Remembering Sonny Rollins
Decision
“The poignancy of Rollins dying the day after Miles Davis’s 100th anniversary is amplified by the realisation he was the last living musician from the famous Great Day in Harlem. photo from 1958. This picture brought together jazz’s leading lights for Esquire’s 1959 Golden Age of Jazz edition, including Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Thelonius Monk, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charles Mingus, Mary Lou Williams and Count Basie.” (Richard Worth in The Conversation) Walter Theodore “Sonny” Rollins (September 7, 1930 – May 25, 2026) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential of jazz musicians.
Blue Note Records
Remembering Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim)
African Marketplace
“South Africa-born pianist, composer and band leader Abdullah Ibrahim died Monday (June 15) at age 91. He began recording in South Africa in the 1950s, when he played with a pioneering band called The Jazz Epistles alongside trumpeter Hugh Masekela. Abdullah Ibrahim left South Africa in 1962 and spent most of his life away, though he did play at President Nelson Mandela’s inauguration in 1994. Abdullah Ibrahim, in his travels, recorded dozens of albums for dozens of labels around the world. Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead has this appreciation.” (David Bianculi for NPR)
Elektra Records
Panda Baer & Sonic Boom
A ? of When
“Sonic Boom and Panda Bear emerge through these 10 songs as two people with frank opinions about these times, with a real stake in the sway of the world. These tunes grapple with online exhaustion and pervasive depression, with political chicanery and ecological sustainability, all while advocating for respecting the power of luck and giving one another grace in a moment when very few of us actually know what the hell is happening. To protest AI, algorithmic playlisting, and digital exhaustion, the duo announced the 10-track LP will not be released on Spotify, Apple Music, or any streaming platforms.” ( REDDIT)
Domino Records
The Corral
Let the Music Play
Formed in 1996 just outside Liverpool (in Hoylake), The Coral was vital to the UK’s 21st-century neo-psychedelia revival. In 1996, school-friends Ian Skelly and Paul Duffy began jamming together in the basement of Flat Foot Sams pub in Hoylake. Over the following months they were joined by Bill Ryder-Jones on lead guitar, Ian’s older brother James Skelly on vocals and main songwriting duties, and then Lee Southall on rhythm guitar. The band were known briefly as Hive before choosing the name “The Coral”, and the line-up was completed with the addition of Nick Power, who joined as keyboard player in 1998. Their upcoming Album 388 is their 13th.
Run On Records
Beth Orton
Waiting, from the new album The Ground Above
Beth Orton (who has been strugling with health issues) is a legendary English singer-songwriter who pioneered folktronica in the 1990s. “The laidback Motown beats of Waiting gently drive a song (one of Orton’s catchiest) about snapping out of a doom-loop of fear, while closer Otherside emerges out of the darkness and into the light, building towards a hopeful finale – “Tell me you made it through alive” – that is halfway between Hey Jude and The Beta Band’s Dry The Rain. Ultimately, The Ground Above elegantly shores up Beth Orton’s creative resurgence. Altogether, it represents a more mature form of comedown – one that comes with midlife epiphanies and a strong sense of resilience.” (Tom Doye, Mojo)
Partisan Record