About

Gary Bartz and new London ensemble Your Brother‘s Keeper collaborate on Where Rivers Meet, a deeply intuitive new studio album capturing a rare meeting between generations of jazz musicians. Released on June 19, 2026 via Brownswood Recordings, as the label celebrates its 20th anniversary, the record brings together Bartz’s jazz lineage and a new collective emerging from London’s vibrant jazz scene. The result is music that unfolds with openness and intensity, guided by deep listening and collective improvisation.

At the centre of the project is Bartz, one of the most influential voices in modern jazz. A saxophonist whose career spans more than five decades, Bartz emerged performing with Charles Mingus, Max Roach and Art Blakey before joining Miles Davis during the trumpeter’s electrifying early-1970s period. He soon became a defining figure of the spiritual jazz movement through his celebrated NTU Troop recordings, creating a body of work that continues to resonate across generations of musicians and listeners alike. His playing - lyrical, searching and unmistakably soulful - remains one of the most distinctive voices in jazz.

The album also marks the arrival of Your Brother‘s Keeper, a new collective assembled by drummer and producer Jake Long (Maisha) and rooted and shared in musical dialogue and improvisation. Featuring Ali MacSween (piano, synthesizers and modular FX), Axel Kaner-Lidstrom (trumpet), Twm Dylan (double bass), Tim Doyle (percussion) and Chelsea Carmichael (tenor saxophone), alongside Long on drums, the group reflects a scene that has reshaped the sound of contemporary jazz over the past decade. — (via Label)

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In 2019, Gilles Peterson asked London-based jazz drummer/producer Jake Long to assemble a band to back American saxophonist Gary Bartz at the first We Out Here Festival. He chose Maisha, his forward-thinking electric jazz and improv group. Following the wildly successful show, the parties booked a recording studio to deliver the raw, darkly vibrant Night Dreamer Direct-To-Disc Sessions. Long's 2020s project is Your Brother's Keeper. It consists of himself on drums with Maisha veterans Ali MacSween on piano, electronics, and modular EFX, trumpeter Axel Kaner-Lidstrom, double bassist Twm Dylan, percussionist Tim Doyle and top-flight saxophonist Chelsea Carmichael. While collective interplay and improvisation are central tenets in this record's purpose, it's not an exercise in a young band "jamming" with a famed soloist, but an exploratory, intensely focused, 21st century jazz encounter.

The set opens with first single "Cauldron" offering Bartz's subtly live processed alto via unintrusive modular synths. MacSween creates droning, breathing chord voicings in support. The saxophonist's solo is exploratory, melding space and groove, as drums, percussion, and bass cook from underneath. They become more aggressive as Kaner-Lidstrom solos then joins Bartz and Carmichael's vamp to carry it home. "Mantra" is a tender, spiritual exercise that closes the seven-track album. MacSween's piano and atmospheric electronics alongside Long's kit, horns, and Dylan's lyrical bass vamp, create a soft modal frame for Bartz. He follows inside the changes and draws them out into gorgeous, open harmonic conversation with intensely melodic, deeply soulful articulation in a lengthy solo. The horn section becomes a gospel chorus as they soar around him, amid sweeping electronics in the backdrop, and Kaner-Lidstrom and Carmichael improvise over the lithe vamp. It's transcendent.

Where Rivers Meet is a stunning creative collaboration. The octogenarian Bartz and generations-younger Your Brother's Keeper carve out a space that asserts collaborative creation in a nearly limitless musical dialogue that will edify and delight listeners. — (via AllMusic)

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Label: Brownswood Recordings
Format: Vinyl, LP
Released: 2026
Genre: Jazz
Style: Fusion

File under: Modern / Future Jazz
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