With The Antidote Suite, percussionist and composer JoVia Armstrong
offers healing and pathways to unconventional societies in a compelling
Afrofuturist tapestry of space and rhythm. An infusion of dub, rap, and
avant guard jazz, it is the first release of flutist Nicole Mitchell’s new
label, Black Earth Music.

MEDITATIONS ON OYA of the Antidote Suite by JoVia Armstrong

Leave It Alone by Coco Elysses
Performed by Black Earth SWAY

Coco Elysses diddley bow, vocals, composition
Nicole Mitchell flute
Alexis Lombre piano
JoVia Armstrong percussion

Black Earth SWAY

Leave It Alone by Coco Elysses

Dan Stearns - instruments and composition, with old friends Jim Capone on clarinets and soprano sax, and Scott Dakota on the production, engineering and mix.

"In a World Out of Tune" was composed in 1988 for a guitar contest. I was influenced by a lot of music in this period still, like Ives and The Decoding Society for example, but when I listen to it now I think it more or less was the first thing I did where I'd say maybe I was starting to just try to be myself- which of course just starts a journey that never ends if you want to try to keep moving forward towards any momentum in that type of a direction... the classic "damned if you do, and damned if you don't"!

In any event, the piece did place in the soundpage competition that year for Guitar Player Magazine and was said to sound something like "Carla Bley meets Merciful Fate", or so it was written anyway- and in a magazine I'd read since I was in middle school and my mom could buy at a store.... ha, the big time, my sentence-and-a-half of fame!

One of the great things I remember about this time was working with Scott Dakota, who was a close friend then whom I learned a lot from. My friend and frequent collaborator back then, Jim Capone, as well... as this was some of the last recording we did together before he went into Peace Corps and was suddenly in Swaziland. For me, that time with those people, that's what I remember most now* 

*having 'flashed in the pan' as it were and moved on to the other thing at the end of the rainbow--

Daniel Stearns - "In A World Out of Tune"

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Dengotemakiaratravessia cinematic background music FREE DOWNLOAD

Podcast #1 - Deep House

'It sounded like I had dropped my tray of drinks': a rocky start, but Bonnie Greer's first experience of avant-garde music collective the AACM (the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians)got better...

Jazz on 3's AACM 50th anniversary celebration is available for 30 days here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06mf1j3

Photo: copyright Jacky LePage www.jackylepage.com

Bonnie Greer on how the AACM changed her life [02.11.15]

Track from Steve & Iqua Colson's "Hope for Love" (Silver Sphinx Records, 2004)

Steve Colson, piano, compositions
Iqua Colson, voice
T.K. Blue, saxophones
Andy McCloud, bass
Reggie Nicholson, drums

Hope For Love

Steve & Iqua Colson - "Picante"

Here is the recording of the performance of For Fred for violin and piano, performed by the fantastic duo of Sini Virtanen, violin and Eunmi Ko, piano, on April 7, 2018 at the USF New Music Festival 2018 at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
For Fred was written in memory of the legendary Chicago-based saxophonist Fred Anderson, in whose band I played piano while in high school. When he passed away in 2010, I wanted to write a piece in his memory and selected violin and piano to capture the solemnity and emotions that I wanted to express. After an elegiac beginning, the work shifts to a slightly more upbeat section, that recalls the music that Fred played at his club, The Velvet Lounge, where the bass player would play a bass line and Fred would improvise on that line. We return to the Elegy and to the memorial tone of the beginning as For Fred ends quietly.

For Fred for Violin and Piano is published by Universal Edition. For scores and parts, please visit:
https://www.universaledition.com/aaron-alter-8349/works/for-fred-for-violin-and-piano-35963

For more information on For Fred and other works by Aaron Alter, please visit https://aaronalter.com/compositions .

For Fred for Violin and Piano (2015) Performance at the 2018 USF New Music Festival

Today, Today from Ice Crystal, Aquarius with Joshua Abrams bass, Frank Rosaly drums, Jason Adasievicz on vibes and myself on flutes, composition.

Today, Today (Ice Crystal)

From Xenogenesis II: Intergalactic Beings, this is a snippet of Negotiating Identity.  Sci-Fi Thriller music inspired by social issue futurist Octavia Butler.  This is a teaser from upcoming CD on FPE Records of Museum of Contemporary Art Premiere from April 2010 featuring Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble with Mankwe Ndosi vocals, Renee Baker violin, Nicole Mitchell flutes/composition, David Boykin tenor sax, David Young trumpet, Tomeka Reid cello, Jeff Parker electric guitar, Joshua Abrams bass, Arveeayl Ra percussion and Marcus Evans drums.

Negotiating Identity (Intergalactic Beings: Xeno II)

Music that offers healing and illuminates alternative worlds.

Audio treats from the team behind BBC Radio 3's Jazz on 3.

I'm a flute player, an improviser/composer and I'm mostly making and performing my music in the jazz and experimental music realms throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.  My most active groups are Black Earth Ensemble and Black Earth SWAY.  I also do some composing for new music (classical) settings and make soundtracks.  And I really enjoy playing with my friends including Moor Mother, Tiger Trio, Indigo Trio, Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra, David Boykin Expanse, Michael Dessen, Mark Dresser and others.

Hi ! I'm Compositor and French DJ !
Enjoy !

Pioneering artists and AACM stalwarts Adegoke Steve Colson and Iqua Colson return with their most personal and thematically resonant release in years: GLOW: Music for Trio...Add Voice, out August 22, 2025 on their longtime imprint Silver Sphinx Records, now distributed worldwide by The Orchard. Blending original compositions with wordless vocals, poetic resistance, and intimate improvisation, the album is both timely and timeless—reflecting a lifetime of creative integrity shaped by struggle, joy, and love.

The trio on GLOW features Adé on piano, the legendary Andrew Cyrille on drums, and acclaimed bassist Mark Helias with Iqua performing on four tracks. Together, they deliver music that moves fluidly between structure and freedom, language and abstraction, present urgency and historic depth.

"This record wasn't conceived as a protest album," says Iqua, "but when the world turns as it has, the music bears witness. Atrocities is the one where the lyrics speak most directly—lines like, 'Thoughts and prayers don't change the game / Can you list each murdered name?' That one cuts to the core."

While "Atrocities" speaks plainly to our political moment, the rest of GLOW opens into deeply emotional, spiritual, and personal spaces. Tracks like "Getting Comfortable" and "Clouds on a Sunny Day" address themes of resilience and hope, while "For Freddie" honors the influence of Freddie Hubbard with warmth and joy.

"We've been playing Midnight Samba since the '70s," Adé notes. "People kept asking for it. It was even recorded by Andrew [Cyrille] years ago, but this is the first time we've done it ourselves."

The album's title track, Glow, was first recorded by Hannibal Marvin Peterson and appears here with Iqua's signature wordless vocal phrasing. "That piece never wanted lyrics," she says. "Sometimes the music just tells you how it wants to be heard."

GLOW is a natural extension of the Colsons' legacy as artist-educators, community builders, and members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). In recent years, Adé has premiered multiple commissioned works—including Incandescence in Chicago for the AACM's 55th anniversary supported by American Composer's Forum and Suite Harlem at the Harlem School of the Arts in New York City as part of the Jazz Road Creative Residencies funded by Doris Duke and Mellon Foundations; while the couple's archive was recently acquired by Northwestern University, cementing their place in the canon of American experimental and Black creative music.

Aaron Alter is a composer from Carlsbad, California. His music is published by Universal Edition and Silverwinds Publishing. Aaron calls his new music his "New Beginning" because it is an exploration of a new style and energy that defies categorization.    

A native of Chicago, Aaron Alter's musical background was a product of the rich musical life that he found growing up in the Windy City. Aaron received his Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University, where he studied piano with Frances Larimer and Gui Mombaerts, and composition with Lynden DeYoung and David Noon. He received his Master of Fine Arts Degree from Princeton University, where he studied with Milton Babbitt and James K. Randall.  

Aaron’s new music was first performed in 2015, with the performance of “Homage to Josquin” for two flutes, piano, electric bass and drum set by The New Mexico Performing Arts Society in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “Homage to Josquin” received an Honorable Mention in the 2016 American Prize competition for Chamber Music Composition.  

Works such as "Solar Rays" and "Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry" defy genres and exist in Classical ensemble and Jazz Big Band versions. Both the classical piano trio (piano, violin and ‘cello) and Jazz Big Band versions of “Solar Rays” have received Silver medals at the Global Music Awards. Aaron’s Introspective Blues #1 for Flute and Harp has become his most popular work, with over 16,100 plays on SoundCloud and over 5,200 plays on Jango Internet Radio. Aaron’s music has been featured on the albums “One Minute”, “Two Minutes”, “Gimel” and “Daleth”, by the flutist Iwona Glinka on the Sarton and Phasma Music labels, all of which have won Silver Medals at the Global Music Awards.  

Aaron has received two commissions in the past two years for choral works with an instrumental ensemble from The New Mexico Performing Arts Society.  The first commission, “Together We Create and Sing! (inspired by the music of Franz Joseph Haydn”) was a semi-finalist at the 2018 American Prize competition for Choral Music Composition and received a Silver Medal at the August 2019 Global Music Awards.  The latest commission, “Lo Lanu Ha-Shem” (a setting of Psalm 115) received a Silver Medal from the March 2019 Global Music Awards.  

Aaron is a regular contributor of compositions to the repertoire of the flutist Iwona Glinka, the pianist and Steinway Artist, Susan Merdinger, the pianist Vania Pimentel, The New Mexico Performing Arts Society and Composers Concordance in New York.  

Aaron also serves as an Executive Board Member of the Carlsbad Friends of the Arts.

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