Clean Feed

Daniel Levin formed his quartet in 2002. The first gig was at CBGB's in New York City and over the past 8 years, the band has covered a lot of musical territory.

Curated by Elliott Sharp, this compilation presents the "state of the art" in today's guitar.

A little big band (sometimes no more than a large group) with variable geometry, the Full Throttle Orchestra has very wide parameters, in order to achieve the "multi-dimensional sonic qualities" intended by its leader, composer and arranger, the contrabassist Adam Lane.

Don't let the picture fool you: these three German musicians may be quite young, but they are real masters at their respective instruments. Achim Kaufmann is one of the most captivating pianists on the European scene and when he plays free-form, with experimental insight, his personal approach is fuelled by a profound knowledge of the piano jazz history.

Hugo Carvalhais, Gabriel Pinto, and Mário Costa are representatives of a remarkable new generation of Portuguese jazz musicians. Rather than the nice, but modest, debut recording you might expect, "Nebulosa" delivers beautiful, wonderfully played, inspiring music. Just hearing these up-and-comers was enough to convince American alto saxophonist Tim Berne to join the project.

If you still think there's an untraversable frontier between the so-called mainstream and the so-called avant-garde, it's because you're not noticing what's going on.