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"This is music of brisk intelligence and an almost off-putting abundance of composure... with frictionless access to great chunks of classical postminimalism, atmospheric indie-rock and harmonically astute post-bop." -NY Times

Dave Douglas has been an important player in the jazz world for more than two decades, producing a broad body of work as both a trumpet player and a composer. His newest album, Be Still, has a bittersweet backstory: It contains his arrangements of several hymns that his dying mother asked him to perform at her funeral service.

There are lots of pleasant records where jazz bands meet string sections. This one's beautiful. For one, it's not just any ensemble, but one featuring some of the contemporary classical rock stars in eighth blackbird and jazz musicians who have collaborated over years. There are also vocals, from the singer Grazyna Auguscik...

Dave Douglas' Be Still (on the trumpeter's own Greenleaf Music label) is his most sheer-gorgeous album since the 1998 Charms of the Night Sky and one of the best-sounding new recordings that I've heard by anybody in quite a while. And it's available on LP as well as CD (more about which, later).

The saxophonist Donny McCaslin has been steadily adding to a body of work that is firmly establishing him as a powerful voice in modern creative music. As a in-demand sideman on such interesting recent efforts like Ryan Truesdale's Gil Evans Project Centennial , a valued member of trumpeter Dave Douglas's Quintet and Maria Schneider's Orchestra, or on his own recent impressive efforts as a leader on albums like Recommended Tools, Declaration and Perpetual Motion, watching McCaslin mature is like watching a seedling develop into a mighty oak. As with any artist who is pushing his boundaries, there are moments of brilliance and moments of disappointment, but for the most part McCaslin has consistently moved the bar higher and higher.