New Release Friday Playlist Add’s

Friday again, and the new releases have dropped. Our New Jazz Releases Spotify playlist is updated each week with the tracks that have genuinely caught our attention — the ones worth making time for. This week’s selection ranges from a Norwegian pianist launching an EP on Edition Records to a New York trio out of Juilliard who are doing very interesting things with a very old form. Here’s what we’ve added, and why.

Eyolf Dale — “Spring Anthem” (from Spring Anthems EP)

Norwegian pianist and composer Eyolf Dale has been one of the more quietly consistent presences on the European jazz scene since his solo debut in 2011, releasing exclusively on Edition Records and maintaining a profile that’s never needed inflating. Two Spellemannprisen nominations, a European Jazz Competition win with the duo Albatrosh in 2010 at North Sea Jazz, a long-standing role in the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra — the credentials are solid, and the music has always backed them up.

“Spring Anthem”, released June 19, is the lead single from his forthcoming EP Spring Anthems and a good reminder of what Dale does well: lyrical introspection with enough harmonic and rhythmic restlessness beneath the surface to keep things honest. The writing is characteristically considered without feeling cautious. Worth your time if you’ve been following his solo work, and a strong entry point if you haven’t.

Evening Sky — “Coffee Monster” (from Meeting of the Four)

I reviewed Meeting of the Four here this week, so I’ll keep this brief. The Rhode Island quartet — Chris Brooks on pedal steel, Gino Rosati on guitar, Joe Potenza on bass, and Eric Hastings on drums, Hammond and synth — make music that sits very comfortably outside any strict jazz definition, and I mean that as a compliment. The album moves between reggae, soul-jazz, funk and Americana with a naturalness that self-consciously eclectic records rarely manage.

“Coffee Monster” is the track I’ve been putting on our playlist this week — the title earns its funk energy, and the pedal steel gives the whole thing a texture you genuinely don’t hear very often in this context. The full review is here for those who want more.

Kilian Sladek — “Gravity” (from Colorblind)

Munich vocalist and composer Kilian Sladek released “Gravity” this week, the latest preview single from his forthcoming album Colorblind, due on Bergson Music in October. I covered this in some detail in our news piece this week, but for the playlist: the presence of Torsten Goods on guitar is the thing to listen for here. He brings a West Coast unhurriedness to the track that suits the song perfectly — warm, precise, and with enough space in the playing to let Sladek’s voice do its work. The album developed over three years in close collaboration with pianist and producer Sam Hylton, and the depth of that process is audible in how well the pieces fit together. More to come on this one ahead of the October release.

New Jazz Underground — “Pseudo Latin Vibe”

I’ve been watching New Jazz Underground with interest for a while now. The New York trio — Abdias Armenteros on saxophone, Sebastian Rios on bass, and TJ Reddick on drums — met as students at the Juilliard School and started posting videos from their living room during lockdown in 2020. Those videos went viral, and for once the music was genuinely worth the attention. Armenteros is the youngest member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis; Rios is a long-time student of Ron Carter and a 2024 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award winner; Reddick and Rios have both done sideman work for Jon Batiste, Sullivan Fortner, and others. They won the DCJazzPrix in 2023. The pedigree is impeccable and earned rather than inherited.

“Pseudo Latin Vibe” is exactly the kind of track that explains why this group has found an audience well beyond the usual jazz circles: blues and swing at the root, Afro-Latino rhythmic energy in the execution, and an ensemble interplay that feels genuinely collective. They play like three musicians who know each other’s instincts completely. This is contemporary American jazz with its head and feet in exactly the right places. Find them at newjazzunderground.com.

All four tracks are on our New Jazz Releases Spotify playlist, updated every Friday with the best new music hitting the platforms. If you’re not following it yet, now is a good time to start — it’s the quickest way to stay across what’s worth hearing each week.

New Release Spotify Playlist

The Jazz In Europe New Release playlist features tracks from the new releases featured on Jazz In Europe. Updated weekly, this playlist is the perfect place to discover new music from the leading jazz musicians currently on the scene. We hope you enjoy this selection.