When I Like to Sleep first emerged, the Norwegian instrumental trio’s sound combined polar opposites. Vibraphonist Amund Storløkken Åse, six-string-bass/guitar player Nicolas Leirtrø and drummer Øyvind Leite were all schooled jazz musicians, and they all liked to rock, so they put the two together by combining vibes-forward post-bebop jazz with hammer-of-the-gods riffs.
Ten years and five albums down the road, they’ve filled in that middle space with studio sound manipulation and additional instrumentation. Amplification and effects have transformed the sounds that roll away from Storløkken Åse’s vibraphone from pure waves to sodium-vapor bursts. And he spends as much time playing Mellotron as mallets, a move that’s…
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Described in the press materials as “an outstanding visual artist, a righteous community member, and a kind soul”, 
It’s hardly fair to say guitarist/composer Julian Lage saved his best work for Blue Note Records. After all, he released a handful of memorable albums, such as Arclight, prior to joining the iconic jazz label.
The newest release from Buffalo, NY instrumental jamband, Organ Fairchild, continues their tripped-out grooves mixed with smooth flowing vibes that lovers of their live shows have come to cherish. 
By 1962, Wes Montgomery had already changed the way jazz guitar sounded. A self-taught player from Indianapolis, he built his style around his thumb instead of a pick, creating a warm, rounded tone that cut through without ever sounding harsh. His use of octaves became a signature, but what really set him apart was his sense of structure; his solos felt organized, intentional, and grounded in melody. 
This first record to feature 
Vila is L.A.-based virtuoso guitarist and composer 
At the opening of Beautiful Dreamer, Bill Frisell’s biographer, Philip Watson, recounts a formative dream Bill Frisell once had—an experience the guitarist has said permanently altered the way he thinks about sound, color, and the nature of “real music.” In the dream, Frisell enters a dark building, climbs into a vast library, and encounters hooded, monklike figures gathered around a table. “We want to show you what things really are,” they tell him. First, they reveal “what colors really look like,” and then they offer to let him hear “what real music sounds like.” Frisell has often said that this dream reshaped his musical imagination, and he still carries it with him.
His first major studio album in six years, Pat Metheny’s Side-Eye III+, is the latest evolution of a concept he first introduced in 2021. The ongoing project is designed to focus on collaborations with younger musicians the contemporary jazz icon admires, allowing him to reimagine his past work and devote the collective talents to new original music as well.
By 1961, pianist Bill Evans had been rolling with his classic trio for a couple of years; this short-lived group, featuring drummer Paul Motian and bassist Scott LaFaro, was the same trio that recorded his much-celebrated Sunday at the Village Vanguard set, which continues to be cited as a highlight of Evans’ career and live jazz records as a whole. This trio would be cut short, however, with the death of LaFaro just ten days after the Village Vanguard set was recorded, subsequently causing Evans to cease performing for several months in mourning. Persuaded to return to music by Riverside record producer Orrin Keepnews, Evans appeared on vocalist Mark Murphy’s 1961 album Rah, as well as a short solo piano session, and Evans’ work in music continued long after that.
The long-awaited return of Norwegian saxophonist and composer Marius Neset arrives in an expansive big band setting, a format that underscores both his ambition and his growing confidence as a large-scale orchestrator. Known for music of formidable complexity, Neset here introduces a more openly festive dimension, without sacrificing the structural rigor that has long defined his work.
The album title Circadia reflects themes of renewal and change rooted in the cyclical patterns of life. For the English trio 
Belgian pianist Bram De Looze’s Vice Versa project is one that gradually becomes visible, the way a constellation appears only after your eyes adjust to the night. The music feels as if it had always been orbiting somewhere just beyond earshot, waiting for the right trio of creatives to call it into being.
Although they’re based on opposite coasts,