Pi Recordings

01/17/2025

We appreciate our brothers at Stephen and Matt… thank you for the shine. Any day we’re mentioned in the same breath as SST is a good day. This is about you though.

Go get yourself some new music and check the profile in the new . We’re starting with a weird Of Mouth tonight. From to to … Rock Rock On.

01/12/2025

A quick note of thanks to all the critics who voted in the 19th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll. The recognition for the artists and their music never goes unappreciated.

We feel fortunate to know and call so many on the poll friends and admire their artistry and music so much. It is an honor to see the label’s output up there with theirs.

Congrats to .szechuan.soiree_official and Kim Cass and all the musicians who helped realize “The Susceptible Now” “PolyTropos / Of Many Turns” “Unknown Rivers” and “Levs.”

But, it’s impossible to truly enjoy this moment while so many in LA are hurting. We’re thinking every day of our brother and his family and all who are hurting right now. There’s a link in the bio to a GoFundMe campaign, if you have the means to help Steve and his family, in addition to many other resources out there to help others.

Forward Motion

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Paul de Lucena

01/12/2025

Steve Lehman -- our colleague and friend for almost two decades -- lost his home in the devastating fires of Los Angeles. Please help his family as they start the process of restoring normalcy to their lives.

Dear Friends, The Newmans are a vibrant, artistic and warm-loving family w… Lani Kuramoto needs your support for Help the Newmans Rebuild After Eaton Fire

01/06/2025

So great to have JazzTimes back with David Adler at its helm. Here is his 2024 Year in Review, Part 1: The Rhythmic Avant-Garde, which pretty much includes all my favorite releases from last year.

Given that JazzTimes is just coming back, we’re not running a poll or declaring an official ranked Top 10 for 2024. But that doesn’t stop … Read More "2024 Year in Review, Part 1: The Rhythmic Avant-Garde"

01/06/2025

Evening and happy 2025…

Six days in and we’ve already rolled out the pre-order for the new Steve Lehman Trio plus Mark Turner “Plays the Music of Anthony Braxton,” two preview tracks are available now, and announced the upcoming release of Dálava’s “Understories” and Dan Weiss’ “Unclassified Affections.” It’s looking to be a good year… music wise.

We’ve created a survey meant to help us better understand how people learn about new music today. If you have a moment to take it we’d appreciate it.

While you’re there, please sign up for our mailing list to receive updates about new releases, shows and general artist and label activity. Link to the survey in the comments. Thank you.

Forward Motion.

01/05/2025

Sad to hear of the passing of Richard Foreman. His plays twisted my mind in the late 90s and early 2000s in a way that theater has never done again. Safe travels.

01/02/2025

What better way to begin the new year than to preview two tracks from the trio upcoming release, “The Music of Anthony Braxton.” Featuring and . Check the link in the bio for the track previews and pre-order, available digitally and on vinyl and compact disc.

Across 8 tracks, recorded live at ETA in Los Angeles, CA, the band reinvents 5 Anthony Braxton compositions, debuts 2 new Lehman compositions and puts their personal touch on Thelonious Monk’s “Trinkle, Tinkle.”

This is the trio’s third release and Steve’s first such tribute to a mentor.

Happy 2025 all and enjoy!!!

12/31/2024

We’ve been kind of silent here for the past month. Needed some time away, but we didn’t want to let ‘24 end without looking back and sharing some moments we think back on, encounters, releases, inspirations, friends we lost and new music we look forward to sharing.

Later ‘24. See you all in ‘25. Thank you as always for the support.

Forward motion!!!

12/19/2024

Tyshawn Sorey's The Susceptible Now named among Bandcamp's Best Jazz of 2024. Dave Sumner writes "Sorey doesn’t so much as present different versions of the originals as give glimpses of how they’d sound had the compositions lived a different life in an alternate timeline. .... absolutely sublime."

Our guide to the year’s best jazz LPs.

12/17/2024

Phil Freeman's worthy Best Jazz of 2024 list for Stereogum is up. Included is Tyshawn Sorey's The Susceptible Now, Kim Cass's Levs, and Matt Mitchell's Zealous Angles.

If you think about it a certain way, one of the defining qualities of jazz is earnestness. This is one of the reasons why jazz and metal have so much in common, and so often appeal to the same listeners. Both forms can be totally absurd. Think of the most lurid, squiggly fusion, or the blare of a th...

12/16/2024

Fantastic 4.5 Star review of Steve Coleman and Five Elements' PolyTropos / Of Many Turns by Troy Dostert for All About Jazz: "Perpetually churning rhythms, telepathic detours, unexpected juxtapositions... manages to be both intricately complex and fundamentally accessible at the same time."

Steve Coleman and Five Elements: PolyTropos / Of Many Turns album review by Troy Dostert, published on December 10, 2024. Find thousands jazz reviews at All About Jazz!

12/11/2024

We could tell you why you should go hear the Air Legacy Trio perform the music of at Wednesday the 11th but really, is there anyone out there better than at letting you know what to expect from a gig.

“There were several long hushes in the crowd when this thoughtful group worked their way through “Tragedy On a Thursday Afternoon” and “Midnight Sun” at the Big Ears Festival last spring. If repertory gambits are saturated with Monk, Ellington, and Shorter genuflections, then consider this revival of early Henry Threadgill pieces a refreshing boon to the breadth of the jazz canon. Marty Erhlich, Pheeroan akLaff, and Hilliard Greene updated the magic of Threadgill, Steve McCall and Fred Hopkins with the kind of consideration and respect needed to make the supple, AACM-steeped interplay blossom anew. The flute and reed flights, the mallet-driven tom-tom flourishes, and the deeply dramatic bass lines brokered an orchestral sensibility during certain passages – perhaps no surprise to those who hear Threadgill’s work as often delivering oversized implications. Bet those hushes re-arise at the Gallery; the lilt of “Air Song” alone should accomplish that.”

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12/10/2024

Steve Coleman's Polytropos/Of Many Turns is included on PostGenre's Best of 2024 list. John Chacona, writer+producer calls it "a reminder that Coleman has authored the source code for much of the most exciting music being made today, an authentic world expansion."

The albums we collectively felt were the best of 2024 (technically from Thanksgiving 2023 to Thanksgiving 2024) show a beautiful range of diverse voices. I don’t think any of us consciously chose our albums based on identifiers like race, gender, or nationality. The fact it is replete with musicia...

12/09/2024

The PopMatters best jazz of the year list is out. Will Layman is an exceptionally thorough listener and his list is always a highlight. Matt Mitchell's Zealous Angles, Kim Cass's Levs, and Tyshawn Sorey's The Susceptible Now are all named.

This was another year of riches in the best jazz and creative music, with barriers between the tradition and the avant-garde melting away.

12/06/2024

It's Bandcamp Friday, so get some advice from Lee Rice Epstein for The Free Jazz Collective on some of our favorite artists and their new releases. 5 Star reviews go to Matt Mitchell's Zealous Angles (Pi), Kim Cass's Levs (Pi), and Dan Weiss's Even Odds (Cygnus).

Read the review of Matt Mitchell, Kim Cass, and Dan Weiss: Three Views of a Piano Trio on The Free Jazz Collective

12/04/2024

Tyshawn Sorey's The Susceptible Now and Luke Stewart's Unknown Rivers included in the New York Times Ten Best Jazz Albums of 2024 list, now helmed by the estimable Hank Shteamer.

Musicians both established and up-and-coming stretched themselves in fresh ways over the last year, creating poignant moments of collaboration and challenge.

12/03/2024

Tis the season for year-end lists and Brett Saunders for the Denver Post includes Kim Cass's Levs in his Top 10 list, calling it "Labyrinthine and deeply engaging... I just love the ideas and interaction at play."

Here are my Top 10 jazz/improv albums of 2024. Each of them made my life a little better this year, and I’m hoping they might do the same for you.

11/29/2024

Tyshawn Sorey Trio's The Susceptible Now reviewed with a 4.5 Star review by Thom Jurek at AllMusic.com. "Sorey employs his signature deconstruction method, extracting, re-ordering, and recontextualizing various sections in the originals, while simultaneously rearranging them into elaborate, constantly mutating forms.... The musical language [the trio] further developed and articulated on Susceptible Now is sophisticated, surprisingly accessible, and perhaps even timeless."

The Susceptible Now by Tyshawn Sorey, Tyshawn Sorey Trio released in 2024. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.