New Release Friday, This weeks playlist updates.

Four records this week span cosmic jazz, jazz-funk homage, and two albums I flagged last time round that are still very much worth your attention. Here’s what’s landed.

Mama Terra – The whale Dives Deep

Mama Terra, the Scottish spiritual jazz group led by pianist Marco Cafolla and saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski, has released its second studio album, Inner Space, on Acid Jazz Records. The record builds on the “melody and pocket” sound that carried their debut into the charts, adding cinematic string arrangements from the Ayoub Sisters and spoken-word narration from longtime Miles Davis collaborator Conrad Roberts. It’s a fuller, more atmospheric record than the first, and one that pushes the band’s cosmic jazz roots further into neo-soul territory without losing the groove at the centre of it. Details and streaming links are up on the band’s page via Acid Jazz Records.

Seamus Blake – Mean Greens

Seamus Blake, winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition and one of the more versatile tenor players working today, steps away from his usual post-bop ground on this new release for Cellar Music Group. The record is a homage to Eddie Harris, built on vintage soul-jazz grooves run through a modern fusion lens. Blake’s rhythm section is stacked — Sam Yahel on keys, Tim Lefebvre on electric bass, Corey Fonville on drums — with Dawn Pemberton adding vocals. Blake himself works an EWI and vocoder effects alongside his tenor, matching Harris’s restless, genre-crossing spirit rather than simply covering him. Out now via Cellar Music Group.

Pursuance – Nicholas Payton & Butcher Brown

I’ll admit I did a double take when this one showed up. Nicholas Payton and Butcher Brown reimagining Kind of Blue and A Love Supreme as a single nine-track project sounds, on paper, like the kind of idea that either becomes a career highlight or a cautionary tale. Having sat with “Pursuance” a few times now, I’m firmly in the first camp.

The album, A Supreme Blue, arrives digitally on 24 July via Concord Jazz, with vinyl following on 14 August — timed to the centennial birth years of both Davis and Coltrane. The story behind it is one of those happy accidents the genre thrives on: Payton sat in with Butcher Brown at a live show, quoted the opening theme of “Acknowledgement” over the band’s house-inflected groove, and by the end of the night had texted drummer Corey Fonville, “Yo man, we gotta do a record.”

“Pursuance” itself, the third movement of Coltrane’s original suite, is built from a bass figure by Andrew Randazzo that the whole band locked into on the spot, with Payton arranging on the fly and calling for tape. There are no keyboards on the track, which gives it a darker, more exposed quality than you might expect, with Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney’s tenor carrying much of the weight. Engineer Alex de Jong’s dub-inflected treatments, applied live during tracking rather than added afterward, shape the record’s identity as much as the playing does. Liner notes come from Ashley Kahn, who wrote the definitive books on both source albums — a fitting hand to have on this one. A full review of the album is in the works once A Supreme Blue is out in the world — this is a project I want to give proper space.

Coming Home – Hristijan Risteski

Macedonian-born, Graz-based saxophonist and clarinetist Hristijan Risteski released the first single from his debut album today, and it’s a lovely, unhurried introduction. “Coming Home” is the opening window into Waters Dance, due in October on CD, LP and streaming, and it tells you a good deal about where the record is headed — rooted, personal, built on a repeating four-chord sequence with a diatonic, folk-like melody.

What struck me most is the rhythmic language: Risteski weaves Macedonian 7/8 and 11/8 meters into and out of each other with a fluency that never announces itself as technique. His quartet — pianist Marko Churnchetz, bassist Hrvoje Kralj and drummer Chris Smith — is a working band in the truest sense, having played nine or ten months of live dates before entering ArteSuono Studio in Italy with Stefano Amerio. Notably, the charts only reached the musicians ten days before recording, so a fair amount of what’s on tape was genuinely new to the band. That balance of deep trust and fresh material gives “Coming Home” its warmth. I’ll be reviewing the full album when it lands in October.

New Release Spotify Playlist

The Jazz In Europe New Release playlist features tracks from the new releases reviewed on Jazz In Europe. Updated weekly, it is the best place to discover music selected by our editors — not algorithms. Follow the playlist to keep up with the kind of records we believe deserve attention and to stay ahead of the curve.