Molly Johnson Announces New Album 'Talk to Me' Out June 26 #jazz #music

Featuring collaborations with Haviah Mighty and Jim Cuddy, alongside four new recordings including lead single “Holiday”

LISTEN TO “HOLIDAY” HERE | PRE-SAVE TALK TO ME HERE

Recognized as one of Canada’s greatest voices, Molly Johnson announces her new album Talk To Me, arriving June 26 via Universal Music Canada. The 10-track project combines music from Johnson’s recent All I See and Long Time Running EPs with four new recordings, including lead single “Holiday,” out now, further showcasing her unmistakable voice and continued artistic evolution.

Across the album, Johnson collaborates with artists from across generations of Canadian music, including JUNO Award-winning rapper Haviah Mighty, rising producer and artist CUBE, and Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo. The result is a deeply collaborative body of work that blends soul, jazz, R&B, and rock through Johnson’s singular artistic lens.

At the heart of the album is “Talk To Me,” a call-and-response collaboration with Haviah Mighty centred around listening, dialogue, and connection across generations. Pairing Molly’s signature vocal style with Haviah’s sharp lyricism, the track reflects a meaningful exchange between two distinct voices and perspectives.

“What does a 67-year-old woman and a 21-year-old kid have in common? A real love of great music,” says Johnson about working with producer and artist CUBE. “I really believe we need to listen to younger voices, and I feel so excited that I get to be part of this new generation of music. The future looks bright to me.”

The album also features Johnson’s stirring interpretation of The Tragically Hip’s “Long Time Running,” recorded with Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo. First released in 1991, the song remains a defining piece of the Canadian musical canon, here reimagined with a sense of intimacy and reverence that honours its enduring legacy.

“This has been a long time coming,” says Johnson. “I’ve always wanted to record a duet with Jim. We’ve been friends for years, so to finally collaborate on a song by our beloved The Tragically Hip feels like real magic.”

Across the album, Johnson is joined by her long-time collaborators, including Davide Di Renzo, Mike Downes and Robi Botos, whose enduring musical partnership remains central to her sound. New recordings including “Holiday,” “Happy,” “Sunday Morning,” and “Just As Bad As You” further expand the album’s rich and deeply collaborative musical world.

Talk To Me will be available June 26 via Universal Music Canada.

UPCOMING LIVE DATES:

June 17, 2026 – Winnipeg, MB – Desautels Concert Hall

June 26, 2026 – Montréal, QC – Gesù

July 1, 2026 – Vienne, FR – Théâtre Antique

FOLLOW MOLLY JOHNSON:

Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook

ABOUT MOLLY JOHNSON:

Recognized as one of Canada’s greatest voices, jazz vocalist Molly Johnson is a mother, singer-songwriter, artist, and philanthropist. Throughout her life-spanning career, she has captivated audiences in Canada and Europe with her original pieces and interpretations of jazz standards. Unsurprisingly, Molly is a laureate of multiple notable awards, including two JUNO Awards, the Governor General’s Award, the Order of Canada, and the Chevalier Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Outside her musical endeavors, Molly is also an avid supporter and patron of the arts. She launched the Kumbaya Festival in 1993 benefitting AIDS hospices and Canadians living with AIDS, contributing directly to the birth of Toronto’s Casey House. Kumbaya remains the largest music fundraiser in Canadian history. As the founding artistic director of Toronto’s Kensington Market Jazz Festival, Molly has introduced hundreds of performers and, in her own words, built a “local jazz festiv al that reflects the cultural depth” of the immediate music community.

Stay up to date with Molly Johnson by signing up to her mailing list HERE

Peabo Bryson, known for duets from Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ has died at 75 #jazz #music

Peabo Bryson, the two-time Grammy Award-winning R&B singer best known as the voice behind the Oscar-winning Disney film duets “Beauty and the Beast” with Regina Belle and “A Whole New World” with Celine Dion from “Aladin,” has died. He was 75.

His family said in a statement that Bryson died Tuesday, days after having a stroke.

“While our hearts are broken, we find comfort in knowing how deeply Peabo was loved and how many lives were touched by his voice and his generous spirit,” the family’s statement said. “His legacy and music will live on for generations to come.”

Born and raised in South Carolina, the singer, songwriter and balladeer launched his career with the group Moses Dillard and the Tex-Town Display in the 1970s. Shortly afterward, Atlanta label Bang Records signed him as a solo artist.

Bryson had a stroke in late May and was placed under medical care.

“At this time, the family requests privacy as they navigate this deeply personal moment together,” a statement from his representative read at the time. “The thoughts, prayers and love of friends and fans are welcomed and deeply appreciated.”

In 2019, Bryson made a full recovery after having a heart attack.

Nicholas Payton and Butcher Brown A SUPREME BLUE Two of the Greatest Albums Ever Made, as You've Never Heard Them #jazz #music

 

Out digitally July 24 and on vinyl August 14 via Concord Jazz
 
New single "Pursuance" available now: Listen / Watch
 
Album pre-order/save
 
See previously released performance video “All Blues” here

GRAMMY Award-winning multi-instrumentalist, producer, and arranger Nicholas Payton teams up with Virginia-bred collective Butcher Brown for A Supreme Blue, a bold and deeply considered reimagining of two of the most revered albums in recorded music, Miles Davis's Kind of Blue (1959) and John Coltrane's A Love Supreme (1965). Created in honor of the centennial year of both Davis and Coltrane, the album arrives digitally July 24 on Concord Jazz with vinyl release to follow on August 14. The second track, "Pursuance," is available now.

The project was born from a single unplanned moment at a Butcher Brown show, when Payton sat in over the band's House-inflected groove and began quoting the opening theme of Coltrane's "Acknowledgement." Something locked in. By that night's end, the text had gone out from Payton to drummer Corey Fonville: "Yo man, we gotta do a record." The Instagram clip from the evening was hashtagged #AHouseSupreme. The concept followed.

Payton and Fonville go back to 2010, when Fonville was a student at the Brubeck Institute and Payton was Artist-in-Residence. The New Orleans music master immediately recognized Fonville's rare dual fluency, swinging and groove-playing with equal authority. Their creative relationship deepened across years of collaboration, Payton serving as mentor, co-conspirator, and champion as Butcher Brown came into their own, making A Supreme Blue the natural culmination of that long arc. The Richmond-formed collective comprises Corey Fonville (drums, percussion) DJ Harrison (keyboards, piano, percussion), Marcus "Tennishu" Tenney (tenor saxophone, vocals), Morgan Burrs (guitar, MPC), and Andrew Randazzo a/k/a R4ND4ZZO (bass guitar, synth bass).

The centennial frame gave the project its purpose; the rhythmic argument gave it its architecture. Payton heard the connection immediately: both albums share a modal approach, a spiritual component, and a foundational African rhythmic conception, the percussive Mozambique groove threading through "Acknowledgement," Elvin Jones's drumming rooted in an African musical sensibility. Those elements, refracted through House music's pulse, became the album's engine.

Sessions at Spacebomb Studios in Richmond proceeded with minimal preparation and no rehearsal, by design. Tracks emerged organically from the room itself. 'Pursuance,' the single out today, is characteristic: R4ND4ZZO arrived at a bass line, the group fell in, and Payton, who arranged the track, called for tape. Tennishu took the tenor, and with no keyboards present, the track assumed a darker quality no one had anticipated thirty minutes before. The whole album unfolded this way.

Recording and mix engineer Alex de Jong proved integral to the album's identity, adding dub-influenced effects in real time during tracking, a process that shaped how the musicians played, not just how the record sounds. Listening back to the mixes, Fonville said simply: “King Tubby would be proud.”

Liner notes for A Supreme Blue are written by Ashley Kahn, author of both Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece and A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album, making him a rare voice capable of fully contextualizing what Payton and Butcher Brown have achieved here. The album was mastered by Michael Fossenkemper at Turtletone Studios, with photography by Ryan Gary of The Sunroom and package design by Jamie Breiwick. The album will be available digitally and as a 2-LP limited edition of 1,500 worldwide in standard black vinyl.

A Supreme Blue is not a tribute record. It is an act of creative faith in the source material, in the musicians, and in the music's capacity to go where it wants to go. "This is fresh," Fonville says. "I think they would have appreciated hearing their music in this way, and not hearing it still being played the way they did it in 1959 or 1963. It's 2026."

 
TRACKLIST
1. So What (Miles Davis) 
2. Freddie Freeloader (Miles Davis) 
3. Blue in Green (Miles Davis) 
4. All Blues (Miles Davis) 
5. Flamenco Sketches (Miles Davis) 
6. Acknowledgement (John Coltrane) 
7. Resolution (John Coltrane)
8. Pursuance (John Coltrane) 
9. Psalm (John Coltrane) 
 
 
TOUR DATES
June 29 — Montreal, QC | Le Festival International de Jazz de Montreal 
August 14 — Sardinia, Italy | Time In Jazz
 
 
PERSONNEL
Nicholas Payton: Trumpet, Rhodes, Piano, Vocoder, Vocals, Thumb Piano
Tennishu: Tenor Saxophone
Morgan Burrs: Guitar
DJ Harrison: Keyboards, Melodica, Guitar
R4ND4ZZO: Bass Guitar, Synth Bass
Corey Fonville: Drums, Percussion
 
Conceptualized by Nicholas Payton
Produced by Nicholas Payton and Butcher Brown
 
About Nicholas Payton
Nicholas Payton is a New Orleans-born GRAMMY Award-winning trumpet virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and arranger whose career spans more than three decades across swing, funk, R&B, and the avant-garde. A singular force in Black American music, Payton has consistently repositioned himself at the intersection of tradition and innovation across a catalog of acclaimed recordings and performances.
nicholaspayton.com
 
About Butcher Brown
Butcher Brown is a Richmond, Virginia-based collective formed in 2009 whose music draws on jazz, hip-hop, funk, and electronic music in equal measure. Comprising DJ Harrison, Marcus "Tennishu" Tenney, Morgan Burrs, R4ND4ZZO, and Corey Fonville, the band has built a devoted following through relentless touring and a series of critically lauded recordings, earning a reputation as one of the most creatively restless ensembles in contemporary music.
 

 
 
Butcher Brown Online
Website
Spotify
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Facebook
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Nicholas Payton Online
Website
Spotify
Soundcloud
YouTube
TikTok
X
 
 
Chart Room Media
brendan@chartroommedia.com  |  chartroommedia.com | 347-450-3048

Composer Keyboardist Mark Stephens Issues a Rallying Cry for Unity on New Single Honoring America’s 250th Anniversary #jazz #music

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday this Fourth of July, GRAMMY®‑nominated composer‑keyboardist Mark Stephens delivers a rallying cry for unity with “E Pluribus Unum,” arriving on Friday (May 29).

 

E Pluribus Unum — Latin for “out of many, we are one” — has been America’s motto since its inclusion on the Great Seal proposed by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson in 1776. In a moment when the nation is deeply divided along political, racial, religious, and cultural lines, Stephens’ poignant new single serves as a timely reminder of our shared ideals and the freedoms that bind us.

 

“I created the song to celebrate the high ideals set forth by our founding fathers — freedom, equality, liberty, and justice for all, and as a dedication to those among us who take an oath to protect and preserve the Constitution. At this time of deep division, what better moment than the country’s 250‑year anniversary to look again to America’s unfinished promise of unity in diversity? This song champions those ideals and our national motto, E Pluribus Unum, with the lyric ‘with every color, under the sun, out of many, we are one,’” said Stephens, who wrote, produced, and arranged the rousing anthem.

 

Theatrical, celebratory, and empowering, “E Pluribus Unum” opens with a military snare-drum cadence under Tata Vega’s powerhouse improvisation, followed by lead vocalist Amin El weaving his way through the ornately orchestrated track, soulfully delivering Stephens’ lyrics. The single builds towards a rapturous crescendo as the full band joins in, powered by an eight-piece horn section along with Vega leading a soaring gospel chorus, culminating with the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering an excerpt from his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.

 

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed…”

 

Stephens performed on GRAMMY®-nominated projects by Boney James, Chris Botti, Josh Groban, and George Howard. He contributed to James’s Billboard No. 1 single “Powerhouse” and Alanis Morissette’s Billboard No. 1 album Under Rug Swept. His genre‑spanning résumé includes work with Chaka Khan, Diana Ross, James Ingram, David Sanborn, Stanley Clarke, Take 6, and George Duke.

 

Stephens released his debut album, The Dream of the Peaceful Warrior, in 2011 featuring Michael Brecker, Marcus Miller, Jonathan Butler, Khan, and the Andrae Crouch Singers. He’s currently completing his next album, A Great Day on Earth, which features Larry Carlton and Vinnie Colaiuta. The first single, “Golden Hour,” will arrive in September.

 

The “E Pluribus Unum” video will premiere on YouTube at https://youtu.be/wMUUftzxHis.

 

For more information, please visit www.markstephensmusic.net.

Jazz Singer Carmen Jackson Revives a Family Classic with New “Bags’ Groove” Release #jazz #music

Detroit vocalist Carmen Jackson honors her legendary uncle, NEA Jazz Master Milt Jackson, with the release of “Bags’ Groove,” a fresh, swinging interpretation of one of the vibraphonist’s most iconic compositions.

 

The track carries the same instant-cool feeling listeners experienced when Erykah Badu first arrived with “On and On,” but rooted firmly in a finger‑popping, straight‑ahead jazz groove produced and performed by Randy Scott. Jackson’s silky vocal delivery is elegant, assured, and unmistakably her own.

 

“‘Bags’ Groove’ is my personal tribute to my uncle, Milt Jackson—honoring the iconic piece he wrote in 1952 while bringing its spirit forward with my own voice. It’s a celebration of his legacy and the timeless groove he gave to the world,” said Carmen Jackson, whose uncle’s nickname was Bags.

 

Later this week, Jackson will shoot a video for “Bags’ Groove” that will premiere during her June 2–5 performances at the renowned Cotton Club in Cannes, France. After playing last year at the venue named after the historic Harlem jazz club from the 1920s and 30s, she was invited back this year to celebrate the international release of her new single.

 

“I’m honored to return to the Cotton Club in Cannes — a place that celebrates the history of jazz while welcoming artists who are shaping its future,” said Jackson, who has opened for four-time GRAMMY®-nominated saxophonist Boney James.

 

Born and based in Detroit, Jackson grew up with a percussionist father and stays true to her jazz roots while bridging generations with modern soulful nuances, jazzy rhythms, and R&B sensibilities. In 2018, she released her debut single, “Where Do We Go From Here.” Jackson is currently working on a new project with R&B‑jazz crooner Robert Imtume Owens, to be recorded in Kansas City, and is also considering a live album.

 

Milt Jackson was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1997. He first gained prominence in Dizzy Gillespie’s pioneering bebop band in the 1940s before forming the Milt Jackson Quartet, which evolved into the Modern Jazz Quartet and performed together for nearly 40 years. Jackson also recorded with Cannonball Adderley and Ray Charles and was inducted into both the Percussion Hall of Fame and the DownBeat Hall of Fame.

 

With “Bags’ Groove,” Carmen Jackson carries her uncle’s legacy into a new era while asserting her own place in the jazz lineage.

 

For more information, please visit CarmenJacksonMusic | cmjm.

Sonny Rollins, saxophonist and restless genius of jazz, dead at 95 #jazz #music

Sonny Rollins, the tenor saxophonist and restless genius whose bold, distinctive tone and constant experimentation kept him on the cutting edge of jazz for more than 50 years, died Monday at age 95.

Spokesperson Terri Hinte told The Associated Press that Rollins died at his home in Woodstock, New York. She cited no specific cause of death, but said he had been largely housebound over the past couple of years because of various physical problems.

From his early days as a teen phenom to his more measured solo work and experimentation with free jazz, Rollins was revered for his improvisational skill. He was one of the last living greats of the bebop era and — along with John Coltrane and Charlie Parker — one of the most influential saxophonists of his time.

Rock fans got a dose of his music with the Rolling Stones’ 1981 album “Tattoo You,” which features’ Rollins’ wistful sax solo on the ballad “Waiting on a Friend,” devised after watching Mick Jagger dance.

Despite his enduring success, Rollins was never quite satisfied with his art, occasionally taking lengthy hiatuses from playing and consistently adopting eclectic new styles.

He always referred to himself as “a work in progress,” saying he wasn’t one of those artists who settle into one way of playing.

While his early bebop work was the most popular with his fans, Rollins never looked back, saying he found it “excruciating” to even listen to the flaws in his older recordings.

“I don’t consider myself a musician that has learned as much as I want to learn,” he told The Associated Press in 2007.

Enduring achievements

In the 1990s and 2000s, Rollins released a string of critically acclaimed albums. He maintained a rigorous practice regimen, and continued to tour, into his 80s. Pulmonary fibrosis, a thickening and damaging of the lungs, would eventually force him into retirement. He played his last concert in 2012 and stopped playing altogether in 2014.

While he missed the adoration of crowds, he missed the actual playing more.

“I played a couple of concerts early on where I was out in the open in the afternoon,” He told the New York Times in 2020. “I was able to look up in the sky, and I felt a communication; I felt that I was part of something. Not the crowd. Something bigger.”

His 2001 album “This is What I Do,” earned him a Grammy award for best jazz instrumental album. He won again in 2006 for best jazz instrumental solo for “Why Was I Born?”

“Why Was I Born” was from the album “Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert,” a live recording from a performance in Boston just four days after the Sept. 11 attacks. Rollins, who had been evacuated from his apartment a few blocks from ground zero, had gone ahead with the concert at the urging of his wife and manager, Lucille. She died in 2004.

His survivors include a nephew, Clifton Anderson, and nieces Vallyn Anderson and Gabrielle DeGroat.

Meeting the greats

Rollins had gotten his first major break in his late teens when he was invited to join Thelonious Monk’s band. He soon was jamming with Miles Davis and Bud Powell, who introduced him to the recording world even before he finished high school.

But like many jazz musicians in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Rollins’ rising star almost faded when he became hooked on heroin at the age of 19. As his addiction grew steadily worse, Rollins served two stints in jail — 10 months in 1950 and three months in 1953 — and ultimately found himself living on the streets in Chicago. In 1954, Rollins checked himself into a hospital in Lexington, Ky., to undergo drug treatment.

He left underwent a spiritual awakening as he kicked drugs.

“I began to have a deeper philosophy of what life was about,” he told the AP in 2007. “From that point on is when my consciousness awoke.”

After being discharged, he returned to Chicago and signed on as a member of the Max Roach-Clifford Brown quintet. In 1956 he recorded a solo album, “Saxophone Colossus.” Its stripped-down, hard bop sound announced him as one of jazz’s premier sax players and remained one of his most influential works.

In the following two years Rollins hit upon a different approach, switching to a pianoless trio on three more landmark albums: “Way Out West,” “A Night at the Village Vanguard” and “Freedom Suite.”

Then, at the peak of his popularity, Rollins went into seclusion, spending the next two years practicing alone on a solitary niche above the East River on a Williamsburg Bridge walkway.

“The thing that I am most proud of in my career is that fact that I was able to see beyond being popular and all that stuff,” he told the AP in 2007, “and do what my inner self told me to do.”

During his absence, jazz moved away from the fast-paced, tightly woven sound of bebop to the more frenetic and chaotic free jazz. When Rollins chose to return to the scene in 1961, he embraced the new sound — a move that divided his fans. In the mid-’60s, Rollins toured heavily in Europe, switching back and forth between more traditional and avant garde approaches. He contributed original music to the soundtrack of “Alfie,” the 1966 British film that made Michael Caine a star.

It was during a trip to Japan when Rollins discovered Zen Buddhism, prompting another lengthy sabbatical that would last into the early 1970s.

A living legend

When he chose to record again in 1972, he was now regarded as a legend and gained mainstream acceptance. He was granted a Guggenheim fellowship that year, and was inducted into the Downbeat Hall of Fame the next. He appeared on the “Tonight Show” and began playing in concert halls instead of nightclubs.

Theodore Walter Rollins was born into a musical household in Harlem on Sept. 7, 1930. His father, a naval petty officer, played the clarinet, his sister played the piano, and his older brother was a violinist.

When he was eight, his parents insisted he study the piano, but, as he recalled, “it didn’t take.” Instead, he said, he’d rather be outdoors playing baseball. But by age 11, Rollins became fascinated with the saxophone, and persuaded his parents to buy him one — an alto.

He had difficulty affording lessons and was largely self-taught, but Rollins quickly became an all-star, switching to tenor sax and playing the clubs at night.

He leaves behind many unreleased recordings, and said he didn’t plan to leave behind instructions for what to do with them.

“After I get out of this planet I’m not going to have any say about what’s going on, so I’m not worried about that,” he told the New York Times in 2020. “And, boy, I agonize over my music; I won’t have to agonize about it anymore. Thank God.”

A Memorial Day Worth Remembering

Andy Rooney On How Memorial Day Should Be Celebrated

The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News Correspondent Andy Rooney.

"There is more bravery at war than in peace, and it seems wrong that we have so often saved this virtue to use for our least noble activity - war. The goal of war is to cause death to other people."



Tomorrow is Memorial Day, the day we have set aside to honor by remembering all the Americans who have died fighting for the thing we like the most about our America: the freedom we have to live as we please.

No official day to remember is adequate for something like that. It's too formal. It gets to be just another day on the calendar. No one would know from Memorial Day that Richie M., who was shot through the forehead coming onto Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, wore different-colored socks on each foot because he thought it brought him good luck.

No one would remember on Memorial Day that Eddie G. had promised to marry Julie W. the day after he got home from the war, but didn’t marry Julie because he never came home from the war. Eddie was shot dead on an un-American desert island, Iwo Jima.

For too many Americans, Memorial Day has become just another day off. There's only so much time any of us can spend remembering those we loved who have died, but the men, boys really, who died in our wars deserve at least a few moments of reflection during which we consider what they did for us.

They died.

We use the phrase "gave their lives," but they didn’t give their lives. Their lives were taken from them.

There is more bravery at war than in peace, and it seems wrong that we have so often saved this virtue to use for our least noble activity - war. The goal of war is to cause death to other people.

Because I was in the Army during World War II, I have more to remember on Memorial Day than most of you. I had good friends who were killed.

Charley Wood wrote poetry in high school. He was killed when his Piper Cub was shot down while he was flying as a spotter for the artillery.

Bob O'Connor went down in flames in his B17.

Obie Slingerland and I were best friends and co-captains of our high school football team. Obie was killed on the deck of the Saratoga when a bomb that hadn’t dropped exploded as he landed.

I won’t think of them anymore tomorrow, Memorial Day, than I think of them any other day of my life.

Remembering doesn’t do the remembered any good, of course. It's for ourselves, the living. I wish we could dedicate Memorial Day, not to the memory of those who have died at war, but to the idea of saving the lives of the young people who are going to die in the future if we don’t find some new way - some new religion, maybe - that takes war out of our lives.

That would be a Memorial Day worth celebrating.

Written By Andy Rooney © MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This segment was originally broadcast on May 29, 2005.

NEXT: Produced by Dave Douglas w/ Argentine singer/songwriter Julián Muro: World Music, Jazz, Chamber, Folklore Argentino, Song - ears&eyes Records #jazz #music

Described by musicologist Esteban Buch (EHESS, Paris) as “one of the most promising Argentine musicians of his generation,” Julián Muro presents APFUS, a two-volume opus co-produced with legendary trumpeter and composer Dave Douglas. This ambitious project, backed by New Music USA’s Creator Development Fund, brings together an exceptional string quintet featuring the Bergamot String Quartet and Ethan Cohn (double bass). It also features collaborations from Pauline Roberts (vibraphone), Rintaro Mikami (percussion), Kulusé Souriant (drums), and Alex Baiz Perry (keyboards). APFUS, VOL. 1 is a joint global release between labels ears&eyes Records (US/World) and Segell Microscopi (Europe).

Julián Muro is a composer, arranger, producer, singer, and poet whose work seeks a language that inhabits the intersection of poetry and music, drawing from both tradition and dissent. Through this exploration, he questions the boundaries between musical genres and traces a poetics that dialogues with his biography as a nomad and naturalist. His singular artistic vision has earned him international recognition, leading him to perform on prestigious stages such as the NN North Sea Jazz Festival 2024, participate in numerous artistic residencies, receive an award from the Tishman Environment and Design Center, and complete a master's degree at Codarts University (Rotterdam). He currently resides in Madrid, supported by a full AIE scholarship for studies in Iberian Peninsula Folklore, consolidating a period of great creative effervescence that includes the recent recording of his fourth studio production, Crazy Science.

Streaming already: No se está solo and Si III. Si

APFUS, VOL. 1 (2026) dwells in the subtle intersection of contemporary chamber music, improvisation, and South American roots music. Driven by what he describes as a “tension between his untamed nature and his artistic calling,” Muro left his home in the Argentine Patagonia in 2018 to embark on an itinerant life. After years of European nomadism—where he funded his first recordings by working in mountain refuges in the Alps—his artistic compass led him to the asphalt of New York, earning a full scholarship for the then-brand-new Performer-Composer Master of Music at The New School.

The seed for his most ambitious recording project, APFUS, had been planted years earlier during a residency at the Banff Centre (Canada), where he first collaborated with Dave Douglas. Reunited in New York, and moved by the urgency to transform his life's journey into a tangible sonic testament, Muro presented him with his sketches. Douglas immediately assumed the role of mentor and co-producer.

APFUS, VOL. 1 (2026) presents a chamber ecosystem, while the second installment, slated for 2027, will feature a jazz ensemble with Dave Douglas as a guest artist. Recorded “the old-fashioned way” by engineer Geoff Countryman—live in a single room in New York without acoustic isolation between the instruments—the record achieves an organic and genuine sonority, becoming a triumph of imagination over a scarcity of resources. The meticulous arrangement work, which successfully amalgamates contemporary music with jazz and folklore, received guidance from figures such as Jacob Garchik, one of the primary arrangers for the Kronos Quartet, and Emilio Solla, a Latin Grammy winner known for his unique treatment of tango and jazz in a Big Band format.

• Julián Muro: Vocals, guitar, additional percussion, composition, arrangements, lyrics, co-production alongside Dave Douglas. (Own albums: Dingungu, Unterwegs. Collaborations with: Caroline Shaw, viñu-vinu, Kenosha Kid)

  Bergamot Quartet: Ledah Finck, Sarah Thomas, Amy Tan, Irene Han - String quartet (of Caroline Shaw, Paul Wiancko, Sō Percussion, Dan Trueman, Terry Sweeney)

  Ethan Cohn:  Double bass (of Focus Year Band 21, Ensemble Infinity, Sebastián Greschuk, Dave Douglas)

  Pauline Roberts: Vibraphone, backing vocals, additional percussion on tracks 3, 5, and 6 (of Lulada Club, The Furious Bongos, Billy Martin)

  Kulusé Souriant: Drums, backing vocals, additional percussion on tracks 5 and 6 (of Kulusé Souriant Sextet, Café Fuerte, Raíz Viva)

  Rintaro Mikami: Percussion on tracks 5 and 6 (of Bubble Tea and Cigarettes, Ester Wiesnerova, First Fish)

  Alex Baiz Perry: Keyboards on tracks 5 and 6 (of Indigo Mirror, Leni Kreienberg, Paul Sakai)

Bassist Tony Saunders Reimagines Two R&B Classics on “Return of the Mack (I Like It)” with GRAMMY® Nominee Gerald Albright #jazz #music

During January’s NAMM Show, two‑time EMMY‑winning bassist Tony Saunders played a demo mashup of Mark Morrison’s “Return of the Mack” that weaves in El DeBarge’s “I Like It” for 9‑time GRAMMY® nominee Gerald Albright. The saxophonist instantly heard its radio potential and agreed to play on the recording. The newly released single is now climbing the Billboard and Mediabase charts.

 

Joining Saunders and Albright on the track is GRAMMY®-winning keyboardist Michael Mani (Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Tori Kelly), who produced the single with Saunders along with playing keyboards, synths, key bass, vocal processing, drum programming, and guitar synths. John Mitchell added live drums to anchor the rhythm track.  

 

“I’ve always loved ‘Return of the Mack’ — the groove is off the hook — and I knew I’d record it someday. ‘I Like It’ has also been one of my favorites, and because it’s in the same key, the mashup came together naturally. The reaction from fans when we play it live is incredible,” said Saunders, who records for the Baja/TSR label and received clearance to release the single on his own imprint.

 

Saunders dedicates the new single to the memory of two of his cousins, Kurt Kaywood and Oliver Rodgers. They passed away two weeks apart as Saunders was finishing up work on the track. “They played an important part of my life, always introducing me to new things.”

 

“Return of the Mack” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1996. El DeBarge’s “I Like It” was the group’s breakthrough hit, peaking at No. 2 on Billboard’s R&B chart in 1982. 

 

Last week, Saunders was on-set in Sacramento shooting a cameo appearance in the Belton Mouras Entertainment film Fingers: The Vegan Zombie Musical, which is expected this Halloween. In addition to scoring several films, Saunders made his big screen debut in 1986 in the Francis Ford Coppola blockbuster Peggy Sue Got Married playing in a scene as a band member of Nicolas Cage.

 

Saunders’ musical path began with taking piano lessons from Herbie Hancock. He was gifted with an organ by Sly Stone and received his first bass from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Tom Fogerty. His professional career began when he was invited to play in his father’s band. His father was Merl Saunders, and the co-band’s leader was Grateful Dead legend Jerry Garcia. Tony Saunders’ diverse musical journey spans jazz, funk, rock, R&B, and Latin music. He also composed the musical Rock Justice with Jefferson Starship’s Marty Balin.

 

Saunders debuted as a solo artist with 2011’s Romancing the Bass. His latest collection, 2024’s The Romance Continues, spawned multiple Billboard Top 10 hits. Over the years, Saunders has collaborated with contemporary jazz luminaries Jeff Lorber, Paul Brown, Paul Jackson Jr., Nils, Jeff Ryan, Randy Crawford, Blake Aaron, and Adam Hawley.

 

In addition to releasing more new music this year, Saunders is eager to perform with his new band: Mitchell on drums, bassist Vernon Hall (Tony! Toni! Tone!), guitarist Tim Landis, and keyboardist Ray Roland.

 

“I have played with a lot of musicians in my life, but this group really gets the Tony Saunders vibe!”

 

For more information, please visit www.tonysaunders.com.