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Dave Douglas and Donny McCaslin each say down with Grammy.com for an interview after the Detroit Jazz Festival earlier this summer. Each are celebrating new albums this month: Dave's "Be Still" is available now (at Greenleaf and iTunes, and Donny's "Casting For Gravity"hits October 2nd (preorder at Greenleaf and iTunes)

Where Donny's previous album Perpetual Motion was a blistering electro-acoustic hybrid, Casting for Gravity soars past fusion into alchemy, forging a visionary voice from eclectic influences.

The in-studio video of track 1 from Dave Douglas' album Be Still featuring Aoife O'Donovan of Crooked Still, Jon Irabagon, Matt Mitchell, Linda Oh, and Rudy Royston.

The music on Be Still is very personal for me, consisting of hymns and songs requested by my mom for her service last year. It was a heart opening experience to get into these pieces, and even more to have such a great musician in Aoife to sing them. I hope the warmth and commitment of all the musicians on this date will be apparent when you hear the music. The first 100 orders of Be Still in one of these preorder packages will receive a set of photographs related to the album and a free copy of Mountain Passages, the first of my releases on Greenleaf Music, from 2004. I chose Mountain Passages to include with the first 100 orders of Be Still because it had a similar personal meaning for me, eulogizing my father in 2003.

Others will no doubt express themselves in writing about the late, great tenor saxophonist Von Freeman better than I ever could but I'm not sure the written word is necessary anyway. Here is seven minutes of tenor saxophone mastery that's all you really need in order to know the man and what mattered to him.

Matt Ulery celebrates his latest album "By A Little Light" at Chicago's famous Green Mill on June 29th & 30th with members of eighth blackbird, vocalist Grazyna Auguscik, and many more.

Video of Figmentum I performed by Curtis Macdonald Group 1/23/12 at The Breeding Ground, NYC.

Watch this video EPK introducing you to Linda Oh's second album, Initial Here, available May 22nd, 2012 on Greenleaf Music.

Congratulations to Bill Morrison for taking the Experimental Film category at the recent LA Critics awards with Spark of Being.

In the hunt for Paul Motian videos I came across this great interview and performance with Bill Evans from 1970. Keen insights.

Yesterday we saw our friends Kneebody post some concert footage from a recent show at the Blue Whale in LA. We shared on Dave's Facebook, but just in case you aren't connected over there, you can watch the performance via the Youtube playlist below. Enjoy this great music.