What a week of new discoveries and unearthed gems. In between recording this week’s show, we had to deal with heavy storms, lightning and the sound effects it brings to the table while recording Episode #125. Even with an isolation booth the voracity of the thunder and mother nature, made her presence known. In the unearthed gem category, a new John Coltrane album is on the horizon entitled Both Directions at Once: The Lost Album. On this week’s episode we previewed “Untitled Original 11383.” The impending album will be released on June 29, on Impulse! Records. It features original, never-before-heard compositions, recorded by Coltrane’s Classic Quartet in 1963 at Van Gelder Studios. On March 6, 1963, John Coltrane and his Classic Quartet – McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones – recorded an entire studio album at the legendary Van Gelder Studios. This music, which features unheard originals, will finally be released 55 years later. This is, in short, the holy grail of jazz.

In the new discoveries category Erik Friedlander has a new album out entitled Artemisia. Sparked by viewing Pablo Picasso’s mysterious absinthe glass sculptures at MoMA, renowned cellist Friedlander and his new band Throw A Glass – Uri Caine on piano, Mark Helias on bass, and Ches Smith on drums – spent the next year and a half writing and recording Artemisia (SkipStone), a concept album on the murky history of absinthe and its use as a brain-bending hallucinogen. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt so strongly about one of my projects,” says Friedlander, who composed both hypnotic meditations on obsession and songs that optimistically chase euphoria and the “green fairy.” We feature the track “Sparkotropic,” a crisply composed cut that has a frenetic, emotive appeal with moments of introspection and times of controlled psychedelia. All adding up to a listed filled with great experimentation and exploration.

We hope you enjoy the show, and we look forward to your suggestions of artists to play and subjects to cover. This is our community and together we can bring focus to jazz. Let’s dig in!

MJT Episode 125 Playlist June 25 2018