The collective trio of saxophonist and flutist Henry Threadgill, pianist Vijay Iyer, and drummer Dafnis Prieto have shared "Gently Trapped," a Prieto-penned tune from their upcoming album Fifteen, due August 21. You can watch the video, made during the recording session, here. Fifteen is the Nonesuch debut for all three musicians. 

Natalie Merchant’s Cabinet of Wonder—a digital collection of 17 songs and accompanying videos from her collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and Chicago Children’s Theatre (CCT)—is due August 21 on Nonesuch Records. Cabinet of Wonder reimagines Mother Goose and her rhymes for a new generation of young children through modern interpretations of the classic children’s canon and three originals by Merchant—performed by her, musicians from the CSO and special guests—in orchestral arrangements by Megan Gould. Two songs from the album, “Little Miss Muffet” and “Peter Pumpkin Eater,” along with their videos, are available today. Cabinet of Wonder represents three years of behind-the-scenes work among the project’s collaborators and the culmination of Merchant's four decades of involvement in children’s arts and education. 

Cécile McLorin Salvant’s album With Every Breath I Take, her first with orchestra, featuring The Netherlands’ Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley, is out now. Salvant and the ensemble perform timeless songs—by Coleman, Coward, Ellington, Sondheim, Strayhorn, and Salvant—newly arranged by composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue. “It is a rare opportunity to be able to make an album at this scale, which has been a dream of mine for many years,” she says. “Darcy James Argue wrote stunning arrangements and the Metropole Orkest, conducted by the extraordinary Jules Buckley, gave these stories a cinematic dimension ... I am so incredibly proud to share it."

Composer Dylan Mattingly's Nonesuch debut album, The Wild Heart, is out now. The album, performed by Contemporaneous with conductor David Bloom and vocal soloist Iarla Ó Lionáird, comprises the five-movement work The Transmutation Notebooks, as well as Sunt Lacrimae Rerum (these are the tears of things). (The vinyl edition features the latter piece and two movements from The Transmutation Notebooks: “Ulysses Dances” and “Last Dance.”) The two pieces sprang from Mattingly’s six-hour epic composition History of Life. Sunt Lacrimae Rerum (these are the tears of things) was written during the first year of the pandemic, while wildfires blazed in Mattingly’s native California. Composer John Adams says: “Dylan Mattingly is a true original whose music fills the listener with a sense of overflowing abundance ... He’s a genuine American Maverick in the true sense of the term.”

Rhiannon Giddens's album Hope is the Thing with Feathers was inspired by the beauty of people coming together and drawing strength from each other. It was intentionally recorded live with no frills and few overdubs, just pure and essential music that captures the feeling of community, clarity, as well as the joy and power of creating together. From exploring the lineages that make American music to the community-oriented spirit in which it was conceived and recorded, in many ways the album tells the story of the past 20 years of Giddens’ life. The vinyl edition is made from 100% recycled vinyl and is carbon neutral.

Grammy-winning composer Donnacha Dennehy’s Limina is due August 28. The album features premiere recordings of two pieces: the piano concerto Limina and Violin Concerto, performed by National Symphony Orchestra Ireland, conductor Ryan McAdams, pianist Eliza McCarthy, and violinist Stephen Waarts; it was recorded at the National Concert Hall, Dublin. The first movement from Limina, “Head,” is available today.

Fifteen, the first album from the collective trio of saxophonist and flutist Henry Threadgill, pianist Vijay Iyer, and drummer Dafnis Prieto, is due August 21 on Nonesuch Records; it is also the label debut for all three musicians. The record takes its name from the number of years the trio has been performing together—first at a series of benefits for NYC's The Jazz Gallery, and then around the US and internationally. It comprises three compositions by Threadgill and Iyer and two by Prieto. The album track “I Wanted a Map,” written by Iyer, is available today, along with a video made during the recording session. Threadgill, Iyer, and Prieto return to the Jazz Gallery for two nights this weekend.

Trumpeter/composer Ambrose Akinmusire and guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson's album Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings is out now. It features four new compositions by each musician plus one collaboration. The duo, long admirers of each other’s musicianship, began playing together periodically back in 2009. They rehearsed the music on Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings in January 2025, just before performing it at the NYC club The Stone; they recorded the album the next day at Sear Sound. “I think it’s partly a shared aesthetic and an ease of communication. I feel comfortable to try whatever,” Halvorson says. Akinmusire concurs, “I think it’s rare to find an improviser that all goes and nothing has to go at all. It’s rare to feel like you don’t have to do anything and you can do anything. And that’s what I love about playing with Mary.”

Guitarist/bandleader Jeff Parker and his long-running ETA IVtet's Happy Today, recorded live at Lodge Room in Los Angeles on August 20, 2025, is out now. It's the sound of Parker and the rest of the IVtet—drummer Jay Bellerose, bassist Anna Butterss, and saxophonist Josh Johnson—adapting their form-bending, minimalist, improvisatory approach to a larger space than their previous home-base, the now-shuttered micro-club ETA, without sacrificing their hypnotic power. The album comprises two sprawling, LP side–length improvisatory pieces, recorded and mixed live by engineer Bryce Gonzales on a custom-made tape rig, capturing a moment of brightness in dark times.

Laurie Anderson with Sexmob's Let X=X is out now. This triple-LP / double-CD set was recorded live during a 2023 tour by Anderson and the jazz band Sexmob—Steven Bernstein on brass, Kenny Wollesen on drums and percussion, Douglas Wieselman on winds and guitar, Briggan Krauss on saxophone and guitar, and Tony Scherr on bass. The album features 23 songs, including many favorites from throughout Anderson’s career, performed in new arrangements—plus one by Lou Reed and Metallica, “Junior Dad.” Their performance of "O Superman," from Anderson’s landmark 1982 album, Big Science, at the Ravenna Festival in 2023, can be seen here. Anderson and Sexmob play more US and international dates this spring and summer.

Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Live Forever is now available on CD and double LP, following its recent digital release. It was captured live over the course of two sold-out summer nights at the Old Town School of Folk Music in bandleader Alynda Segarra’s new home of Chicago. Spanning 14 songs, Live Forever presents their acclaimed 2024 album The Past Is Still Alive in its entirety, as well as a selection of set-defining staples, like “Pa’lante,” “Pyramid Scheme,” and LIFE ON EARTH’s “Precious Cargo” and “Rhododendron.”

Cécile McLorin Salvant’s album With Every Breath I Take, her first with orchestra, featuring The Netherlands’ Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley, is due June 26. Salvant and the ensemble perform timeless songs—by Cy Coleman, Noël Coward, Duke Ellington, Stephen Sondheim, Billy Strayhorn, and Salvant—newly arranged by composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue. “It is a rare opportunity to be able to make an album at this scale, which has been a dream of mine for many years,” she says. “Darcy James Argue wrote stunning arrangements and the Metropole Orkest, conducted by the extraordinary Jules Buckley, gave these stories a cinematic dimension ... I am so incredibly proud to share it."