Charles Tolliver Releases New Album 'Connect' This Month

New York-based trumpeter, composer and educator Charles Tolliver presents Connect, his first studio album in 13 years.

There's no title track on the new album from Charles Tolliver, but the name -Connect - isn't some ethereal abstraction: it's an invitation. Release date: July 31st.

"I wanted the music to connect in these times," explains the trumpeter-composer, a 50-plus-year music veteran and the co-founder of the legendary 1970's jazz label Strata-East Records. "I'm asking the listener to get it: to get what I'm doing, where this or that song is going, and what's meant here or there, and how the soloists handle it. Those are connections to be made within each song, and then they can also connect them to each other."

Of course, that's what any musician asks of their audience. Tolliver, however, has more up his sleeve than that. There are four songs on Connect (Gearbox Records), recorded in London last November with an all-star quintet (alto saxophonist Jesse Davis, pianist Keith Brown, bassist Buster Williams, and drummer Lenny White). Tolliver carefully selected them for a panorama that documents jazz's evolution during the time he's been a part of it.