel: Aguabella on congas and bata, Jose ‘Papo’ Rodriguez on bongos and percussion and Ramon Banda on drums and timbales. There is also tenor sax, trumpet, trombone, piano and bass to provide the more Coltrane-like elements. A good mix, a good interpretation – but, sure, it’s hard to beat Coltrane.
23 November 2025’s CJ included a track from the 2018 Ruby Rushton album Ironside and we noted that Legacy! had just been released. So we start this show with a track from that latest album, their fifth. The band is led by sax and flute player Edward Cawthorne – aka Tenderlonius – with Nick Walters on trumpet and flugelhorn, Aidan Shepherd on piano, Fender Rhodes and synths and Tim Carnegie on drums, with all band members at some stage making a percussion contribution. All Ruby Rushton records are released on their own 22a independent record label. Oli Reeves in his notes to the vinyl album release states that This is a band still evolving. Trademark catchy riffs and heavy grooves are still there but are now heightened by a level of maturity and a sense of belonging that hadn’t been encountered previously. So are Ruby Rushton a band that deserves more recognition amidst the latest UK jazz revival of the last few years? I think so.
Polish bassist, composer and bandleader Wojtek Mazolewski released his new album Solo on 5 December, 2025. This takes us into what Derek is calling the ambient phase of the show, but an ambience not of the laid-back easy listening kind, but more of a deep, spiritual, meditative experience. Mazolewski has gained recognition and praise way beyond his native Poland, including from the UK in 
We are now definitely into ambient, orchestral, electronic jazz territory. Nala Sinephro is a Belgian-Caribbean composer, producer and musician living in London. The album Endlessness is her second release and another record from an independent label – this time UK-based Warp Records. Continuum 2 is a beautiful tune of meditative, celestial sounds which provides the perfect background to the awe-inspiring sky with a radiant pink setting sun surrounded by the encircling dark blue gloom of night observed from Derek’s window as he writes. This tune includes musicians well known to us at Cosmic Jazz – Nubya Garcia on saxophone and Sheila Maurice-Grey on flugelhorn. Another familiar name – James Mollison plays sax on one of the other album tracks. Just one annoyance to mention – the vinyl issue has only three recorded sides.
The album A Paradise in the Hold, released in February 2025, is the fourth release from British-Bahrani trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, who lived in her homeland until the age of nine. Now a well-established musician and although already an Ivor Novello award-winning composer, many reviews and comments have identified this album as her strongest to date. The album explores her dual heritage with Ahmed noting A thread in my work has been searching for, establishing and, now, finally embracing and celebrating my cultural identity – and it really comes across in this album, merging traditional Bahraini sounds and stories with jazz, There is a long list of musical collaborators and this is the first time she has written for vocals – Natascha Atlas is the vocalist. The music is transporting and uplifting – Ahmed says There’s so much beauty in Bahraini music. I hope this album gives people a flavour of how vibrant its culture is. And she has
It’s time to change the mood. This comes care of a crazy, chaotic ensemble from Norway called Luna Horns and good they are too. Our contact here is British soprano saxophone player Tim Lowerson, a founder band member and Oslo resident, here joined by Norwegian musicians who contribute alto saxophone, trombone, bass and drums. The music is energetic (quite an understatement), unpredictable and fun. The music can sound like a big band one minute and then stripped back down the next – and all this from just five musicians. Grab Afro-Space Hotel via 
More Cosmic Jazz regulars return to the show. Lettuce provides a funky end to the show with the title track from their album released in December 2025. Funk, soul, jazz, hip-hop and more are all there in the band’s music. Last year saw them on an extensive European tour ending with four sold-out shows at Ronnie Scott’s in London. They have also toured with rap artist Wu-Tang Clan and reggae artist Ziggy Marley, which illustrates something about the width of their appeal. Groovy, soulful and fresh is how they have been described. We can settle for that. Get your dancing shoes on now!
Don’t put those dancing shoes away just yet. The show ends with an irresistible mover that builds and builds and builds with percussive, soulful, Latin, house and jazzy grooves. It is a return to earlier shows where we end with a genre-stretching number to send us on our way with a spring in our step. It also fits in as Derek is trying to go through his record collection to re-visit past favourites and this 12″ is a recent delight. It is, incidentally, the third vinyl number on the show. This is George Benson’s re-working of Donny Hathaway’s classic The Ghetto with production from the Masters At Work team. It features Joe Sample who provides some cool keyboard sounds from the keyboards while George Benson leads with distinct but not over-reaching guitar and soulful vocals. Other distinguished contributors include Carlos Henriquez on bass, Lusito Quintero on percussion and Roy Ayers as one of the background vocalists.
DeJohnette was born in Chicago where Ahmad Jamal’s drummer Vernel Fournier was an early inspiration. But as well as learning the standard drum kit, DeJohnette was also a talented pianist and bass player – with this breadth perhaps contributing to that uniquely diverse sound. As he said, I see myself as a colorist, not as a drummer, per se... We’re going to begin with his two year association with Charles Lloyd and his 1960s quartet with a live take from a 1967 classic – it’s the best selling album Forest Flower and bassist Cecil McBee’s tender Naima-like composition Song of Her. DeJohnette’s shimmering cymbal work is perfectly judged here and an indication of the sensitivity he would later go on to show in the Keith Jarrett Standards Trio.
Next up we celebrate his tenure with Miles Davis and what is sometimes called the lost quintet. Before he was deployed as the principal drummer on the epic Bitches Brew album (1970), DeJohnette appeared in live sets with Davis on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on soprano and tenor saxophones, Chick Corea on Fender Rhodes, Dave Holland on bass and DeJohnette on drums. In July 1969 the band appeared at Festival Mondial du Jazz d’Antibes and these two dates comprise CD1 and CD2 of the Live in Europe 1969 set, issued by Columbia Records in 2013. They are a revelation. Just listen to DeJohnette’s drumming (and everything else that’s going) on right from the beginning of the band introductions and a version of Directions.
While Bitches Brew was widely recognised as one of the most innovative records in jazz, 1972’s On The Corner polarised opinion. Indeed, Davis biographer Paul Tingen stated that it became the most vilified and controversial album in the history of jazz. Only more recently has its worth been more accurately judged. Writing for The Vinyl Factory, Anton Spice described it as the great great grandfather of hip-hop, IDM, jungle, post-rock and other styles drawing meaning from repetition. DeJohnette was the key drummer on this unique record and he’s heard to maximum advantage with his pattering repeated drum pattern across pretty much the whole of the first side of this extraordinary record. And talking of vinyl, some versions of the record can sound rather muddy, so for a more detailed and balanced version it might be worth exploring the MoFi Original Master Recording – 
DeJohnette began recording for Manfred Eicher’s ECM label in 1974 with the Timeless trio featuring John Abercrombie and Jan Hammer and in the same year he appeared on Steve Kuhn’s superb Trance album. He went on to appear on more essential ECM recordings including Kenny Wheeler’s Gnu High (1975), Gary Peacock’s Tales of Another (1977) and George Adams’ Sound Suggestions (1979). But it was with the Pat Metheny album 80/81 that he joined the jazz superstar ranks with a 2LP live double set released in 1980 and featuring Metheny’s handpicked quartet with Michael Brecker or Dewey Redman on tenor saxes, Charlie Haden on bass and, of course, Metheny on guitars. We’ve chosen the lengthy Two Folk Songs (1st) which includes Metheny’s characteristic strumming, Brecker’s edgy and imaginative tenor solo and DeJohnette’s furious drumming.
DeJohnette established his Special Edition group in 1980 and this first incarnation is possibly the best. It features David Murray and Arthur Blythe on saxes and more and along with Slip Murray on bass and DeJohnette on drums, but also melodica and piano. There are two fantastic versions of Coltrane tunes – Central Park West and India – along with three compositions by DeJohnette. We’ve chosen Zoot Suite which has a great 4/4 bass groove with quirky accents and solos from Blythe on alto and Murray on tenor, along with DeJohnette on melodica. The tune ends with some characteristically powerful drumming from the leader. This is Neil’s favourite Special Edition record and it’s worth finding a copy on vinyl or CD if you don’t know it. It was reissued on CD via ECM’s Touchstones series in 2008 and Neil recently picked up a near mint vinyl copy in the excellent 
Of all DeJohnette’s collaborations with other musicians (and there are many) perhaps the most celebrated and enduring was that with the Keith Jarrett Standards Trio. The association began with the first Standards album in 1983 and continued the trio was disbanded in 2014. Along with bassist Gary Peacock, Jarrett on piano and DeJohnette on drums, the trio have released over 30 albums including some 20 live recordings. By 2000, the musical communication between these three performers had become nothing short of telepathic, and their group improvisations frequently take on a complexity that sounds almost composed. The Trio undertook frequent world tours of recital halls and was one of the few truly successful jazz groups to play both straight-ahead and freely improvised jazz. Derek has already featured one of our favourite tunes from this extended repertoire – the remarkable take on Autumn Leaves from the complete Live at the Blue Note box set (1995) – and we’ve chosen two very different tunes to end this DeJohnette tribute. First up is one of Neil’s favourites – an album he bought on vinyl on its release in 1983 – it’s the extended take on God Bless the Child from that very first Standards album. 
Now this one is very much not a standard. The Jarrett Trio occasionally strayed into free improvisation but only two albums focus on this approach – Changeless (1989) and Inside Out (2001). Both capture the trio departing from its regular format to improvise freely without the framework of the American popular songbook or bop standards – and the result on both albums is spell-binding. The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz wrote that Changeless contains original material which is deeply subversive (though also respectfully aware) of the whole tradition of jazz as a system of improvisation on ‘the changes’… On Changeless, there are no chord progressions at all; the trio improvises each section in a single key, somewhat in the manner of an Indian raga. The results are impressive and thought-provoking, like everything Jarrett has attempted.
We start in 1992 with the first album released by pianist, composer and broadcaster Julian Joseph. The title of the album The Language of Truth may sound a little pretentious but the music is good. Joseph’s band included Mark Mondesir on drums, Alec Dankworth on double bass, Jean Toussaint on tenor and soprano saxes and – on this track (the outstanding one on the album in Derek’s opinion) – Sharon Musgrave on vocals. This is an excellent re-working of 
We can count Ruby Rushton as part of the present jazz revival/renewal which has been going on for some time, though in fact, the album Ironside was released in 2018. It was the band’s fourth album. There has, however, just been a new fifth release in October 2025 from the band 
Back we go to 1987 to another of the trailblazers from those days who is still going strong – namely, Bristol saxophonist Andy Shepherd. He was someone else Derek heard at the time, in what was then a small performance centre in a converted former shoe factory in Norwich. The tune Java Jive was from his debut self-titled album released on the Antilles label, a subsidiary of major label Island Records. It is another warming tune with almost a big band sound from no less than ten musicians, including Sheppard on soprano sax plus trumpet, trombone, two tenor saxes, piano, vibes, bass, drums and percussion. By this time Sheppard had been playing for a decade, although with this album he was greeted as a newcomer. It had not, however, been until he was nineteen that he had first acquired a saxophone, with art being his main focus before then. Since this release he has continued to experiment and to innovate with a constantly changing group of musicians from around the world and even with a single musician – for example, the album Deep River with pianist Joanna MacGregor. Check 
This is the first of our two tunes from 2025. The Shieling from Fergus McCreadie was released by Edition Records in October 2025. Although he does not seem to have been around for long we can no longer think of him as a new artist – this is his fourth album. Along the way he has been a BBC Radio 3 Next Generation artist (a scheme to support talented musicians to reach the next stage of their careers) and been nominated for a Mercury Music Prize. He has a longstanding trio with bassist David Bowden and drummer Stephen Henderson and they produce a distinctive sound rooted in the folk traditions of their Scottish homeland mixed with lyrical improvisations which is evident straight away from the opening notes of the tune Wayfinder. The album was recorded in a remote cottage studio on North Uist on the Scottish Outer Hebrides and produced by trumpeter/composer Laura Jurd, another outstanding British musician in the current wave. Over the past few years McCreadie has become one of the most recognised voices in British jazz and his recent tour, following the release of The Shieling, took the trio across Europe.
Derek remembers seeing Steve Williamson playing music back in the day with 
The show comes right up to 2025 again to complete our past and present jazz revivals/renewals mix. This time we feature another contemporary talent from the excellent independent British jazz label 
The show starts again with another tune from the second album release of UK band Kokoroko. This came out in the summer of 2025 with a sleeve cover to match the hot summer vibe – and the music fits this scene too. There is so much going on here in a happy conglomeration of sounds. Oneme Edgeworth makes his mark on flute whistle, with much happening from guitar and percussion. Next, Azeke comes in with muted and mysterious vocals, while from time to time we get the high life- sounding brass chorus from Sheila Maurice-Grey on trumpet, Anoushka Nanguy on trombone and Chelsea Carmichael on tenor saxophone. We should not forget Duane Atherley’s bass which thumps its way through the number – ever-prominent but not dominant. Derek loves this record – highly recommended.
There is plenty going on in this tune too with outstanding British musicians from a different era – although vocalist Norma Winstone, saxophonist Art Themen, trumpeter Henry Lowther and bass player Dave Green are still active. The latter two are in the band Still Waters and in 2024 Norma Winstone released – with pianist Kit Downes – 
There are names that re-appear in this show and here we have trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey and tenor saxophonist Chelsea Carmichael of Kokoroko, but this time in another UK band – Seed Ensemble led by alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi, who incidentally played on the first Kokoroko album. Other musicians include Theon Cross on tuba, Shirley Tetteh on guitar and Cosmic Jazz favourite Sarah Tandy on piano and Rhodes (but what has happened to her of late?). The album Driftglass was a Mercury Music Prize nomination in 2019 and was released on the Jazz Re:freshed label. Yo can find it here on Bandcamp. Like Kokoroko, the music has a London inner-city jazz groove with West African and Caribbean influences. There are important political messages too: on the sleeve Cassie Kinoshi writes that the band is my way of celebrating the vibrant and distinctive diversity that has significantly influenced what British culture has become over the centuries. She expresses the hope that the music plants a seed of awareness. That message is probably even more important now than when it was written a few years back.
As promised, we moved to Brazil but with bass, percussion and brass still very much to the fore. Here it’s the engaging trombone of Paulo Williams that’s the main brass focus. The Return of the Ipanemas was released in 2001 and is another from our UK friends Far Out Recordings. It was indeed a return for this Brazilian group formed in the 1960s and merging Afro-Brazilian jazz, samba and bossa. Too far ahead for the time, they recorded just one album but drummer Wilson Des Neves and guitarist Neco – both from Rio de Janeiro – were still prominent on the Brazilian music scene, playing with many of the top Brazilian musicians through the years. Joe Davis of Far Out Recordings responded to a request from Ivan Conti of Azymuth to record The Ipanemas again and in 2022 Wilson and Neco, helped by a new set of musicians, recorded The Return of the Ipanemas and the renewed band went on to record four other albums for Far Out between 2003 and 2010. If you like this, check them out on t
The feel stays with Brazil, although this tune includes US musicians. It’s the band led by Airto (as he is credited on both the original and later release of this recording) – percussionist extraordinaire Airto Moreira. The track Flora’s Song (Airto’s wife is Flora Purim) is not to be confused with the more dance orientated Samba Da Flora. The former is a heavy jazz/Brazilian piece with jazz at the forefront and Airto’s unique percussive embellishments. The accompanying musicians present an impressive list – Ron Carter on bass, Joe Farrell on soprano sax, Keith Jarrett, (who returns on our final CJ track for this show) on piano and , Hubert Laws on flute taking things down a bit in volume but not in intricacy. There’s also a contribution from prolific session guitarist Jay Berliner. Free was released originally in 1972 on the CTI label with the assistance of two more prominent jazz names – Creed Taylor as producer and Rudy Van Gelder as engineer. Recorded at Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Free was Moreira’s first US success and remains one of his most fully -realised records. Essential.
Following the recent death of US jazz drummer, pianist and composer Jack DeJohnette (09 August 1942-26 October 2025) Derek – who had the privilege of seeing DeJohnette perform at Snape Maltings in Suffolk, UK – wanted to include something that involved Jack DeJohnette in this show – but do look out for an upcoming show that celebrates in its entirety his music. As a tribute here though, Derek concluded this show with an extended track where DeJohnette is a member of a trio led by pianist Keith Jarrett with Gary Peacock on bass. Jack’s contribution is immense, not in an upfront way (although he is featured in a wonderful, complex and driving solo well into the tune) but because his contributions are so subtle, so precise, so perfect and so inspiring that they were an exemplary illustration of the drummer’s equal contribution in the piano trio. Like many of the trio’s recordings, this one came live in 1994 from the Blue Note club in New York and was Keith Jarrett’s first New York engagement in eleven years. This one is a really extended take on the standard Autumn Leaves – starting slow, but by around 14 minutes really beginning to move and groove and swing with a climbdown before the ending after a full 26 minutes (including applause). What a tune, what a trio, what a pianist, what a bass player and what a sadly missed drummer!
Breathe is an early preview single from the forthcoming album Cook by the US sextet Lettuce, due for release on their own label on 3 December 2025. This is more boundary-crossing music – there’s jazz, funk and soul in this mix although Adam Deitch, the band’s drummer/percussionist, describes it as a chill hip-hop flavoured joint and the accompanying publicity calls it as a blissed-out track tinged with a retro hip hop vibe – an accurate description of it’s effect and very much representational of the sort of sounds Derek been listening to lately (and Neil adds that there’s more than a touch of George Benson-style guitar too). Lettuce recently produced a version of the Keni Burke classic 
Derek wanted to add his tribute and remembrance of Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal (22 June 1936-13 September 2025). He was innovative, independent and unpredictable: there is a story of him bringing live pigs into the studio for his first recording for Warner Bros and using household objects alongside the many other instruments he learnt as a self-taught musician – for example, piano, flute, melodica, saxophone, guitars and drums. Miles Davis called him the most important musician on the planet and he featured prominently on the Davis album 
The next tribute is to Eddie Palmieri (15 December 1936-06 August 2025) the influential Latin jazz and salsa pianist, composer and bandleader. Palmieri fused the rhythm of his Puerto Rican heritage with jazz. His parents came to New York in 1926from Puerto Rico, Eddie Palmieri was born in Spanish Harlem and raised in the Bronx. His elder brother Charlie Palmieri was also an outstanding and internationally-known Latin and jazz musician. Eddie Palmieri released more than 40 studio albums – many of them on the New York Latin label Fania Records. The tune Solito was the title track of a 1985 album but is taken here from a UK Charly Records 1993 compilation Salsa Brava. This record does not provide any details of the musicians on the record, nor does further research. It is a record with played with fire ; jazz fire and Latin fire. There is Latin percussion providing the basis throughout but early on comes a blazing trumpet solo followed by a free, improvised and unpredictable piano solo from Palmieri then timbales and percussion in tandem ending with a blast from the brass and vocalist- masterful!
Derek read another DJ acknowledgement to Chris Hill coming – perhaps surprisingly from Gary Crowley, a radio DJ, now on BBC Radio London but many years ago on Capital Radio. Derek notes that we would typically associate him with New Wave and then indie music rather than soul DJ, Crowley described being at a club where Hill played a record he had never heard before – one he found amazing and which he has loved, played and treasured ever since. That record came from Brazil and was Gilberto Gil’s Toda Menina Baiana. It’s a tune we at Cosmic Jazz just love. Derek recalls playing it one night in a bar in Ipswich around 01:00 on a Friday night/Saturday morning where there were some Portuguese speakers. The place went wild and the effect was electrifying. It was identification with the music, the environment and a sense of total joy. For Derek, this remains one of my all-time dance favourites. Matti Klein in his Echoes Magazine interview (see above) said he saw music as being about bringing joy – and if you want a shot of real joy just listen to Toda Menina Baiana.
Just as Derek was ready to record this programme the news came through of the death of D’Angelo aged 51 on 15 October 2015. Derek had been lucky to share musical tastes with his two sons and it was his eldest son who introduced him to D’Angelo through the Voodoo album, produced by Questlove and J. Dilla. In particular, it was the track played here – Spanish Joint – that was so memorable. Derek notes that his son felt he was the Marvin Gaye of his time and, indeed, this comment has been made in several tributes released in the short time since D’Angelo’s death. He is credited with being the founder of neo-soul, although he once claimed he simply made Black music. Neo-soul moved away from the pop influenced R’n’B of the time to a more chilled sound and one that merged elements of soul, R’n’B, jazz, funk and hip-hop. This is all there in this amazing track with its stripped-down, ultra-cool sound that swings like crazy with the bass and percussion – and, to cap it all, has the constant intervention of jazzy brass. What more could we ask for on Cosmic Jazz? More music soon.
Originating from Sweden, Frida Touray is a London-based singer-songwriter who has followed up her 2022 EP Mending – a deeply personal release – with a new full album for Edition that captures the essence of who she is and how she sees the world. She’s already toured and recorded with some big names (including Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, the Cinematic Orchestra and Jordan Rakei) and on the new album she’s supported by Ben Jones on guitar, Yves Fernandez on bass and Jake Edwards-Wood on piano and synths. You’ll hear more from Frida Touray, we’re sure.
Newly-nominated for the UK’s Mercury Music Prize 2025, Welsh-born Joe Webb is clearly going places in the jazz world. We’ve selected Beth yn Galw (which can be translated as what’s-his-name or what-d’you-call-it) from his new album Hamstrings and Hurricanes. Webb relocated to London in 2013, where he has since established himself as an active and influential figure on the music scene, touring already with his trio in the UK and beyond. Webb’s fuelled by a deep love of 90’s guitar bands and an unwavering passion for football so there are some unusual influences in his music.
Next up are some old CJ favourites – Sunking, here with another short tune from their new album, the intriguingly titled I Don’t Like My Telephone. The band comprises Antoine Martel and Bobby Granfelt – two members of the Seattle-based collective High Pulp, a band we have featured on Cosmic Jazz previously. Sunking have the brash DIY ethos of an underground punk band and this approach to jazz makes a strong impact. The music may not to the taste of all our listeners but it is innovative, challenging, thought-provoking and worth a listen. We love it!
Norwegian trumpeter and sonic architect Nils Petter Molvær’s presents Khmer Live in Bergen – a charged reinvention of his era-defining 1997 ECM release Khmer. This take was recorded in concert in 2024 and it’s full of subterranean bass, live trip-hop beats and an ambient haze. Over these deeper grooves and greater dynamic intensity, is Molvær’s lyrical trumpet. pushing the music into a rawer, driven by experience, control and creative vision. Well worth investigating.
The dubbiness continues with Joe Armon-Jones’ dub version of the opening tune from his excellent March 2025 album All the Quiet (Part 1). Keyboardist, producer and songwriter Armon-Jones (a member of Ezra Collective too) shares his most extensive solo project to date, All The Quiet – released in two parts, with Part 2 appearing just a couple of months ago. Guest musicians include Nubya Garcia, Oscar Jerome, Goya Gumbani, and more. There’s jazz, funk, dub, hip hop, and soul all here – and it all works.
Straight out of – well, yes – Norway comes Tim Lowerson’s Luna Horns outfit with a daring new sound. Tim comments on the music as jazz meets dub meets whatever we feel like playing! His current influences are Jah Wobble, Kamasi Washington, minimalism and lots of weird electronica that’s influenced by his son. We’d add in a touch of early Sun Ra there too. If you’re not familiar with Jah Wobble (formerly of PIL), then check out 
And over to Scotland where Glasgow-based pianist Paul Harrison has formed Trio Magico with Brazilian bassist Mario Caribe and drummer Stu Brown in a dedication to the work of Brazilian guitarist and pianist Egberto Gismonti. The brilliant new album Encontros (meaning meetings or encounters) features ten of Gismonti’s tunes with the addition of one short piece that Harrison co-wrote with percussionist Edmundo Carneiro. Ano Zero channels Harrison’s inner Keith Jarrett – it’s a stunning interpretation of a beautiful tune. There are further guests on some tunes including saxophonist Laura MacDonald, vocalist Rachel Lightbody and Fraser Fifield on the distinctive Celtic low whistle. Very highly recommended.
The late Hermeto Pascoal, who died earlier this month, was a Brazilian multi-instrumental iconoclast. Let’s start with his nickname – o Bruxo (the Sorcerer), an indication of the extraordinary sounds he derived from conventional and unconventional instruments. He’d use children’s toys, teapots and even – on one celebrated record – the squeal of pigs. Pascoal grew up deep in the countryside of north east Brazil and, because his albinism prevented him from working in the fields with his family, he practised the accordion for hours each day along with using these found objects to make his unique music. This second solo album (the first one was recorded and released in the USA) shows off his talents as composer, arranger and instrumentalist. Bebê, the albums opening track, was sampled in 1994 by Japanese acid-jazz group United Future Organization on their tune Mistress of Dance – check it out 
Sometimes it’s good to go back – and so we returned to 2014 and the Norwegian Eple Trio, whose then new record marked ten years of music making. Recorded in a remote studio in the forests of Sweden, drummer Jonas Sjøvaag, who wrote the liner notes, designed the cover and composed most of the pieces on the album, noted that the music was made in a time where it felt natural to embrace extroversion as a mode of output. It may not become the norm. The beautiful, serene themes expand patiently, providing new insights with every new listening. If you’d like to hear more from Eple Trio, then your best source is the always useful 
In a similar vein, here’s the new one from Fergus McCreadie and his trio. We’re long-time promoters of Scottish pianist McCreadie and the new album is great. There’s an even deeper sense of space and stillness compared to previous records – maybe because the album was recorded in a remote one-bedroom cottage in the Hebridean island of North Uist.
Finnish pianist Rissanen has built an impressive discography through collaborations with artists including Dave Liebman and Randy Brecker, contributing to 18 albums as either leader or co-leader. The new Edition Records album Imaginary Mountains – probably a nod to the Keith Jarrett Trio album Personal Mountains (1989) – features jazz with classical influences from Rissanen’s early training and also reflects his interest in electronic sounds. His trio features bassist Antii Lotjonen and drummer Teppo Mäkynen – and that long-time collaboration is reflected in the tightly focused interplay and lyrical invention.
What a delightful way to end the show! Some remixes don’t add much to the original – but this one really does. Alongside this take, there’s an extended DL version 
We began with one of the architects of bebop, the jazz movement that first marked the start of modern jazz. Charlie Parker was the alto saxophonist who broke the mould and took jazz forward and out of the dominant swing era. ‘Bird,’ as he was known, was an intuitive player who who based his improvisations not on the melody but rather a tune’s key chords. An early reliance on heroin and alcohol resulted in a mental breakdown and six months of confinement at the Camarillo State Hospital. Released in January 1947, Parker soon headed back to New York and engaged in some of the most rewarding playing of his career leading a group which featured Miles Davis and Max Roach. Relaxin’ at Camarillo itself was recorded in February 1947 with Howard McGhee on trumpet, Dodo Marmaroso on piano, Wardell Gray on tenor sax, Barney Kessell on guitar, Red Callander on bass and Don Lamond on drums. Parker’s importance? Simply that if he’d not existed, jazz would be very different.
Next up is one of the most popular pianists of the 1950-60s, Errol Garner, with a live take on Duke Ellington’s classic tune Caravan. This comes from a celebrated album with a celebrated cover – Concert By the Sea from 1955. Erroll Garner was another intuitive musician – unable to read music but a brilliant virtuoso with a unique sound. Like Oscar Peterson, he demonstrated that you can be both popular and sophisticated and it’s his free-form introductions, the stunning runs and – yes – his grunting while playing with a huge smile across his face that were all part of the Errol Garner magic. There’s a complete 
Yes – truly a genius of modern music, pianist Thelonious Monk once said that The piano ain’t got no wrong notes – and then set out to demonstrate that jazz truth. This early album (his first for Blue Note from 1951) is bursting with classic Monk tunes – Round About Midnight, Ruby My Dear, Epistrophy, Misterioso and Well You Needn’t. Of course, it’s an essential record for your collection – and you can get it in a great Blue Note Classics release from 2024. It demonstrates that – right from the off – Monk’s angular twists and turns on the keyboard along with unexpected changes of key and that percussive attack would shape all his future compositions. We’d recommend some of his Columbia collections from the 1960s too – like Solo Monk (1964), Straight, No Chaser (1965) and Underground (1968) – all three are great listening. And we haven’t yet said anything about Monk as a jazz fashion icon – just check out those suits, hats and sunglasses…
The title was long thought to be a reference to the Chicago Transit Authority, but composer Jimmy Heath is recorded as saying that it was simply the initials of a former girlfriend. Whatever, this tune has almost become a jazz standard with recordings by Miles Davis, Lee Morgan and Chick Corea – 
Tubby Hayes was the crown prince of British tenor sax players in the 1960s and remains a massively underrated jazz musician who was as good as any tenor player of the day. An early death at the age of 38 cut short his recording career but there’s still a good body of work to check out. Unusually, Neil recommends starting with the later albums and working backwards. If your budget can stretch to it, then an admittedly expensive starting point is the Complete Fontana Albums box set – eleven of ‘Tubbs’ best records including two of Neil’s favourites, Down in the Village and Mexican Green. The tune Down in the Village was later recorded in an excellent jazz dance version by Japanese favourites Quasimode – 
We’re back to 1957 for this unusual Miles Davis version of a Jackie McLean tune, which originally featured on McLean’s debut album from 1955. You can only find it on the 2CD Legacy version of this album – but it’s easy to track down an inexpensive copy 
Charles Lloyd was one of the most popular jazz musicians on the American west coast scene in the 1960s and this tune comes from his first album for Atlantic, recorded in 1966. It includes the ambitious reworking of Autumn Leaves into a sequence bookended by two Lloyd compositions, Autumn Prelude and Autumn Echo. Here Lloyd has a stellar band – Keith Jarrett on piano, Cecil McBee on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. Dream Weaver was followed in 1967 by Forest Flower: Live at Monterey, a wildly successful album that became one of the first million-sellers in jazz and catapulted Lloyd to international fame. Neil s a long-time Lloyd fan and has almost all of records on either vinyl or CD, including all those late iconic ECM releases. Now recording again with Blue Note, Lloyd is just released his latest album – Figure in Blue, a tribute to Duke Ellington. You can hear Defiant, Tender Warrior on the Blue Note website 
And now onto those promised remixes. Bird Up is a 2003 album of Parker remixes and – as is often the way with these things – something of a mixed bag. It’s unlikely to feature in any future Penguin Jazz Guide but this take on Relaxin’ at Camarillo is a great twist on the original – probably because it features the great M’Shell Ndegeocello on bass, along with programming by Chris Dave (sometime drummer for Robert Glasper) and Hammond B3 from Ray Angry (most recently on a great project called Plumb with David Murray). Relaxin’ (thinks Neil) is the standout tune on this Hal Winer project but elsewhere Hubert Laws, Ravi Coltrane and Dr. John are can be found contributing to these radical reinterpretations. Ndegeocello was born in West Berlin but raised in Washington DC and played in the city’s go-go bands in the late 1980s before diversifying into a wide range of different genres. Now on Blue Note, her last two albums (The Omnichord Real Book and No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin) are well worth exploring. Apparently, her surname means free like a bird in Swahili…
The Blue Note Revisited project from 2004 is a rather more successful take on the jazz remix album. It has a host of big names hard at work trying to update the jazz experience for Generation Y (and everyone else) – LA Funk Mob, Kenny Dope, DJ Spinna, Jazzanova and 4 Hero to name just a few of those involved. As a result, it works – with Japanese remix royalty Kyoto Jazz Massive’s treatment of Kudu being a notable success. Brothers Shuya and Yoshihiro Okino, both DJs and remixers in Kyoto, have a good track record in reworking this kind of material: their 2021 album Message From a New Dawn included the excellent 
We were saddened to hear of the death in August of Latin piano supremo Eddie Palmieri, a musician who exemplified a progressive approach to the Latin genre but whose exploration was always firmly rooted in its tradition. Massively influned by jazz, it was trombonist Barry Rogers who would introduce Palmieri to the work of the then Coltrane pianist McCoy Tyner whose use of block chords became a signature of Palmieri’s own sound. He experimented by employing a jazz aesthetic both in live performance and on his recordings, based on the Cuban descarga (or jam session) concept. Arrangements were opened up with band members as soloists and Palmieri began incorporating a newly developed post-Castro revolution Cuban rhythm known as mozambique. Palmieri went on to create two versions of his hugely influential band La Perfecta, recording the classic Vamonos Pa’l Monte in 1971 – one of Neil’s favourites. In 2005, Palmieri teamed up with longtime trumpeter and band member Brian Lynch to record Simpático. The album has an all star lineup including Phil Woods, Lila Downs, Donald Harrison, Conrad Herwig, Robby Ameen and more. In 2007 it won a Grammy as the best Latin Jazz recording.