For much of his youth, keyboardist and composer Bryan McAllister wanted to be a human rights advocate at the United Nations. Just before college, the desire to pursue a career as a jazz musician overtook these plans and his life took a sudden detour. In his debut album release, Very Stable Genius, McAllister draws on his passion for social justice and examines our current American cultural landscape through sardonic compositions inspired by the bizarre statements and actions of the man elected to the presidency.

Out of Orbit, the bold new album by saxophonist and composer Jim Piela, is a celebration of the unknown. It’s about embracing fears with honesty and resolve, not running from or pushing them out of mind. With trumpeter Joey Lamb, bassist Bob Sabin, and drummer Josh Bailey, Piela's adventurous quartet navigates his original compositions, as well as a couple of salient classics, with grace and ingenuity, fully embracing Wayne Shorter's famous definition: “Jazz means, ‘I Dare You.’” 

Burning Ghosts returns to their improvisational roots and delivers a raw, untethered, and passionate response to our current national experience on "American Circus." 

In the spirit of the mad whirlwind that is modern American culture, Burning Ghosts recorded, mixed, and mastered this album in only 72 hours. Because, who knows what tweets will rattle the world tomorrow...

Composer, flutist and conductor James Newton is a verifiable legend in the avant-garde music world. Amongst his contemporaries, his name is synonymous with dedicated and adventurous exploration of the deepest expressions through both composition and improvisation. His latest album The Manual of Light is a gorgeous collection of chamber music and solo pieces written over the last decade, book-ended by two stunning renditions of “Amazing Grace” for string orchestra. Enlisting some of Los Angeles’s best instrumentalists to deliver masterful performances of his spiritually rich compositions, Newton’s new opus is a journey into the divine.

Sometimes a mask is as revealing as what lies beneath. Written over eight years, Mask, the new Orenda Records release from composer, bandleader and brass player David Dominique, bounds between styles, strategies, attitudes and textures. Somehow, the project furthers the language Dominique developed on his enthralling 2013 album, Ritual, while offering a perpetual sense of surprise.