“How often do we step back and realize what a gift it is to have this music in our life?” asks acclaimed trumpeter, composer and Greenleaf Music founder Dave Douglas. On Gifts, his newest Greenleaf project, Douglas harnesses that feeling of simple wonder with a new book of pieces and four intriguing takes on Strayhorn songs, premiering a new quartet with poll-sweeping tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis and two members of the Oscar-nominated post-rock trio Son Lux: guitarist Rafiq Bhatia and drummer Ian Chang. The sound is harmonically spacious, with no bass, but a full, sonically adventurous guitar palette from Bhatia that frames the group’s trumpet-tenor melodic concept in fresh and unexpected ways.

This one was named #1 Jazz Recording of 2002 by the Los Angeles Times. It contains some of the most refined Barber compositions on record to date including the haunting "Clues", the sultry "I Could Eat Your Words" and the beautiful and poetic "If I Were Blue". A great band too including Dave Douglas on trumpet and Joey Baron on drums.

Hagiga is a group that takes the freedom to play what they feel like, making the fun and craftsmanship splash! - Music Frames (Netherlands). Beginning with Dave Douglas' contributions to John Zorn's "Masada," through his seminal albums of the '90s, Israeli saxophonist Alon Farber has been deeply inspired by the beauty & uniqueness of the trumpeter's expansive sonic output. Hoping to someday find the opportunity to cross musical paths, that day came in the summer of 2023 as Douglas joined Farber's accomplished group, Hagiga (meaning, appropriately, 'celebration'), at the Jerusalem Jazz Festival.

Patricia Barber's Modern Cool was the recording that made Barber an international jazz star. On the initial tour for this album, Barber played a four night stand at The Jazz Standard in New York where she was heard by Bruce Lundvall of Blue Note Records. This led to a string of Barber recordings for both Premonition and Blue Note, worldwide touring and unapologetic critical acclaim from which Barber never looked back. Audiophiles were well aware of Barber from her 1994 Premonition recording Café Blue. Sonically, modern cool copied the café blue playbook: same recording studio, engineer, and recording approach. Musically, Barber added trumpeter Dave Douglas to her stellar working band and showcased her original compositions more than on any previous recording.

Saxophonist Joe Lovano and trumpeter Dave Douglas' release "Live at Monterey Jazz Festival", the debut recording from their co-led quintet Sound Prints featuring pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Linda Oh and drummer Joey Baron. The album features the debut of two new compositions written for the band by the band's primary inspiration: Wayne Shorter.

Dark Territory is a collection of new music from the creative electronic-inspired ensemble High Risk. Following the success of the group’s eponymous release in 2015, this new album continues to explore the intersection of creative improvisation and modern electronic music production to create a unique sound that Pitchfork described as, “simultaneously chill and surprising, it’s the sound of a group discovering a valid language, and then proceeding to push the limits of that new aesthetic”.

"Present Joys" is a studio album by trumpeter Dave Douglas and pianist Uri Caine which was released in July 2014 on the Greenleaf Music label. The album follows Douglas' 2012 exploration of hymns, Be Still, by including four songs from the Sacred Harp songbook. Writing for The Guardian, John Fordham called it "a 2014 jazz highlight". PopMatters' Will Layman stated "Dave Douglas and Uri Caine are good enough to stand up to making “pretty” music, even traditional music. They pass the test and come out still surprising us".

Two-time GRAMMY nominated Dave Douglas continues his relentless musical exploration with a new record probing the possibilities of improvised jazz and electronic music. Featuring an exciting new band of noted players: Jonathan Maron (Groove Collective), on electric and acoustic bass; Mark Guiliana (Beat Music, Heernt) on electric and acoustic drums; and DJ, producer and beatmaker Shigeto (Ghostly International) on electronics. Recorded by five-time GRAMMY nominated Geoff Countryman (Dr. Luke, Patti LaBelle, Wu-Tang Clan, Randy Brecker, Gregory Porter, Fred Hersch) and mixed by Steve Wall (Semi Precious Weapons, Matisyahu, Meshell Ndegeocello) the album finds Douglas again walking a musical high wire. High stakes, high reward. High Risk!

Pianist and jazz restructuralist Misha Mengelberg has received much acclaim for everything from his solo performances to his leadership of the Dutch ICP Orchestra, but the small-ensemble recordings he began making in the U.S. during the '90s are perhaps the best places to begin investigating his wonderfully offbeat charms. Four in One, recorded in September 2000 and subsequently released in "Super Audio CD" format by the Songlines label, is an album with particularly wide-ranging appeal, satisfying for listeners with tastes ranging from the avant-garde to more traditional post-bop, and certainly anyone interested in the commonality between Mengelberg and one of his primary influences, Thelonious Monk.

Dave Douglas is a prolific trumpeter, composer and educator from New York City. This album is dedicated to his older brother, Damon, who died of cancer in June 2015; and among its 11 tracks are two of the most beautiful hymns in the book, "Deep River" and "A Balm in Gilead", both played with passion, grace, and horn harmonies reminiscent of "Abide with Me" on Monk's Music. "Brazen Heart" contains a familiar, but increasingly sophisticated mix of post-bop reveries, virtuosic dazzlers, and lilting ballads. And, as with most Douglas albums, the sound quality is superb.

"If There Are Mountains" is the first album by Dave Douglas and Elan Mehler as co-leaders, setting poetry and specifically haiku within the context of improvising music.

"Scandal" marks the first time that trumpeter Dave Douglas and saxophonist Joe Lovano have recorded a full studio album of material together, revealing a passionately adventurous band for whom no territory is off-limits. As on their live debut recording, Sound Prints features pianist Lawrence Fields, bassist Linda May Han Oh, and drummer Joey Baron. The super group heads off into swinging, heartfelt and sophisticated new territory inspired by saxophonist giant Wayne Shorter. Two of Shorter's pieces receive special treatment. A truly fantastic and original group playing new originals and music by Shorter.

Inspired by and dedicated to The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by Jan and Hubert van Eyck - a polyptych originally painted for display in St. Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium. Begun in the mid 1420s and completed by 1432.Secular Psalms took shape over a medieval-seeming time span. The first messages from Wim date to July 10, 2018, when we began to formulate a plan to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the Altarpiece with creation of new music. Research led to a few discoveries: elements of the polyptych were moved and/or stolen, then almost entirely recovered over the years. A restoration begun in 2012 discovered that the work had been mostly overpainted around 1550—removal of the overpaint revealed an almost entirely new contemporary vision of the piece.

The project began in discussions with Ryan Keberle about what more we could do to address the changes towards justice we both see as crucial to our country and our society. Racial justice. Climate justice. Voting justice. Gender justice. Scientific justice. And now the push for science to begin to push back the virus so we can all gather together again. We decided we could make music devoted to civic engagement and speaking out on these issues. And in an election year, we saw the band touring in swing states around the country. Without any touring, those plans changed. But I was determined to follow through on the creative vision for the project and began writing in earnest in April 2020.

When Dizzy Gillespie put his hat in the ring for President of the United States in 1964, he also offered to be the first African-American astronaut, just in case they couldn’t find anyone else. In making Dizzy Atmosphere, Dave Douglas’s tribute to the great trumpeter, composer and humanist, Douglas said he wanted to explore Dizzy’s experimental and wide open mind as well as the influence of his music.