New Jazz Releases – 07/14/2025
By Russell Perry
Sharel Cassity
This was a particularly light week for new jazz releases, which gave me the rare opportunity to listen through these selections several times. What a quality pile of music! Alan Broadbent has released a really good sextet date. Juanjo López debuts with the Entre Amigos rhythm section. Newcomer Victoria Cardona found that soft spot I have for well-played Latin rhythms. Posi-Tone Records all-star group Something Blue is back. Sharel Cassity and Joe Farnsworth each bring a fine band of New York players to their new discs. While this was a short list, the quality was amazingly high. I hope you enjoy the musics.
Alan Broadbent – Threads Of Time (Savant Records, release 07/17/2025). Scott Wendholt – trumpet, Eric Miller – trombone, Sam Dillon – tenor saxophone, Alan Broadbent – piano, Harvie S – bass, Lucas Ebeling – drums.
Long appreciated as a pianist of sensitivity and swing, Alan Broadbent (Charlie Haden, Lee Konitz) is back with a three-horn front line sextet. Tenorist Sam Dillon (Michael Davis, Steve Feieke, Idle Hands) is particularly strong on tunes like Journey Home. Trumpeter Scott Wendholt (Charles Pillow, Danny Jonokuchi, John Fedchock) shines on Broadbent’s homage to Clifford Brown – Clifford Notes. Hard Bop lives and thrives. Love this band, highly recommended.
Juanjo López – Above, Beyond, Within (Desafio Candente Records, release 07/15/2025). Hana Fujisaki – piano, Juanjo López – guitar, Kitt Lyles – bass, Gustavo Cortinas – drums.
Mexican guitarist Juanjo López, an old friend of drummer Gustavo Cortinas, has released his debut record on Cortinas’s Desafina Candente Records. In addition to Cortinas, López joins the rest of the rhythm section from the Entre Amigos ensemble (Magpie, previewed 06/16/2025) – Hana Fujisaki on piano and Kitt Lyles on bass. The interplay between Fujisaki and López is strong and the six original compositions are compelling. Recommended.
Victoria Cardona – Que Paso (Self Released, release 06/27/2025). Nick Lane – trombone, Francisco Torres – trombone / backing vocals, Justo Almario – flute / saxophone / clarinet / background vocals, Bill Bergman – saxophone, Bill Payne – piano / organ, Victoria Cardona – vocals / lead guitar / rhythm guitar / bass / drums / percussion / piano / organ / steel drums, Tim Goodman – guitar / mandolin / marimba / organ / synthesizer / background vocals, San Miguel Perez – Cuban tres guitar, Rene Camacho – baby bass, Jimmy Haslip – electric bass, Jimmy Branley – drums / background vocals, Kevin Ricard – percussion.
In her debut recording, guitarist and vocalist Victoria Cardona and her snapping band romp through a catalog of Caribbean rhythms – Cuban Son, Reggae, calypso, soca steel drums – plus South African high life grooves. Cardona makes her living performing solo with a sophisticated looping kit, but here she gets a pile of pros for support. Her inclusion of saxophonist / flutist Justo Almario is most welcome – he’s a killer. Little Feat’s Bill Payne handles some of the keyboard parts and together they nail Lowell George’s Spanish Moon. I am not sure that I ever heard this covered before and in Spanish, no less. You might hear some of these tracks on our Eclectic Woman and Wild Women programs, and I’ll definitely be including Cardona’s release in my playlists. Infectious and highly recommended.
Review: Jazz Weekly, Making A Scene, 5 Finger Review
Something Blue – In The Beginning (Posi-Tone Records, release 06/20/2025). Altin Sencalar – trombone, Diego Rivera – tenor saxophone, Langston Hughes II – alto saxophone, Art Hirahara – piano, Boris Kozlov – bass, Rudy Royston – drums with Willie Morris – tenor saxophone.
For the third time in the past six years, Posi-Tone Records has assembled a group of their top artists for a set under the name Something Blue. This program reprises compositions from the early days of the label 30 years ago. Not only are all the songs unfamiliar to me, all of the composers are also unfamiliar. I guess that is why they have brought them back now that the label is established and well distributed. If you stone-cold guessed that the rhythm section would be Hirahara – Kozlov – Royskin – of course, you would be right. Solid hard bop ballads and swingers, as you would expect, with fine solo work from Altin Sencalar on trombone and Diego Rivera on tenor. Recommended.
Jeff Hamilton – Coast To Coast (RMI Records, release 03/31/2025). Akiko Tsuruga – Hammond B3 organ, Steve Kovalcheck – guitar, Jeff Hamilton – drums.
Drummer Jeff Hamilton (Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra – And So It Goes, previewed 02/19/2024) has released a tidy organ trio set of modern jazz standards (Bluesette, Road Song).
Sharel Cassity – Gratitude (Sunnyside Records, release 03/28/2025). Terell Stafford – trumpet, Michael Dease – trombone, Sharel Cassity – alto saxophone / clarinet, Cyrus Chestnut – piano, Christian McBride – acoustic bass, Lewis Nash – drums.
Altoist Sharel Cassity comes from a deep bebop place and you can hear Art Pepper in her playing from time-to-time. Her first record in five years comes with a world-class rhythm section – Cyrus Chestnut on piano (Rhythm, Melody and Harmony, previewed 05/08/2025), Christian McBride on acoustic bass (But Who’s Gonna Play The Melody, previewed 03/11/2024), and Lewis Nash (Noah Haidu, Jordan VanHelmert, Steve Davis, Nick Finzer) on drums. On two selections, she brings it up to a sextet with Terell Stafford on trumpet and Michael Dease on trombone, with whom she played on his 2024 release Found In Space. Her composition chops are terrific on five of the eight tunes (Dease recorded one of her songs on his last record, City Life.) Swinging, well-played and highly recommended.
Review: AllAboutJazz, Paris Move, Jazz Weekly
Joe Farnsworth – The Big Room (Smoke Sessions, release 01/25/2025). Jeremy Pelt – trumpet, Sarah Hanahan – alto saxophone, Emmet Cohen – piano, Joel Ross – vibraphone, Yasushi Nakamura – bass, Joe Farnsworth – drums.
Drummer Joe Farnsworth’s last release (In What Direction Are You Headed?, previewed 05/15/2023) was one of my favorite records of 2023. Farnsworth keeps up a busy recording schedule (three releases so far this year with Eric Scott Reed, James Zito, Jim Snidero and six releases last year) and seems to play with most of the straight-ahead players in New York. For this release he comes in with a brand new band – an excellent one at that. The front line of Jeremy Pelt (Woven, previewed 02/17/2025) and Sarah Hanahan (Among Giants, previewed 09/23/2024) is formidable with young Hanahan recalling Jackie McLean at times. To this, add vibraphonist Joel Ross (Nublues, previewed 02/12/2024) and pianist Emmet Cohen (Vibe Provider, previewed 08/12/2024) and you have one of the best bands recording today – all of which contributed compositions to the program. Highly recommended.
Only a few new releases, but a high proportion are winners for my ears.
Russell Perry
Jazz at 100 Now!
If your music isn’t changing your life, you’ve simply picked the wrong songs. – Ted Gioia
