Joy just might be the common denominator amongst the albums I’m listening to that are New in Music: October 2nd.
Let’s start the fun right away:
My top pick is:
JAZZ: FREEDOM CALL – Dave Holland – Edition Records
Yesterday was bassist, guitarist, cellist, composer Dave Holland’s 80th birthday. But today we’re the ones receiving the gifts.
This 6 LP/3 CD set showcases three different ensembles Holland led and offers 18 newly released live recordings.
The first ensemble is his sextet that featured Robin Eubanks on trombone, Eric Harland on drums, Antonio Hart on alto sax, Mulgrew Miller on piano and Alex Sipiagin on trumpet and flugelhorn. The standout track here is Sum of All Parts. This album is entitled Sextet – Unity.
The second ensemble is his quintet with Eubanks, Steve Nelson on vibraphone and marimba, Chris Potter on soprano and tenor saxophones and Nate Smith on drums. This album, entitled Quintet – Synergism features Full Circle, a nearly 16-minute slow burner that stands out.
The last ensemble includes Kevin Eubanks on guitar, Harland and Craig Taborn on piano and electric piano. This album, Prism – Freedom has a killer track in Evolution.
I’ve had access to this music since July and I’ve gone back to it time and time again. If you only listen to one album on this week’s list (or 6 if we’re being technical), this is the one to choose. (But don’t do that, you’ll deprive yourself of other great music.)
Here are the other fine new releases that are NEW IN MUSIC: October 2nd:
CLASSICAL: MASQUES AND MARIONETTES – ensemble 132 – Steinway and Sons
I’ve always enjoyed masques and I used to play around with marionettes. So this album was immediately intriguing to me.
It opens with a work by Stravinsky I hadn’t previously heard: Two Poems of Konstantin Balmont.
I should probably let you know that ensemble 132 is a quintet: Abi Fayette on violin, Sahun Sam Hong on piano, Maria Ioundenitch on violin, Zachary Mowitz on cello and Luther Warren on viola. This is the first time I’ve heard them.
Hong’s arrangement of Stravinsky’s Petrushka was wonderfully inventive and playfully performed.
Works by Clara Schumann (Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22) and Robert Schumann (Carnaval, Op. 9 for piano quintet – also arranged by Hong) close out this delightful 76-minute album.
CLASSICAL: MI HISTORIA AMERICANA SUR – Daniil Trifonov/ Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra – Deutsche Grammophon
If you see pianist Trifonov on a semi-regular basis, it is because he’s simply making and recording beautiful music.
This album, focused on composers from South America, is no exception. In fact, it is exceptional.
I wasn’t able to hear the entire album before writing this. I only got to listen to it today. At 2 hours and 17 minutes, it’s a full course meal.
So far my greatest pleasures have been hearing Gabriela Lena Frank’s Sonata Andina, Gonzalo Grau and Osvaldo Golijov’s Cuadros del Sur (the main attraction), Trifonov’s own Tango and Golijov’s Levante.
I’m traveling this weekend and can assure you my flight time will be made much more enjoyable by being able to listen to all of this remarkable album.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: KLEZMER CONCERTO – Berliner Philharmoniker / Noah Bendix-Balgley – Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings
You read that correctly: a klezmer concerto. Bendix-Balgley wrote the concerto which had its world premiere in 2016 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra who commissioned it.
It never occurred to me to have a klezmer concerto, but after listening to what Bendix-Balgley has done here, I now can’t imagine a world without one.
The entirety of this album is musically valid, compositionally interesting and joyously played by Soloists of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Sometimes when it seems cultures are clashing, they are ultimately revealing what a great pairing they truly can be. Klezmer Concerto is proof of that.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: PIECES OF LIGHT – Gabriel Cabezas / Alyssa Weinberg – MASS MoCA Records
You don’t have to know the work of artist James Turrell to know what inspired composer Weinberg to write Pieces of Light. Both the titles of the individual tracks and the sound achieved by cellist Cabezas reflect (no pun intended) his work brilliantly.
If you read New in Music often enough, you’ll likely recall how much I love the cello. This is cello and layered cello. Each track intrigued me to want to go through all 12 tracks – ignoring anything else I had to do.
Pieces of Light is a masterfully created composition performed exquisitely.
If you don’t know Turrell’s work, look it up. That will just enrich the experience of listening to Pieces of Light.
GENRE DEFYING: HER ONLY LIGHT: SONGS OF CONNIE CONVERSE – Emmy Bean / Ronnie Kuller – Sono Luminous
In a letter left behind after she disappeared in 1974, songwriter Connie Converse wrote, in part, “Human society fascinates me & awes me & fills me with grief & joy; I just can’t find my place to plug into it.”
I disagree with that last phrase. Listening to this album was like the clouds parting for 13 songs that span all of life’s wonders and mysteries. That they are performed so simply and beautifully by Bean only amplifies them.
Kuller’s arrangements set for voice and six instruments (a cello, two clarinets, a harp, violin and viola) give me a sense of how these songs might have sounded to Converse when she wrote them.
Converse was never found. Hopefully discerning listeners will find as much pleasure in these recordings as I did. The songwriter might have disappeared. Thankfully the music didn’t.
JAZZ: AvAnt MODerN and JAzZ nOW – Phil Haynes’ 2 Horns & What? – Corner Store Jazz
Drummer/composer Phil Haynes has created two distinctly unique albums that feel like twins separated at birth and only reunited decades later.
AvAnt MODerN (that’s the way he wants it presented), is the more adventurous of the two. It features Haynes with saxophonist Peyton Pleniger on saxophone and trumpeter Nathan Wooley. They make up the 2 Horns for this album.
This album is much more experimental, but also, at least to me, represents a wonderful sense of humor. On the second track, Out of the Bowels, I heard voices that sounded right out of a Disney cartoon.
JAzZ nOW is a more traditional album and features Haynes, Pleninger and saxophonist Jonathan Ragonese. Don’t get ideas that this is a traditional album, just a more traditional album.
Which makes the separated twins analogy work. I hear tracks that could have been on one album or the other (if the line-up wasn’t an issue).
I like adventurous music that is still enjoyable to listen to and these two albums easily accomplish that.
JAZZ: NO HAY QUE HABLAR ‘NUFF SAID! – Mambo Legends Orchestra
The word legend gets tossed around a lot. Upon her death, calling Dolly Parton a legend made complete sense. But Barney in How I Met Your Mother thought way too many things were legen….dary.
Mambo Legends Orchestra truly deserves its name. This is Afro-Cuban big band music at its most enjoyable.
I wish I had space to list every musician on this muy entretenido y divertido album. I also wish I could list every song. Suffice to say, this is joy personified from the first track through to the last one.
At this point, I’ll just heed the translation of the album’s title, No need to say anything. ‘Nuff said!
OPERA: STREET SCENE – Kurt Weill / Elmer Rice / Langston Hughes / Orchestra of Opera North / James Holmes – Capriccio
In the October 3, 2025 New in Music, I raved about Opera North’s recording of Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s Love Life recording.
They are back again (apparently think that the first Friday of October is lucky for them) with another Weill work – perhaps one of his best known.
Street Scene was advertised as a Broadway Opera. Honestly, it possesses operatic moments, musical comedy moments and dialogue.
The opera tells the story of the Maurrant family, the subject of considerable gossip among their neighbors. Set on the Lower East Side of New York during two brutally hot summer days, what’s true and isn’t about the Maurrants results in tragedy for several of the main characters.
Giselle Allen sings the role of matriarch Anna. Robert Hayward sings the role of patriarch Frank. Gillene Butterfield sings the role of their daughter, Rose. Alex Banfield sings the role of Sam Kaplan, Rose’s boyfriend.
This live recording proves once again how deep a dive Opera North does when performing works like this.
LEFT TURNS:
With this section, I’m introducing albums that don’t fit easily into what Cultural Attaché covers. They may be adjacent. They just might be something totally unexpected.
MY AIM IS TRUE (49th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) – Elvis Costello – UMe
Only an artist as idiosyncratic as Costello would release a special edition of one of his classic albums on its 49th anniversary.
I remember hearing this album when it was first released. Having listened to it recently in anticipation of this collection, it still maintains every bit of its fire and humor.
The additional music (there are 104 tracks here) includes unreleased songs (I Hear a Melody is one of my favorites. I never heard it on the 2007 deluxe edition) demos and live recordings. Arguably the most interesting is a 2007 reunion he had with the band Clover who backed him up on My Aim Is True.
I recommend this collection to discover, or be reminded, that Costello is one of our pithiest songwriters. I think he’s on par with Cole Porter.
SYNONYM – Meshell Ndegeocello – Blue Note Records
Ndegeocello has had a diverse and enormously satisfying career. It doesn’t come as a surprise this album that leans more towards mainstream music. One listen to Synonym and I could tell how much the album aligns with her unique artistry from beginning to end.
This is an album of covers performed with other artists. For instance, I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), Islands in the Stream, The Closer I Get to You and I Got You Babe are just a few examples. They are performed with Cynthia Erivo, Chaka Khan, Destin Conrad with Moses Sumney and ANOHNI.
This album is cool, fun and you should check it out.
REISSUES:
CLASSICAL: STEVEN ISSERLIS PLAYS THE MARQUIS DE CORBERON – Steven Isserlis – Hyperion
This 10-cd set features cellist Isserlis playing the Marquis de Corberon cello. This compilation features sonatas and concertos from such composers as Bach, Chopin, Handel, Haydn, Hough, Schubert and Tavener.
I was particularly grateful to learn of this box set as I had never heard Stephen Hough’s Sonata for Cello and Piano Left Hand. One listening and I was reminded, once again, why I appreciate both Hough and Isserlis.
CLASSICAL: STEVE REICH – RECORDINGS ON ECM – ECM
Reich released three albums on the ECM label between 1978 and 1982. They were Music for 18 Musicians, Octet/Music for a Large Ensemble/Violin Phase and TEHILLIM.
All three have been remastered and are released in a box set just in time for Reich’s 90th birthday this month (or the holidays for those looking for gifts – you decide which it is.)
Reich’s music reminds me of early punk albums. What once sounded like music specifically designed to color outside the lines sounds perfectly settled within them.
JAZZ: STRUCTURALLY SOUND – Booker Ervin – Blue Note Tone Poet Vinyl
Tenor saxophonist Ervin is perhaps best known for his association with Charles Mingus.
This album, one of two he released in 1967, only features one original song, Boo’s Blues. But the performances by his band and the songs he chose, make these 40 minutes I have played several times in my life.
His band features John Hicks on piano, Lenny McBrowne on drums, Red Mitchell on bass and Charles Tolliver on trumpet.
I particularly like the speed at which they performed Billy Strayhorn’s Take The “A” Train and Ervin’s opening solo.
JAZZ: HUB CAP – Freddie Hubbard – Blue Note Tone Poet Vinyl
This 1961 album from trumpet player/composer Hubbard is considered one of his finest and a great representative of hard bop music.
Hubbard wrote four of the six tracks on this album including the title track. Randy Weston’s Cry Me Not and Cedar Walton’s Plexus are the two non-Hubbard songs.
Joining Hubbard were Jimmy Heath on tenor sax, Philly Joe Jones on drums, Julian Priester on trombone, Larry Ridley on bass and Walton on piano.
I bop. Do you?
That’s all for New in Music: October 2nd.
Which album will you listen to first this weekend?
Enjoy the music!
Enjoy your weekend!
Main Photo: Album art from Pieces of Light (Courtesy MASS MoCA Records)