What should you expect in Jazz this month? This is our March 2022 Selection of albums that have already been released or have yet to be released this month (What to Wait For?). These albums got our full attention and should be worth your time.

The albums are ordered by the release date.

Selection March 2022

This is the second album by drummer Tomas Fujiwara’s sextet, Triple Double. The two horns, two guitars, and two drums explore all the possibilities offered by such a sextet and this is thoroughly entertaining.

“Despite the unusual instrumentation of the ensemble, Triple Double is at its core a group of six distinctive individuals, each among the most innovative and singular voices in contemporary creative music.”
–Firehouse 12

Tomas Fujiwara: drums, vibraphone; Gerald Cleaver: drums; Mary Halvorson: guitar; Brandon Seabrook: guitar; Ralph Alessi: trumpet; Taylor Ho Bynu: cornet
Release date March 4, 2022

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Astral Spirits allows us to discover this unique sound, which offers a truly different experience that is far from us geographically, but also in time; it’s difficult to tell whether it is from the past or the future. This is a perfect re-release on Bandcamp and cassette of the original CD version in 2021.

“Based on the rigid improvisation formula, within defined structures practiced by Sun Ra, the group’s dynamics respond to influences ranging from Don Cherry and the Art Ensemble Of Chicago to Fugazi and his legendary live performances.”

Guilherme Granado: keyboards, synthesizers, electronics, percussion; Leandro Archela: keyboards, synthesizers, percussion; Thomas Rohrer: soprano saxophone, rabeca, futes, objects, percussion; Rogerio Martins: bass clarinet, clarinet, flute, percussion; Ricardo Pereira: percussion
Release date March 4, 2022 (1st released May 19, 2021)

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Loving Highsmith is a documentary about the thriller writer Patricia Highsmith, released in January 2022 and directed by Eva Vitija-Scheidegger. Noël Akchoté provided the soundtrack. There are two CDs for two duets, and each CD has the perfect partner: Disc #1 has Mary Halvorson, and Disc #2 has Bill Frisell. The result is as you can expect—excellent!

With a sound as clear, electric, serene, and fully controlled, these masters knit canvases like snapshots, images that accumulate and follow one another as naturally and poetically as a photo album. The music is so simply present that you can imagine turning around and seeing them playing right there, next to you, just for you.

Disc 1: Noël Akchoté: electric guitar; Mary Halvorson: electric guitar.
Disc 2: Noël Akchoté: electric, acoustic guitars; Bill Frisell: electric guitars.
Release date March 4, 2022

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It is like the musicians are the voice of something bigger—not space, but maybe emptiness, in a frightening way.

Read the review: Space

Lisa Ullén: piano; Elsa Bergman: double bass; Anna Lund: Drums
Release date March 4, 2022

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“The album’s “laboratory” aspect demanded that the compositions remain separate, musically “uncontaminated” by one another. Yet clearly, for the musician on stage as for the friendly experiencer, live performance does not behave the same way as an album: it cannot be stopped, started, rewound, shuffled, and so on. Here, then, we witness the trio forging different architectures from those we know from the tunes’ studio incarnations. The tight woven fabric is stretched, and now the light now shines through the fibres.”
–Alexander Hawkins, liner notes

Read our review: Zurich Concert

Kaja Draksler: piano; Petter Eldh: bass; Christian Lillinger: drums
Release date March 18, 2022

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This is the fourth album by double bassist and composer Hugo Carvalhais, after Nebulosa (2010), Particula (2012), and Grand Valis (2015), all released on Clean Feed Records, and all of which explore the universe and outer space.

With Ascetica, Carvalhais drifts away from the violin to emphasize the saxophones, with Emile Parisien (who was already in Particula’s lineup), Liudas Mockunas (also playing the clarinet), and Fábio Almedia (also playing the flute), and he also calls back Mário Costa on drums. The result is still pleasantly electronic but mostly super tight and very convincing. It progresses even farther into the territory of what could be called fantasy jazz.

Hugo Carvalhais: double-bass, electronics, compositions, production; Emile Parisien: soprano saxophone; Liudas Mockunas: clarinet, tenor saxophone; Fábio Almeida: flute, alto saxophone; Gabriel Pinto: piano, organ, synthesizer; Mário Costa: drums
Release date March 25, 2022 (to be confirmed)

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“Legendary pianist Anthony Coleman (John Zorn, Glenn Branca), teams up with acclaimed drummer Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Drums and Drones) for their debut duo album, Arcades.”

With their pitch, rhythm, and timing, these two musicians are beautifully in harmony. They could be pictured as two objects, linked to each other by an elastic cord, stretching far but bouncing back to each other, forever together. By being attached, it feels like their movements and directions are initiated and complemented by their momentum itself, more so than the musicians, which may explain how effortlessly and naturally the whole album progresses, and the space in which they evolve is at the exact junction of a piano and a drumset.

Anthony Coleman: piano; Brian Chase: drumset
Release date March 25, 2022

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“From its first shimmering note, this is an absolute delight. Gaya is both familiar and strange, with all the pleasures of an agile Western jazz big band and contemporary large ensemble, but stretched, skewed and aerated harmonically and sonically by Potsa Lotsa XL guest, Youjin Sung on KoreanGayageum.”
–Trouble in the East Records

“Familiar and strange” is the perfect summary for this beautiful album; it is refreshingly surprising.

Silke Eberhard: alto saxophone; Jürgen Kupke: clarinet; Patrick Braun: tenor sax, clarinet; Nikolaus Neuser: trumpet; Gerhard Gschlößl: trombone; Johannes Fink: cello; Taiko Saito: vibraphone; Antonis Anissegos: piano; Igor Spallati: bass; Kay Lübke: drums | Guest: Youjin Sung: gayageum
Release date March 25, 2022

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This excellent EP is the very first release by the new label Ansible Editions, based in Toronto, Canada.

On March 25, 2022, Ansible Editions is releasing three inaugural albums:

1. High Alpine Hut Network – 727 / 16 EP
2. Adams, Dunn, & Haas – Future Moons
3. The Brodie West Quintet – Meadow of Dreams

You will really dig all three—even though our attention really got caught by the EP.

It is a perfectly updated jazz-fusion release with accents of funk and trash/noise Jazz, and what really nails it is the feeling of having the ghost of Jack Johnson punching around this modern release, mixing genres just as much as periods to create a new, refreshing sound.

Jason Bhattacharya: drums, percussion, electric piano; Robin Hatch: electric piano; Tobin Hopwood: guitar; Benjamin Pullia: synthesizers, percussion. Lauren Runions: percussion; Joseph Shabason: tenor saxophone; Christopher Shannon: bass, electric piano, synthesizers, percussion; Nathan Vanderwielen: percussion, synthesizers.
Release Date March 25, 2022

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“The Bogie Band featuring Joe Russo is a new collaboration between old friends. Stuart Bogie’s fiery arrangements meet Russo’s dynamic drumming with a ten-piece ensemble utilizing only wind and percussion instruments. On their debut studio album, The Prophets In The City, Bogie, and Russo are joined by a cadre of players whose resumes run through some of New York City’s most beloved bands, including Antibalas, The Dap-Kings, Red Barat, Budos Band, St. Vincent, and David Byrne’s American Utopia. The resulting nine-track collection is riotous and jubilant, pushing the boundaries of wind music.”
— Royal Potato Family

Joe Russo: drums, timpani, mallet percussion; Stuart Bogie: flute, saxophones, percussion; + Adam Dotson, Arthur Lee Johnson, Billy Aukstik, Cochemea Gastelum, Colin Stetson, Dave Guy, Dave Smoota Smith, Domenica Fossati, Eric Biondo, Ian Hendrickson-Smith, Jeff Citron, Joe Russo, John Altieri, Jordan McLean, Karyn Starr, Korey Richey, Louis Thebeau, Matt Bauder, Mauro Refosco, Michael Leonhart, Raymond Mason, Starr Johnson.
Release date March 25, 2022

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March 2022 – New Albums Selection

• Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double – March (Firehouse 12 Records)
• GOATFACE! – Akhenaten Bazucas (Astral Spirits)
• Noël Akchoté – Loving Highsmith (Ayler Records)
• Lisa Ullén, Elsa Bergman, Anna Lund – Space (Relative Pitch Records)
• Punkt.Vrt.Plastik – Zurich Concert (Intakt Records)
• Hugo Carvalhais – Ascetica (Clean Feed Records)
• Anthony Coleman, Brian Chase – Arcades (Chaikin Records)
• Potsa Lotsa XL & Youjin Sung – Gaya (Trouble In The East Records)
• High Alpine Hut Network – 727 / 16 EP (Ansible Editions)
• The Bogie Band, Joe Russo – The Prophets In The City (Royal Potato Family)

+ extra reviews:

• ORD – Hemligheter på vägen (Havtorn Records)
• Thomas Mitrousis – The Seed (Self-release)

Discover the New Jazz Releases 2022 list (all 12 months at once) and the Best Jazz 2022 (so far) selection.

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Playlist

Listen to those tracks on our Spotify playlist “Best Jazz 2022”.