Today is the official street date for Mettle (Playscape Recordings), veteran guitarist/composer Michael Musillami‘s sixth release with his flagship trio with bassist Joe Fonda and drummer George Schuller. The record, which also features special guests Russ Johnson (trumpet), Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone and clarinet), Jeff Lederer (tenor saxophone and clarinet) and Matt Moran (vibraphone), is part of the celebration of the trio’s 10th anniversary as a working unit.

In his recent feature article, the Hartford Courant‘s Owen McNally calls the group “a superb, finely tuned unit, empathetic, swinging and dramatically expressive of emotions sweeping from joy to sadness.” He adds, “More impressive than longevity, however, is the trio’s remarkably tight, cohesive unity. This element goes hand-in-hand with the threesome’s free, open sense of exploration both as individuals and as a unit in which they constantly interact with one another.”

Mettle is a collection of all-new original material, including Musillami’s first extended suite, Summer Suite: Twenty Ten, featuring eight diverse movements based on experiences and reminiscences—both musical and personal—from last summer. The inspirations range from a volcano in Iceland to his newly shaved head to memories of his Grandfather to his daughter going to college to a family vacation spot on Cape Cod.

The three other pieces on the record have similarly autobiographical backstories. The first track, “Piana dei Greci”, takes its name from the small Sicilian village where all four of Musillami’s grandparents were born. “Blues For The Wounded Warrior” was written as a tribute to the Wounded Warrior Project, a favorite charity of Musillami’s that assists wounded soldiers. A comment from his wife, a couple of hooded sweatshirts and a short period of listening to Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur inspired the record’s final track, “Thuggish Mornings”.

Musillami and his Trio + 4 have already performed this music live around the Northeast and will hit the road this spring for a series of CD release dates at venues such as Firehouse 12 in New Haven. More details will be announced soon.

Learn more about Michael Musillami at http://michaelmusillami.com

Photo: Bryan Murray

Next week, saxophonist Jon Irabagon heads to Europe where he will perform with a variety of groups through the end of March. That extended trip includes a week-long tour with Mostly Other People Do The Killing (MOPDtK) beginning two weeks from tomorrow.

Here are the dates:

February 18
Spielboden
Dornbirn, Austria

February 19
Porgy and Bess Jazz Music Club
Wien, Austria

February 20
Tafelhalle im KunstKulturQuartier
Nürnberg, Germany

February 21
La Dynamo de Banlieues Bleues
Paris, France

February 22
Penn ar Jazz
Brest, France

February 23
Victoria Nasjonal Jazzscene
Oslo, Norway

February 25
Just Music Jazz Festival
Wiesbaden, Germany

February 26
Teatro Fondamenta Nuove
Venezia, Italy

Photo: Peter Gannushkin

Longtime collaborators Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone will hit the road later this month for a series of New England tour dates in support of their newly released fourth recording, Departure of Reason (Thirsty Ear).

Tuesday, February 14th at 8:00 p.m.
The Brick House Community Resource Center
Turner Falls, Massachusetts

Thursday, February 16th at 8:30 p.m.
Buoy Gallery
Kittery, Maine

Friday, February 17th at 7:30 p.m.
Spaulding Recital Hall
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester, Massachusetts

Saturday, February 18th at 8:00 p.m.
The Uncertainty Music Series
The BIG ROOM 
New Haven, Connecticut

“One gets the sense that the music goes wherever whimsy takes guitarist Mary Halvorson and Jessica Pavone,” writes JazzTimes‘ Steve Greenlee in his review of Departure of Reason. “Their music is insanely hard to pin down: It draws from jazz, folk, rock, modern classical and even medieval—sometimes all in one song, or so it seems…it is an inaccessible delight.”

“Given their remarkable history on previous recordings—most notably 2009′s Thin Air—the unique musical vocabulary they’ve established together should come as no surprise,” explains AllMusic.com’s Thom Jurek. “It is instinctive, formal, articulate, and full of subtleties, humor, and—even in song form—unique insight.”

AllAboutJazz.com’s Troy Collins adds, “each sinuous turn of phrase and abrupt change in accompaniment reveals an ever deeper level of virtuosic interplay. More sophisticated and confidently articulated than their previous duo efforts, Departure of Reason is a masterful example of cutting-edge creative improvised music that defies categorization.”

Learn more about the musicians at maryhalvorson.com and jessicapavone.com

On Saturday, February 25th at 9:00 and 10:30 p.m., pianist/composer Myra Melford will debut her new ensemble, Snowy Egret, at The Jazz Gallery in New York. The interdisciplinary sextet features musicians Ron Miles (trumpet), Liberty Ellman (guitar), Stomu Takeishi (electric bass) and Tyshawn Sorey (drums) as well as dancer Oguri.

Snowy Egret is the evolution of one of her earlier ensembles, Happy Whistlings, which she created in 2008 to perform a book of original music inspired by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano’s Memory of Fire Trilogy. In this latest incarnation, with all new personnel, the original pieces are further developed, rearranged and augmented with more recent compositions.

“Myra Melford lately seems to have entered a phase where she can do no wrong,” writes esteemed jazz journalist Francis Davis in his introduction to this year’s Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll. Recent media coverage has called her “one of the most exciting musicians working in any genre” (Ehren Gresehover, At Length), “an insightful and far-reaching pianist-composer” (Nate Chinen, New York Times) and “a visionary bandleader” (Andrew Gilbert, Berkeleyside), noting her “ever-growing track record of arresting music” (Mike Shanley, JazzTimes).

In addition to her own projects, including the acoustic sextet Be Bread heard on her latest recording, The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12 Records), she currently co-leads a duo with clarinetist Ben Goldberg and the all-star collective Trio M, which releases its second recording, The Guest House (Enja/Yellowbird), in February. She also serves on the faculty of the University of California Berkeley, where she develops and teaches courses about contemporary improvised music.

Learn more about Myra Melford at http://myramelford.com

Photo: John Sharpe

On Sunday, February 12th at 8:00 p.m., New York-based alto saxophonist/composer Darius Jones will be the featured artist at Creative Differences’ monthly 2nd Sunday Series at The Windup Space in Baltimore.

Jones, an AUM Fidelity recording artist, has created new arrangements of material from his first two releases, Man’ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing) and Big Gurl (Smell My Dream), specifically to perform on this night with local musicians Dave Ballou (trumpet), John Dierker (reeds), Lafayette Gilchrist (piano), Michael Formanek (bass) and Eric Kennedy (drums).

Since delivering “one of the great jazz debuts of the past decade” (Britt Robson, eMusic.com) in 2009, Jones has been called “a singular talent” (Brian Morton, Jazz Journal), “a hot commodity in the Gotham jazz scene” (Dusted), “one of the most impressive and unique voices of our time” (Troy Collins, AllAboutJazz.com) and “a skilled composer, a hugely soulful saxophonist, and an assured leader” (François Couture, AllMusic.com).

Time Out New York‘s Steve Dollar adds, “A powerhouse saxophonist with an unusually focused perspective, Darius Jones has ambitiously framed his personal story within the bigger picture of African-American musical history. It’s one of the reasons his performances have such a passionate narrative force, as if every solo conjured holy ghosts and prodigal sons, each with its own story to tell. The drama comes through loud and clear, as the stocky Virginia native has a lot of preacher blood in his veins.”

Jones, who is profiled in the February issue of DownBeat, earned his second consecutive nomination for Up & Coming Artist of the Year at the 2011 Jazz Journalists Association Awards, and Big Gurl appeared on a variety of best-of-the-year lists, including a Top 20 finish in the prestigious Rhapsody Jazz Critics’ Poll. Book of Mæ’bul (Another Kind of Sunrise), his third release as a bandleader, and the latest chapter of his ongoing Man’ish Boy series, will hit the streets in April.

Learn more about Darius Jones at http://dariusjonesmusic.com

On February 7th, Playscape Recordings will release Mettle (PSR#070111), veteran guitarist/composer Michael Musillami‘s sixth recording with his flagship trio featuring bassist Joe Fonda and drummer George Schuller.

The music, including Musillami’s first extended work, the eight-movement Summer Suite: Twenty Ten, is largely autobiographical, but the record itself celebrates the trio’s 10th anniversary as a working unit.

On Mettle, they form the core rhythm section of a new sextet, featuring special guests Russ Johnson (trumpet), Ned Rothenberg (alto saxophone and clarinet), Jeff Lederer (tenor saxophone and clarinet) and Matt Moran (vibraphone), created to fully realize Musillami’s latest compositions.

“Joe, George and I share a long-term commitment to moving the music forward without fear of failure,” writes Musillami in the liner notes. “The playing is the art and the results are open to interpretation. Honesty and truth are essential to our creativity. I have always been compelled to write music, and I’m fortunate to have Joe and George with me to play with, and against, to help point me where the music wants to go. I always tell the cats it has taken a lifetime of being a musician to be able to present this music. Mettle is the most defining document I’ve produced because it draws on the sum of my decades of experience as a player, writer, arranger, and bandleader.”

“Guitarist Michael Musillami, bassist Joe Fonda and drummer George Schuller have long been one of the most tightly knit trios,” writes DownBeat‘s Lloyd Sachs in his four-star review of the trio’s previous release, 2010′s Old Tea (Playscape Recordings).

Critics called it “a moving, masterful suite” (Owen McNally, Hartford Courant), “guitar-led trio jazz at its best” (Simon Adams, Jazz Journal), and “nothing short of extraordinary” (Nic Jones, AllAboutJazz.com).

The Rochester City Paper‘s Ron Netsky adds, “Drummer George Schuller and bassist Joe Fonda are so tuned in to Musillami’s wavelength that when the group really gets going, it functions as a single living organism.”

Musillami’s career spans more than 25 years and includes extensive work as a performer, bandleader/composer and educator. In addition to his trio, which has performed across Europe and North America and released five other recordings since 2002, he has earned international acclaim as the leader of groups ranging from duo to octet. His long list of prominent collaborators over the years includes Thomas Chapin, Marty Ehrlich, Mark Feldman, Mario Pavone and Matt Wilson among many others.

He’s also the longtime Director of Jazz Studies at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, and manager of Playscape Recordings, the highly regarded independent label he founded in 1999.

Learn more at http://michaelmusillami.com and http://playscape-recordings.com

Photo by Ines Kaiser

On Thursday, February 24th at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, the Ecstatic Music Festival, in cooperation with the New Sounds® Live series, will present an eclectic night of music featuring composer/bandleader Darcy James Argue.

The centerpiece of the program, which begins at 7:30 p.m., will be a preview of Argue’s original song cycle, “The Sleep Room”, performed by the eight-piece chamber ensemble Newspeak. The work was written specifically for the group and commissioned by the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation. A short film by Stephen Taylor will accompany the opening minutes of the performance.

As with some of his best-known pieces, such as “Jacobin Club” and “Habeas Corpus for Maher Arar”, “The Sleep Room” is inspired by a clandestine event from history, in this case Cold War-era psychology experiments at a Montreal hospital.

“From 1957 to 1964,” Argue explains, “Dr. Ewen Cameron carried out a series of mind control experiments on unwitting subjects as part of the CIA’s infamous Project MKUltra. The title comes from one of Cameron’s favored techniques: putting subjects into a drug-induced coma and playing tape loops for them, often of repetitive statements that were meant to subliminally imprint new thoughts.”

He adds, “This work will explore the parallels between aesthetic communication (inducing altered states, wiping the slate clean, imprinting new thoughts) and mind control.”

Argue’s collaboration with Newspeak marks the first time he has been commissioned to write a piece for an ensemble other than his own. Conversely, on the same program, Argue and his acclaimed 18-piece big band, Secret Society, will present the world premieres of three newly commissioned pieces by Vijay Iyer, Nicole Lizée and David T. Little, marking the first time his ensemble has ever performed music by another composer.

Tickets for this concert are available now, both individually ($25) and in flex packages of four or more Ecstatic Music Festival/New Sounds® Live events ($20).

Learn more about Darcy James Argue at http://www.secretsocietymusic.org