MARC RIBOT SOLO
Enigmatic guitarist Marc Ribot has released 6 very diverse solo guitar albums: (including John Zorn’s Book of Heads, Plays the Works of Frantz Casseus, Saints, Don’t Blame Me, Exercises in Futility) and 2010's, Silent Movies (Pi Recordings) has been described as a "down-in-mouth-near master piece" by the Village Voice and has landed on several Best of 2010 lists including the LA Times and critical praise across the board. Most recently in 2025, the long awaited Map of a Blue City (New West), a collection of songs 30 years in the making featuring Ribot’s imaginative playing and leads to what may be his definitive statement as an instrumentalist, as a songwriter, and even as a singer, was named amongst BBC 6Music’s Albums of the Year.
Ribot’s live solo performances are unpredictable events which may draw on all of these or none, creating a sonic matrix of memory, free improvisation, zeitgeist, extra-terrestrial radio signals, and much more...always leaving the listener on the edge of their seats.
“Marc Ribot's singular approach to guitar compresses swathes of Americana into a full spectrum of jazz and stirs in a hefty dash of punk attitude.” - Financial Times
"Ribot needs no introduction. But nothing prepares us for Map of a Blue City... Beyond jazz, steeped in humanity... an album of the year." **** - Jazzwise Magazine
“In the hear-a-pin-drop setting of Cafe Oto, Ribot's intense, heartfelt commitment invited not only the closest of listening but also allowed scrutiny of his technical approach, offering a minor spectacle as well as a rare, transportative musical experience.” – London Jazz News
"...he can sit down with just his guitar and simultaneously confound you with technique, beauty, and surprise." - John Garratt and Will Layman, PopMatters Picks: The Best Music of 2010 for the album "Silent Movies."
"In discussing the guitarist Marc Ribot, it's more efficient to wonder what he hasn't done then to list what he has actually accomplished. Across four decades, Ribot's career has spanned smooth soul and gnarled blues, blaring no wave and elegant film scores, solo composer roles and Tom Waits supporting work; that's only a sliver of his prolificacy...Though his solo range is only slightly less boundless than his overall discography, he favors quiet, intricate improvisations around standards that you will recognize in flashes but will rarely sound repetitive of their sources. Ribot is a master of timing, tone, and taste, with a bank of experiences so vast and varied he can navigate his way through any song or situation with panache. Consider this visit a master lesson." —Grayson Haver Currin
MARY HALVORSON: CANIS MAJOR
Mary Halvorson (guitar), Dave Adewumi (trumpet), Henry Fraser (bass), Tomas Fujiwara (drums)
Mary Halvorson is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer and recording artist for Nonesuch Records. Her distinctive sound and innovative approach to her instrument have earned her widespread recognition over the past two decades, including numerous best-of-the-year lists, a 2019 MacArthur Foundation fellowship and Guitarist of the Year honors in the DownBeat Critics Poll for the past nine years. When not leading her own award-winning bands, she can be heard in a wide variety of creative partnerships and on more than 75 releases as a co-leader or sidewoman.
Her most recent recording, About Ghosts, was selected as the best new jazz album of 2025 by NPR Music, Slate and the voters in both the 20th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll and the 18th International Critics Poll, which also named her Composer and Guitarist of the Year. "Mary Halvorson refuses to be defined, let alone confined," wrote A.D. Amarosi in his review for DownBeat. "If Halvorson is the future of jazz," added Chris Ingalls in PopMatters, "we are in tremendously gifted hands."
This year she'll be focusing on her newest group, Canis Major, featuring Dave Adewumi (trumpet), Henry Fraser (bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums). After playing a handful of select dates around New York over the past several months, the quartet will be touring for the first time across the U.S. and in Europe beginning in the Spring. "Canis Major feels like the start of something very special," she explains. "The music has been growing exponentially each time we play. It's been many years since I've led a smaller band, and I've really been enjoying the depth, interplay and intensity that this configuration brings to my music.” maryhalvorson.com
NICOLE MITCHELL
Nicole Mitchell Gantt is an award-winning creative flutist, composer, conceptualist, bandleader and educator. A United States Artist (2020), a Doris Duke Artist (2012), and a recipient of the Herb Alpert Award (2011) her research centers on the powerful legacy of contemporary African American culture and black experimental art. For over 20 years, Mitchell’s critically acclaimed Chicago-based Black Earth Ensemble (BEE) has been her primary compositional laboratory with which she has performed at festivals and art venues throughout Europe, Canada, and the US. The former first woman president of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Mitchell composes for contemporary ensembles of varied instrumentation and size (from solo to orchestra and large jazz band) while incorporating improvisation and a wide aesthetic expression. She is perhaps best known for her work as a flutist, having developed a unique improvisational language and having been repeatedly awarded “Top Flutist of the Year” by Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalists Association (2010-2022). Mitchell initially emerged from Chicago’s innovative music scene in the late 90s, having started as a co-founder of the all-woman group Samana, and a member of the David Boykin Expanse. Much of Mitchell’s creative process has been informed by literature and narrative, with a special interest in science fiction. Her album, Mandorla Awakening (FPE, 2017), combines Afrofuturism with intercultural collaboration and was selected by the New York Times as the #1 jazz album of 2017. As a composer, she has been commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Music NOW, French Ministry of Culture, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Newport Jazz Festival, the Art Institute of Chicago, the French American Jazz Exchange, Chamber Music America, the Chicago Jazz Festival, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), and Bang on a Can. Mitchell has performed with creative music luminaries including Craig Taborn, Terri Lyne Carrington, Roscoe Mitchell, Joelle Leandre, Geri Allen, Mark Dresser, Anthony Davis, Myra Melford, Ed Wilkerson, Rob Mazurek, and Hamid Drake.
LAURA ANN SINGH FRACAS QUINTET
Laura Ann Singh (voice), Scott Clark (drums), Adam Hopkins (bass), John Lilley (reeds), Bob Miller (trumpet)
“Referencing avant garde pioneer Ornette Coleman’s free form improvisations as much as Joni Mitchell’s emotive lyricism, the result is a rowdy debut that launches Singh as one of the more distinctive new voices in jazz.” —The Guardian
Laura Ann Singh is a multilingual American singer, composer, and recording artist, known for her vibrant interpretations of Brazilian popular music, Latin boleros, and beyond. A founding member of the internationally acclaimed ensemble Miramar, she has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Center, and on NPR’s Tiny Desk and All Songs Considered. With Miramar, Singh has toured internationally, from Russia to France, and released music on Daptone, Barbès, and Ansonia Records (Entre Tus Flores, 2025). Her projects span genres and continents: the Brazilian-focused projects Quatro na Bossa, Os Magrelos, and the Doug Richards Orchestra, a recent collaboration (Crumb of Me, 2025) with Rosette String Quartet, and experimental ventures with Out of Your Head Records — including the debut of her Fracas Quintet in October 2025 and a featured role on drummer-composer Scott Clark’s Dawn and Dusk in 2023. In 2024, she appeared alongside cellist Tomeka Reid at the Kennedy Center as a featured vocalist in Reid’s suite celebrating Ellington. Singh’s repertoire weaves together Latin American classics, the American Songbook, women composers, and original works, reflecting her love of cross-cultural collaboration and intimate connection with audiences. Singh moves easily between worlds, bending genres into something unmistakably her own. lauraannsingh.com