Welcome to SF Classical Voice’s annual roundup of recordings released in 2025 by California-based artists! Our list reaches well beyond classical music — this year’s collection spans orchestral and chamber works, vocal and opera recordings, experimental and electronic explorations, folk and world traditions, and jazz in all its forms. We can’t claim to be comprehensive, but we’ve aimed to capture a vibrant cross-section of the musical creativity flowing out of the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and beyond. With so many releases that we’re unable to cover in depth throughout the year, this roundup offers a chance to shine a light on work that deserves your attention.
We present these listings with minimal editorializing. Blurbs are drawn primarily from the artists and their labels’ promotional materials, and album titles and cover images link to sites where you can learn more and support the artists directly. We hope you discover something new:
Orchestral
Los Angeles Philharmonic/Gustavo Dudamel
Gabriela Ortiz: Yanga
Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic continue their collaboration with Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz on Yanga, a blazing portrait album recorded live at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Centered on Ortiz’s choral showpiece about Gaspar Yanga, the Afro-Mexican freedom fighter, the recording unleashes the combined forces of the LA Phil, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Tambuco Percussion Ensemble in music that fuses African-derived percussion, Latin American groove, and searing choral writing. The new cello concerto Dzonot, written for Alisa Weilerstein, and the orchestral suite Seis piezas a Violeta round out a program steeped in social and environmental conscience as well as riotous color. (Platoon)
San Francisco Symphony/Esa-Pekka Salonen
Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements — EP
Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony turn Stravinsky’s so-called “Hollywood” symphony into a taut, 22-minute thriller. Recorded for the orchestra’s in-house label SFS Media, this digital-only EP presents Symphony in Three Movements with razor-sharp articulation, bright orchestral color, and an unerring sense of rhythmic swing. The players relish Stravinsky’s jagged fanfares, motoric ostinatos, and smoky slow movement, while Salonen’s ear for balance keeps every line transparent. Short, punchy, and impeccably engineered, it’s a vivid snapshot of the Salonen/SFS partnership — and a Grammy-nominated calling card for the orchestra’s current Stravinsky cycle. (SFS Media)
Anna Shelest
Donna Voce Volume 3 — Clara Schumann & Cécile Chaminade: Concerti & Piano Works
Ukrainian-American pianist Anna Shelest continues her exploration of works by women composers in Donna Voce Volume 3 — Clara Schumann & Cécile Chaminade: Concerti & Piano Works. Featured are Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 7 and Cécile Chaminade’s Concertstück for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 40, with Neeme Järvi conducting the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. Anna Shelest also performs works for solo piano by each composer and is joined by her husband, Dmitri Shelest, in Chaminade’s Pièces Romantiques, Op. 55 for piano four hands.
Anna Shelest/Neeme Järvi/Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
A Romantic from Kharkiv: Music of Sergei Bortkiewicz
“... Romanticism is not the bloodless intellectual commitment to a program, but the expression of my most profound mind and soul.” — Sergei Bortkiewicz
This deeply personal attitude toward Romanticism encapsulates the philosophy that sustained Ukrainian composer Sergei Bortkiewicz through the turbulent tides of the early 20th century: the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the unrelenting horrors of the Second World War. The composer’s life and career reflect the multiethnic, multilingual, and politically complex tapestries of Ukraine during his time.
Vonn Vanier
Dawn
Montclair Records, in association with CEN/The Orchard, released Dawn, the debut album of 18-year-old composer Vonn Vanier, in May 2025. Produced by Grammy nominee Jeremy Cohen, Dawn features seven original compositions for orchestra, chamber ensemble, and solo piano. Now available on all major streaming platforms, the album introduces a compelling new voice in contemporary classical music. Its centerpiece features two orchestral works, performed by the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra: Rhapsody in C Minor and Lost at Home, a symphonic poem inspired by Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. Additional compositions are performed by Quartet San Francisco and Quinteto Latino. (Montclair Records)
Instrumental & Chamber
Astral Mixtape
Biolumy
Astral Mixtape’s new album Biolumy glows with the group’s signature blend of classical virtuosity, electronic color, and improvisatory spark. Featuring two violins, cello, keyboards, and electronics, the ensemble reshapes 21st-century chamber music with a sound that’s cinematic, rhythmically alive, and unmistakably their own. The seven tracks, all co-written by the group, unfold like vivid sonic short stories, each one expanding the group’s expressive world. Fresh off major competition wins and festival appearances across North America, Astral Mixtape unveils an album that feels both personal and boldly future-facing.
Gloria Cheng
Root Progressions
Root Progressions is Grammy- and Emmy-winning pianist Gloria Cheng’s latest album. Known for her “commanding technique, color, and imagination” (The New York Times), Cheng has commissioned six distinguished composers of improvised music — Anthony Davis, Jon Jang, James Newton, Arturo O’Farrill, Linda May Han Oh, and Gernot Wolfgang — to write fully notated solo works for her. The resulting pieces are as diverse and compelling as the artists who created them. AllMusic has praised the album as “A well-nigh essential listen” and Ethan Iverson called it “exciting...a major performance.” Produced by fourteen-time Grammy winner Judith Sherman, Root Progressions showcases a rich tapestry of styles. (via Bandcamp)
Delirium Musicum
Cabinet of Curiosities
From the depth of this magical chest comes music revealing myriad facets reflecting the colors of the artistic universe of Delirium Musicum. This musical collection invites everyone to enjoy an uninhibited sonic experience with tunes as diverse as the musicians who comprise this ensemble. From Baroque music to music of tomorrow, with side trips to film scores and folk songs, this acoustic mosaic embraces the orchestra’s exhilarating creative world. Delirium Musicum invites you to listen to this album in its original order, as one tale with its intricate plots — or out of order, to randomly renew the pleasure and unveil the hidden facets of this Cabinet of Curiosities. (Warner Classics)
Corey Field
Releases on First Leaf Music
First Leaf Music released three recordings of compositions by Corey Field on worldwide streaming platforms, including his String Quartet featuring L.A.-based artists the Lyris Quartet, and the Violin Sonata featuring Alyssa Park and Aron Kallay. The most talked-about release is “Father’s Day” for oboist and strings, featuring renowned UK oboist Nicholas Daniel. “Father’s Day” is inspired by the journeys of all kinds of “fathers” (whether gay, straight, or single mothers who act also as fathers to their children). This lyrical and dramatic mini concerto uses the entire oboe family, including the oboe, oboe d’amore, and English horn, in a magnificent, glowing performance. (First Leaf Music)
Peter Scott Lewis
Pacific Triptych
Sono Luminus presents Pacific Triptych, the riveting new album from adventurous San Francisco-based composer Peter Scott Lewis. Featuring superb pianist Blair McMillen, this release comprises three major works: Pacific Triptych, Seven Nuggets, and An American Travelogue (Book 1). (Sono Luminus)
Quartet Integra
Beethoven, Ligeti & David S. Lefkowitz: String Quartets
Yarlung Records captures rising ensemble Quartet Integra at the close of their residency at the Colburn School in a program that spans three eras of string-quartet revolution. Beethoven’s final quartet, Op. 135, receives a lithe, transparent reading that balances classical poise and late-style introspection. Ligeti’s explosive Second Quartet bristles with color and precision, its whispered textures and mechanistic rhythms shaped like a cinematic narrative. The centerpiece, David S. Lefkowitz’s Green Mountains, Now Black — written amid devastating Los Angeles wildfires and threaded with Monteverdi quotations — reimagines the quartet as a drama of memory, catastrophe, and hard-won lyricism. (Yarlung Records)
Jared Redmond
Scintillant: Scarlatti, Boulez, Soler
Pianist Jared Redmond’s new album Scintillant: Scarlatti, Boulez, Soler weaves together celebrated gems of the keyboard repertoire, explosive modernism, and works off the beaten path. Redmond’s performance style is bold and, as a composer himself, his interpretations are imaginative and distinctive, bringing new life to both often-heard and rarely heard pieces. The carefully curated musical journey spans multiple centuries and worlds. Boulez’s Douze Notations are threaded between sonatas by Scarlatti and Antonio Soler, a voyage encompassing Italian court aria, Iberian folk music, foreshadowings of Haydn, and Boulez’s youthful pianistic evocations of Asian percussion and crystalline serialism.
Meerenai Shim
The Audacity
Aerocade Music presents The Audacity, the extraordinary new solo album from trail-blazing Bay Area flutist Meerenai Shim. The Audacity combines virtuosic flute performances and modern record production techniques in a delightful sonic package. Anchored by Steve Reich’s evergreen Vermont Counterpoint and augmented by newly commissioned works from The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker, Brent Miller, Janice Misurell-Mitchell, and Meghann Wilhoite, The Audacity is Meerenai’s fourth solo recording and her most cohesive project to date. Countertenor Carl Alexander is a guest artist for the Misurell-Mitchell piece. (Aerocade Music)
Arlene Sierra
Birds and Insects: Arlene Sierra — Vol. 4
Much of Arlene Sierra’s compositional output centers on the natural world, addressing the subjects of landscape, evolutionary biology, and the sounds, processes, and behavior of birds and insects. Arranged into three books, Sierra’s Birds and Insects comprises 15 movements composed across a 20-year period. The three books are performed brilliantly here by pianists Steven Beck (Books 1 and 2) and Bay Area-based Sarah Cahill (Book 3, which was commissioned for Cahill’s “The Future is Female” project). The album is the fourth in Bridge’s ongoing Arlene Sierra series. (Bridge Records)
William Skeen
The Six Cello Suites of J.S. Bach
The six suites for solo cello are frequently considered to be Bach’s greatest masterpieces. This new album from Bay Area cellist William Skeen has the unique feature of being performed using two different historic cellos, one being a rare five-string instrument from the 17th century. Skeen is Principal Cellist with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Voices of Music, and was Principal Cellist of the American Bach Soloists for nearly two decades. The album was recorded by multi-Grammy-winning engineer Leslie Ann Jones at Skywalker Sound in Marin County and produced by San Francisco native Lolly Lewis. (Reference Recordings)
Telegraph Quartet
Edge of the Storm
Edge of the Storm, the second volume in its 20th-Century Vantage Points series, “builds on the Telegraph’s reputation for intellectually searching and emotionally charged interpretations” (Thomas May, The Strad). Where the first volume, Divergent Paths, explored the century’s opening decade, this installment examines the turbulent years of World War II and its aftermath through string quartets by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg. Together, these quartets form a powerful triptych of wartime experience: Britten’s exile and displacement, Weinberg’s direct confrontation with genocide and loss, and Bacewicz’s emergence from underground resistance into postwar renewal. Each composer’s unique response to this defining historical moment creates a cohesive artistic statement about creativity’s persistence through one of humanity’s darkest periods. (Azica Records)
Vocal & Opera
Nicolás Lell Benavides
Canto Caló
Aerocade Music presents Canto Caló, the enrapturing debut album by composer Nicolás Lell Benavides. Featuring mezzo-soprano Melinda Martinez Becker and Friction Quartet, this release encompasses two major works exploring New Mexican identity, ancestral memories of grandparents (and how those live and breathe within us), cultural connections over generations, and what is lost and gained when we revisit our roots. (Aerocade Music)
Chanticleer
Joy to the World
Chanticleer’s first Delos release, Joy to the World, wraps the ensemble’s trademark blend, precision, and stylistic swagger around a panoramic Christmas program. Renaissance motets by Praetorius, Palestrina, and Morales nestle alongside carols such as “Once in Royal David’s City,” “Good King Wenceslas,” and “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” heard in fresh arrangements by ensemble members Adam Brett Ward, Jared Graveley, and Amanda Taylor. New commissions from Joanna Marsh, including movements from Winter’s Garland and In Winter’s House, add a contemporary glow, making this album as much a meditation on winter light as a festive choral showcase. (Delos)
Stacey Fraser/Brightwork Ensemble
My Dancing Sweetheart: Just Songs
Soprano Stacey Fraser is joined by Brightwork Ensemble colleagues Aron Kallay (piano, keyboard), Shalini Vijayan (violin) and Nick Terry (percussion) on this beautiful and ambitious release of music by Ben Johnston, Bill Alves, and Helmut Oehring. (MicroFest Records)
Jake Heggie/Gene Scheer
Before It All Goes Dark
An ailing Vietnam War veteran learns he is the sole heir to a priceless art collection stolen by the Nazis. His journey to Prague to claim his legacy leads to the discovery of an identity he never knew, and through art he discovers a deeper truth in his life. The work is based on a true story reported by Howard Reich in the Chicago Tribune. With music by Jake Heggie and a libretto by Gene Scheer, the album features bass-baritone Ryan McKinny, mezzo-soprano Megan Marino, and the Music of Remembrance Ensemble conducted by Joseph Mechavich. (Warner Classics)
Lorelei Ensemble/Scott Ordway/Beth Willer
Scott Ordway: North Woods
Composer Scott Ordway, who grew up in Santa Cruz County, finds lasting influence in his upbringing among the redwoods. He describes North Woods, his four-movement work for the Lorelei Ensemble, as “a choral meditation on wilderness, memory, and spiritual ecology.” The resonance and emotional intensity of his music emerge vividly in Lorelei’s empathic performance under artistic director Beth Willer. AnEarful described North Woods as “a truly gorgeous suite... The whole piece has a soft astringency that makes for a richly satisfying introduction to Ordway’s music for me and anyone else unfamiliar with his work.” (New Focus Recordings)
Anne Akiko Meyers/Los Angeles Master Chorale/Grant Gershon
Beloved
On Beloved, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers joins the Los Angeles Master Chorale, conductor Grant Gershon, the Lyris Quartet, and jazz pianist/composer Billy Childs for an expansive, three-part meditation on love, loss, and consolation. Childs’s half-hour In the Arms of the Beloved — a requiem for his mother — braids Rumi’s poetry, luminous choral writing, jazz rhythm section, and Meyers’s soaring solo line, conceived as the mother’s voice. Eric Whitacre’s Seal Lullaby and Ola Gjeilo’s Serenity appear in new, violin-led arrangements that spotlight the choir’s sheen and Gershon’s supple pacing, rounding out an album that feels both intimate and cinematic. (Platoon)
Pasadena Chorale
Light of Hope Returning
The award-winning Pasadena Chorale makes its long-awaited return to recording with Light of Hope Returning, a luminous folk oratorio for the winter solstice by composer/pianist Shawn Kirchner. Blending traditional carols, newly written songs, and brief readings into a single arc, the album traces a journey through darkness toward renewal, community, and the turning of the year. Recorded in Pasadena with Kirchner at the piano under artistic director Jeffrey Bernstein, the Chorale is joined by its middle-school treble choir, The High Notes. This second commercial recording of the work captures a new holiday classic at the heart of the Chorale’s mission to offer free, communal music-making. (via Bandcamp)
Leandra Ramm/Michael Delfín
Watching Glass, I Hear You
Mezzo-soprano Leandra Ramm and pianist Michael Delfín present Watching Glass, I Hear You, a compelling collection of contemporary song cycles by today’s leading living composers: Lisa Bielawa, Douglas Knehans, David T. Little, Cyril Deaconoff, and Daron Hagen. With texts drawn largely from female poets and lyricists, the album weaves storytelling, emotion, and innovation into a vivid sound world that bridges genres and reimagines classical song for today. Praised as “deeply personal and emotionally rich” (Babylon Radio), the album showcases Ramm’s exceptional vocal range, dramatic depth, and Delfín’s masterful collaboration — “an exceptional partner for the very impressive Leandra Ramm” (Classical Music Daily). (Ablaze Records)
Esther Rayo/Peter Grünberg
Estrellita
Estrellita is a superb debut collection of sensuous classical Spanish-language songs for voice and piano, from the sublime musical partnership of lyric soprano Esther Rayo and renowned pianist and conductor Peter Grünberg. This program of works was first heard in a series of concerts given by the San Francisco organization LIEDER ALIVE! The songs are by early 20th-century composers Fernando Obradors, Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, Alberto Ginastera, Xavier Montsalvatge, Consuelo Velázquez, and Manuel Ponce. Drawing from Spanish classical poetry and regional folk melodies, these vibrant song cycles appeal to art song aficionados and first-time listeners alike.
Pamela Z
Simultaneous
Other Minds presents Simultaneous by San Francisco-based composer and live-vocal-looping doyenne Pamela Z. Begun during her 2019 Rome Prize Fellowship, the work takes inspiration from Z’s fascination with simultaneous translation, built from over 30 interviews with fellow Fellows about notable synchronous experiences. “The work incorporates stories and tightly edited speech fragments,” Z writes, “woven together with melodies, textures, and pitched and rhythmic motifs largely generated by the speech material.” As critic Adam Shatz observes, Simultaneous is “unmistakably, a musical work... a reflection not only on its ostensible subject, but on the practice and experience of music.” It was released in conjunction with Z’s appearance at the 29th Other Minds Festival. (Other Minds Records)
New Music & Experimental
Thea Farhadian
Tattoos and Other Markings
Other Minds presents Tattoos and Other Markings by violinist Thea Farhadian, an album exploring memory through classical violin, electronics, Arabic classical music, and improvisation. Farhadian traces her family history, sparked by research into the tattooing of Armenian women and girls during the Armenian Genocide and the discovery that her grandmother’s sister was tattooed as a child. The music integrates an early 20th-century Armenian folk-song recording, field recordings from Armenia and Egypt, and mechanical sounds from letterpress and MRI machines. This profound sonic journey into cultural memory asks what we remember, what we forget, and how history marks us. (Other Minds Records)
Thomas Kotcheff/Bryan Curt Kostors
Between Systems
Midcentury piano works by John Cage and Morton Feldman form the basis of Between Systems, a provocative new album by composer-pianist Thomas Kotcheff and composer-electronic artist Bryan Curt Kostors. Featuring Kotcheff on piano and Kostors on a variety of electronic instruments, from analog synthesizers to advanced digital applications, Between Systems is a captivating hybrid, infusing nine Cage and Feldman works with elements of ambient music and electronica. The interventions range from subtle auras to glitchy dance rhythms, but each is based in a deep engagement with the source material. Cultural Attaché has hailed the album as “utterly fascinating.” (via Bandcamp)
Kronos Quartet
Forgive Us For
Forgive Us For captures Kronos Quartet at its most urgent and human. Journeying through Palestine, Iceland, and Ukraine, the album amplifies voices of mercy, exile, and survival in works by Rim Banna, Hildur Guðnadóttir, and Mariana Sadovska. Each composition transforms personal and collective trauma into transcendent sound, affirming that music can both bear witness and heal. (Phenotypic Recordings)
Kronos Quartet/Mary Kouyoumdjian
Witness
This is a gorgeously compelling and shattering portrait album of Pulitzer Prize-nominated Armenian-American composer/documentarian Mary Kouyoumdjian, combining testimonies of the composer’s family, friends, and community impacted by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide. Kouyoumdjian’s work seeks to humanize complex experiences around social and political conflict. (Phenotypic Recordings)
Oakland Reductionist Orchestra
west and east baying
The house band for sfSound’s WEST OAKLAND SOUND SERIES, the oakland reductionist orchestra is a Bay Area supergroup devoted to lowercase, fricative, reductionist improvisation that often sounds more electronic than acoustic. Rooted in the “American reductionist” tradition of the late 1990s and early 2000s and shaped by Mills College’s experimental legacy, the ensemble debuts with west and east baying, two long-form tracks of evolving structures. One documents a live performance at The Lab in San Francisco (West Bay); the other, recorded in a Berkeley studio (East Bay), is a musique concrète re-composition by founder matt ingalls, sculpted from close-miked instrumental sounds. (via Bandcamp)
Partch Ensemble
Harry Partch — The Wayward: First Complete Recording
The Grammy Award-winning Partch Ensemble specializes in the music and instruments of the iconoclastic American composer Harry Partch. Partch’s The Wayward, in the composer’s own words, is “a collection of musical compositions based on the spoken and written words of hobos and other characters — the result of my wanderings in the Western part of the United States from 1935 to 1941.” This is the world premiere recording of Partch’s complete cycle. (Bridge Records)
Folk & World
Teja Gerken/Doug Young
The Water Is Wide
On The Water Is Wide, acoustic fingerstyle guitarists Teja Gerken and Doug Young continue their duo’s exploration of intricate arranging and the colors of different guitars. The album opens with Eric Skye’s contemporary fiddle tune “The Locktender’s Reel,” then moves through folk standards like Turlough O’Carolan’s “Sí Bheag, Sí Mhór” and Roger Tallroth’s “Josefin’s Waltz,” plus Gerken’s Leo Kottke-inspired original “Takoma.” The duo revisits fingerstyle classics, touches Erik Satie’s “Gymnopédie No. 1” and the Renaissance piece “A Toye for Two Lutes,” and closes with Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind” and a slide-guitar take on “Greensleeves.” Do they play “The Water Is Wide,” you ask? Indeed they do!
D. Riley Nicholson/Amy Foote
Tip of My Tongue
The music for Tip of My Tongue was originally created for David Herrera Performance Company’s 2022 production at Z Space in San Francisco. Tip of My Tongue explores how non-English or mixed-English minority communities in the United States use language and communication practices as tools for cultural visibility, perseverance, and connection to other cultures. The music is composed almost entirely of the human voice, from operatic solfège to electronic beatboxing. The voice is sometimes unadorned and at other times deconstructed, exploring the power, beauty, and complexity of the human voice and language. The recording features soprano Amy Foote. (via Bandcamp)
D. Riley Nicholson/Sarah Cahill/Regina Myers
Up
Up’s unifying theme is simply “up.” The piece moves “up” in many directions: literally, opening with an upward motif that gets pinged between pianos in a groovy, dizzying counterpoint; gradually with increasing frequency moving up the circle of fifths; with upbeat syncopations and tempi; constantly one-upping itself with a burgeoning energy that trips over itself with virtuosic fits; and many other upward motions and themes. The entire work is a manic trip that explores joyous energy and the darker underbelly of positivity when energy and motion become simply too much to contain. The work is performed by Sarah Cahill and Regina Myers. (via Bandcamp)
Putu Septa
Piwal
Other Minds presents Piwal by Balinese composer and gamelan musician Putu Septa, a fierce multi-movement work whose title means “rebellion,” “resistance,” or “deviation.” Septa squares his deep grounding in traditional gamelan with a love of experimental sound, veering between intricate ensemble writing and earthshaking bass inspired by avant-garde electronics. The piece appears in conjunction with his performance at the 29th Other Minds Festival (Oct. 16–19) at San Francisco’s Brava Theater. Trained in his grandfather’s Ubud palace gamelan and mentored by iconoclasts Wayan Gde Yudane and Dewa Alit, Septa continues their maverick lineage: conventional instruments harnessed for unconventional expression, asking not “what is traditional?” but “what comes next?” (Other Minds Records)
Stanton Street Duo
Lengua al viento
Stanton Street Duo presents Lengua al viento, their exuberant, virtuosic debut album. Featuring the dynamic husband-and-wife duo of chromatic harmonicist Alan R. Lopez and 7-string guitarist Tatiana Senderowicz, this contemporary tango ensemble’s release is a love letter to composer Astor Piazzolla featuring world-premiere works by composers Sergio Assad and Alan R. Lopez, as well as world-premiere arrangements of Piazzolla works by Tatiana Senderowicz, Alan R. Lopez, and Franco Luciani. Luciani is also a special guest artist on the album, playing chromatic harmonica on Astor Piazzolla’s Libertango. (via Bandcamp)
Jazz & Crossover
Steve Adams
Improvisos
Improvisos is a solo project for woodwinds and electronics by Steve Adams, the longtime member of the Rova Sax Quartet. Begun as a COVID lockdown project, it took on a life of its own, growing to forty pieces and lasting over four hours. The process was to record the electronics tracks, then go into the studio and “find” the melody, which turned out to work beautifully. The result is a widely varied self-portrait in sound, using sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxes, and alto and bass flutes with the electronics. (via Bandcamp)
Steve Adams/Darren Johnston/Tim Perkis/Ken Filiano
24 Views of Mount Diablo
24 Views of Mount Diablo combines the unique talents of Steve Adams (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxes, bass flute), Darren Johnston (trumpet), Tim Perkis (electronics) and Ken Filiano (acoustic bass and effects) in a set of inspired improvisations, featuring the 24-part title suite. (Artifact Recordings)
Steve Adams/Lisa Mezzacappa/Jason Levis
never but dream the days
The members of Bay Area improvising ensemble duo B. (bassist Lisa Mezzacappa and drummer Jason Levis) and multi-instrumentalist Steve Adams have a long, intertwined history traversing many years and projects. never but dream the days is a byproduct of the trio’s interactions as part of the duo B. Experimental Band, a large ensemble that Mezzacappa and Levis lead and that Adams has been part of. This session, documented in 2022, reveals a shared sense of focused, concise, and disciplined improvisation. These players approach in-the-moment creation as experienced and imaginative composers with an uncanny sensitivity to form, balance, and dramatic arc. (Queen Bee Records)
Bristle
Archimera
In its first release in 10 years, Bristle — the Northern California reeds-and-strings-fueled chamber jazz quartet of Randy McKean, Cory Wright, Murray Campbell, and Lisa Mezzacappa — unleashes Archimera, a hybrid creation epitomizing its unique four-as-one group aesthetic and showcasing its wide-ranging sonic explorations that combine innovative composition and virtuosic improvisation in surprising and fresh ways. Highlights include Wright’s Fluxx-like choose-your-own-adventure creation “Lines of Work” and “Vape Trail,” McKean’s snapshot of a winter month in Banff, Canada. Archimera is Bristle’s answer to the riddle, “what do you get when a Midwestern sax nerd mind melds with a SoCal reed master, a Staten Island metal-turned-jazz bass player, and a Scottish fiddler-orchestral oboist?” (via Bandcamp)
Grateful Heart Band
Heart Shaped World
The Grateful Heart Band is a musical philanthropic project dedicated to bringing people together, awakening hearts, and inspiring a more loving and compassionate world through the gift of music. This is accomplished through the presentation of highly crafted original songs and dynamic live performance. The band’s debut album, Heart Shaped World, is a unique step forward in jazz, rock, soul, Americana, and world beat curated by project visionary Michael John Ahern. Ahern is an Emmy-nominated California songwriter, music producer, recording artist, and former NASA Mission Specialist with four decades of songwriting, studio, and live performance experience. Each member of the Grateful Heart Band is a skilled music professional, each with a stellar reputation for onstage performance skill and studio session work.
Beth Schenck Quintet
Dahlia
Dahlia is the debut release from the San Francisco-based Beth Schenck Quintet, led by the wildly creative saxophonist and composer who over the past decade has become one of the most admired and in-demand West Coast artists of her generation. Schenck writes bracing music that blends lush harmonies with fierce propulsiveness and surprising rhythmic twists and turns. Her quintet features some of the Bay Area’s most adventurous improvisers, and this recording is the fruit of decades-long musical relationships. Dahlia blends emotional nuance, intellectual depth, improvisational virtuosity, and compositional sophistication. The group’s deep interplay and intuitive communication infuse every track, from ethereal soundscapes to driving through-composed tunes. (via Bandcamp)