1.
Juan Pablo Balcazar - Quiet Thinking 2025
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_knzcaq6E4vfSPEsjOG2RFezDWfe5PYu6U
Juan Pablo Balcázar, Colombian by birth but Barcelonian by adoption, is a restless and thoroughly versatile musician who moves with equal ease through jazz, improvised music, hip hop, pop, and Latin American genres. With more than twelve albums released under his own name, leading different ensembles, and a long career as a sideman on various labels, Balcázar has performed at countless festivals and venues around the world. His career includes collaborations with prominent musicians such as Lucia Pulido, Miguel Zenón, Marco Mezquida, and Wyclief Gordon, among many others.
His latest project is the album Quiet Thinking (2025), a trio featuring himself on double bass, Antonio Mazzei on piano, and Oriol Roca on drums. This album revolves around the concept of “quiet,” a word that in both English and Catalan shares the same spelling but holds multiple nuances and meanings, leaving room for different interpretations.
The words that come to mind when listening to this record are sensitivity, subtlety, and beauty. The title perfectly captures the mood conveyed by Balcázar’s compositions and interpretations — Larry Thinking, Here Comes The Sun, Preludio al Quartet.
Larry Thinking, Here Comes The Sun, Preludio al Quartet
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2.
Diego Rivera - West Circle 2025
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nS2UaLWBAZbAwAIQQOppl9BftGLCXXo-2
Diego Rivera, saxophonist, composer, and arranger, releases his ninth album West Circle with Posi-Tone Records, his seventh for this label. The album features the participation of Art Hirahara (piano), Boris Kozlov (bass), and Rudy Royston (drums), regular collaborators with Rivera. The events at Michigan State University (MSU) that inspired Diego Rivera’s track "West Circle" are the mass shooting that occurred on February 13, 2023, on the campus of East Lansing, Michigan. That evening, an armed man fired inside the university, causing the deaths of three students and seriously injuring five more.
The album has received good reviews, highlighting Rivera for his ability to create solos with structure and emotional charge. The album also includes an energetic version of “The Maze” by Herbie Hancock, as well as original compositions, standing out "Frida", which is a personal tribute to Frida Kahlo, a character admired by Rivera to the extent that the saxophonist Diego Rivera nicknamed his own wife "My Frida". The album also includes influences from his Mexican-American cultural heritage.
West Circle, Frida.
3.
Eric Scott Reed - Out Late 2025
https://ericreedsmoke.bandcamp.com/album/out-late
The album Out Late by pianist Eric Scott Reed prioritizes energy and passion over musical precision, recording all the songs in one take with all the musicians playing together in the same room, without any overdubs. This "old-fashioned" way gives it a vintage feel and spontaneity. The album features an excellent quintet: Reed (piano), Nicholas Payton (trumpet), Eric Alexander (tenor sax), Peter Washington (bass), and Joe Farnsworth (drums).
The title Out Late refers both to Reed's decision to express his sexual orientation and to the sonic portrayal of New York City at night. The record aims to capture, and expresses without stylistic affectations, a clearly "mainstream" urban nighttime atmosphere — though with musicians of exceptional level.
They
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4.
Nordkraft Big Band/Remy Le Boeuf/ Danielle Wertz 2025
Silent Course
https://remyleboeuf.bandcamp.com/album/silent-course
This album brings together artists separated by great geographical distances: Remy Le Boeuf, alto saxophonist, American composer and arranger, has to travel 14 hours by plane from Denver to Denmark to conduct the Nordkraft Big Band. In addition, vocalist Danielle Wertz is based in New York, adding even more physical separation. Despite this, the result is coherent, there is no separation in the spirit of the performance or in the feelings it evokes: The Nordkraft Big Band and Le Boeuf have achieved a very rare feat in a large jazz ensemble, creating music that is remarkably intimate, expressive, and emotional.
Le Boeuf arranged all the music to suit the soft brilliance of Wertz. He also knows when to unleash the power of Nordkraft, as in the title track, “Silent Course”
Silent Course, I Had a King, Something to Believe In
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