Here are the three new Criss Cross Jazz releases for May 2015, which will be available around May 12. All details, including sound samples, can be found on the website:

          https://www.crisscrossjazz.com/

CRISS 1379 CD  ADAM ROGERS - DAVID BINNEY - R & B - From his many Criss Cross dates as a leader to his extraordinary sideman work with Chris Potter, the late Michael Brecker and many more, Adam Rogers continues to blaze a path as one of jazz's most compelling guitarists. His longtime associate David Binney, alto saxophone great and an influential composer and producer, has also distinguished himself with numerous innovative sessions for Criss Cross and others. On R & B, Rogers and Binney unite to co-lead a lean and hard-swinging quartet with bassist Reuben Rogers (no relation) and drummer Gerald Cleaver. In a departure from their usual focus on original material, Rogers and Binney aim straight for bebop, ballads and classics by Thelonious Monk, Freddie Hubbard and Wayne Shorter, among others. The feel is rock-solid, the improvisations bracing. It's a fresh, unexpected take on the jazz tradition, viewed through a modern prism. https://www.crisscrossjazz.com/album/1379.html

CRISS 1380 CD  ZACH BROCK - SERENDIPITY - Violin virtuoso Zach Brock's third session is, like its predecessors, Almost Never Was (Criss 1349) and Purple Sounds (Criss 1366), a tour de force of modern swing expression. Joined by New York A-listers Aaron Goldberg (piano), Matt Penman (bass) and Obed Calvaire (drums), Brock addresses a stylistically varied program, showcasing his command of a broad timeline of violin styles that he refracts into his own individualistic argot. The repertoire includes Jean-Luc Ponty (Sunday Walk), Charlie Parker (Segment), the American Songbook (the Leonard Bernstein  ballad Some Other Time), and several substantial originals. "The music world surely does not lack for jazz fiddlers who mistake schmaltz for expression, melodic ornamentation for real improvisation and ostentatious display for commanding technique. But Brock, a former Chicagoan who lives in New York, represents the polar opposite of all this, and always has" -- Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune, 2013 https://www.crisscrossjazz.com/album/1380.html

CRISS 1381 CD  THE RODRIGUEZ BROTHERS - IMPROMPTU - A working unit since 2002, The Rodriguez Brothers -- trumpeter Michael Rodriguez (Reverence - Criss 1356) and pianist Robert Rodriguez -- present their kinetic, masterfully rendered concept of "Jazz Latin," incorporating traditional and modern Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, bolero and hardcore jazz flavors. The brothers, each in their mid-thirties, are virtuoso storytellers on their respective instruments, as are their generational peer group bandmates Carlos Henriquez (the bassist with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra since the early '00s after several years with Gonzalo Rubalcaba), Cuban traps drummer Ludwig Afonso, and the eminent Columbian-born percussionist Samuel Torres. https://www.crisscrossjazz.com/album/1381.html