Guitarist Jeff Parker is best known for his work with Chicago post-rock gawds Tortoise. But anyone who has followed his career knows that he has a long history of sharing the spotlight with heavy hitters like Joshua Redman, Meshell Ndegeocello, and more while continuing to occupy the more experimental corners of the jazz world with the likes of Makaya McCraven and the new Chicago jazz scene. Suite for Max Brown, a forged-from-joy mixtape from outer-space, expands the lexicon of modern jazz even when it lets off the gas to pay tribute to Parker’s roots, and isn’t just a high-point in Parker’s discography, but maybe a new bar for jazz as we know it today. Wes Covey joins us to discuss this unimpeachable masterpiece and why the future of jazz in 2020 looks brighter than ever.

PLUS! Washington, D.C.’s Light Beams are here to save the universe with Self Help, their debut full length and we’re spinning it’s first single “Sacred Scales” to make sure you see the light.

To call Chicago’s Makaya McCraven, just a drummer would be doing the multi-talented musical truth seeker a grave disservice. Over the past few years, McCraven has been refining a production technique that mixes live jam sessions and impromptu performances with radically creative editing to produce some of the most exciting jazz of the modern day. On Universal Beings, an album recorded in four different locations with four distinct groups of musicians at each, McCraven seems to have perfected this technique, and the result is one of the best albums of 2018. Meditative, complex, smooth, and even funky, Universal Beings points to blindingly bright future for not just McCraven, but jazz as a whole.

PLUS! Saxaphonist, vocalist, and DMV native Braxton Cook is back with a new album No Doubt, and we’ve got a listen to it’s title track to help you get hip to this remarkable talent!