London-Based Naturalist Cosmo Sheldrake's Marvelous Sound World

The Jazz Passengers Cover Themselves, In-Studio

New York’s The Jazz Passengers – despite the name – don’t just play jazz. Founded in 1987 by sax player Roy Nathanson and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes, the band has worked with spoken word artists, rock stars like Elvis Costello and Deborah Harry, and theatrical elements that have an almost modernist vaudeville flavor. Over the years the band would become a place where some of New York’s most creative musicians could spread their wings and have some fun.

Their new album, Big Large, is a journey back through the band’s long musical history – it is also the last album made with Curtis Fowlkes, who died last year. The Jazz Passengers is now a mix of the veterans and a new generation, and Roy Nathanson has led them all to our studio to play tunes by turns angular and searing, warm and masterful from the band’s repertoire.

Band members:Roy Nathanson, sax, voice; with Bill Ware, vibes;Brad Jones, bass;EJ Rodriguez, drums; Marc Ribot, guitar; Sam Bardfeld, violin; Lucy Hollier (Curtis' student, now playing his trombone); Isaiah Barr, sax; Gabe Nathanson, voice and trumpet.

Set list: 1. Tikkun 2. Kidnapped 3. Jolly Street

Big Large: In Memory of Curtis Fowlkes by The Jazz Passengers

Storyteller and Songwriter Alice Merton Plays In-Studio

Alice Merton burst out of the starting gate with her 2016 single "No Roots", a song that celebrated her nomadic upbringing in four different countries. Since then, theBritish-based German-Irish-Canadian singer-songwriter has releasedtwo albums of songs with somewhat introspective, perhaps brooding lyrics,set to uplifting and sunny melodies.When we last checked in with herin 2019, she’d just released her debut LP called Mint and was living in Germany. She has lately been touring on music from her new EP called Heron, and plays a stripped-down intimate set, in-studio, including her rearranged single, "No Roots".

Set list:1. Don’t Leave Me Alone With My Thoughts 2. Run Away Girl 3. No Roots

Kiran Ahluwalia's Songs of Protest and Hope

Singer Kiran Ahluwalia was born in India, grew up in Canada, and is largely based here in New York. Her music reflects her transcontinental upbringing, as she mixes the sounds of traditional South Asian song forms with Western rock and jazz. A two-time JUNO (Canadian Grammy) winner, Ahluwalia’s work has featured collaborations with leading musicians from the Celtic and Fado worlds, as well as Malian super group, Tinariwen. Her six-piece band includes electric guitar, tabla, drum kit, accordion/organ and electric bass andis led by guitarist Rez Abbasi, a Pakistani-American who is also Ahluwalia’s husband. Herlatest album,Comfort Food, features songs that protest Hindu fundamentalism in India and the nationalism that continues to stir conflicts between India and Pakistan and celebrates pancakes…
Kiran Ahluwalia and her band perform some of these songs in-studio. - Caryn Havlik

Set list: 1. Dil 2. Tera Jugg 3. Pancake

Shabaka's Latest Adventure: Connecting to Nature and Breath With Flutes

Shabaka Hutchings, now Shabaka, has been a crucial and connected London-based musician for years, leading arena dance-jazz band Sons of Kemet,cosmic psych-dub-funktrioThe Comet Is Coming, and the collaborative band Shabaka & the Ancestors. He began incorporating layered flutes on the last Sons of Kemet record Black to the Future, and kept on picking up more and other woodwinds, first on his 2022 ambient meditation,AfrikanCulture, and now on his new full-length,Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace. On it, Shabaka plays flutes: the Slavic woodwind called svirel, Japanese shakuhachi, Andean quena, and even clarinet. Plus, rapper and flutist André 3000 contributes flute to “I’ll Do Whatever You Want”.

This time, in his visit to our studio, Shabaka, together with Charles Overton on harp and Austin Williamson on drums, play some of the songs from Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace. Plus, Shabaka talks us through the different flutes in his bow case, including a clay turtle ocarina and a non-student shakuhachi. Read more on Shabaka’s Shakuhachi journey via SoundAmerican. – Caryn Havlik

Set list:1. Insecurities / As the Planets and the Stars Collapse 2. Living 3. I'll Do Whatever You Want

José James Threads the Past Into Message-Music With Soul

José James has often been called a “jazz singer for the hip hop generation,” having come to jazz through tracing hip hop samples and over the course of twelve records, he’s also incorporated R&B, soul, rock, funk, and Latin music into his songs. While he’s mostly sung his own music over the years,he has occasionally covered songs by some of his favoriteartists: Bill Withers,Gil Scott-Heron, Erykah Badu andBillie Holiday.

James has just released a new album called 1978, which sees him looking back, past hip hop, to the soul music of the 70s. But this is soul music with a message; songs like “For Trayvon” make that clear. But it’s also message-music with soul:José Jamescloses the album with “38th & Chicago,” which has a jazzy bassline, an almost bossa nova guitar sound, and a Caribbean lilt in the percusson. José James and his band play some of these hot grooves in-studio. -John Schaefer

Set list:1. Let's Get It 2. Planet Nine 3. Saturday Night (Need You Now)