The Distance represents a grand creative leap for bassist-composer Michael Formanek, following two widely lauded ECM releases featuring his quartet with Tim Berne, Craig Taborn and Gerald Cleaver. The new album showcases his texturally rich compositions for the dynamic 18-piece big band he has playfully dubbed Ensemble Kolossus. The project saw some of the most distinctive musicians on the New York scene bonding to realize Formaneks epic design, as he re-imagined what a big-band can be. Channeling sounds from the classic to the modern, he also composed for individual soloists in the Ellingtonian tradition.

Trumpeter Ralph Alessis ECM leader debut 2013s "Baida" was the album where everything came together for him, according to Nate Chinen in a JazzTimes profile. Without abandoning his yen for oppositional energies, its a beautifully coherent statement, not just his most accomplished album but a contender for one of the years best. With Quiver, Alessi teams with pianist Gary Versace and the trumpeters longtime rhythm section of choice bassist Drew Gress and drummer Nasheet Waits to create a follow-up of quicksilver melodicism and subtly energized rhythm; there is a lyricism to Alessis playing that channels such forebears as Miles Davis and Kenny Wheeler, the mood reflective, even pensive. As DownBeat says, "Alessi works between the notes, his thoughtful, conversational solos as meditative as a calligraphers art, each line free-flowing and declarative but with immaculate shape and beauty".

Trumpeter Ralph Alessi makes his ECM debut as a bandleader with "Baida", an album of atmospheric depth and melodic allure. To bring his compositions to life, Alessi assembled a powerhouse New York group consisting of pianist Jason Moran, bassist Drew Gress and drummer Nasheet Waits; the sessions were produced by multiple Grammy nominee and winner Manfred Eicher. As a vessel for the music's seemingly bottomless lyricism, Alessi's quartet plays with extraordinary finesse; however there is also a tensile strength emanating from the performances.

Keyboardist James Carney's dream group features a four-horn frontline: two saxes, a trumpet and a trombone. The music he’s given his starry band of improvisers to interpret on 2007's Green-Wood is beautifully crafted and intensely grooving in various feels, from second line and funk to 6/4 and complex time signatures. Inspired by the whole tradition, Carney’s aesthetic unites the jazz mainstream and avant-garde, blending musical derring-do with a post-bop-meets-chamber-music-and-rock lyricism. His band delivers with individuality and relish, while the high resolution recording makes the most of earcatching voicings, timbres and textures. It’s obvious both from his words and his music that Carney’s enthusiasm and energy is tempered by great thoughtfulness and reverence for the art form.

With Untucked in Hannover, Tom Rainey's top-notch quintet Obbligato presents a third album of a collection of jazz standards – with Jacob Sacks on piano replacing regular pianist Kris Davis for this live recording. Wonderful jazz tunes like Stella by Starlight or I Fall in Love Too Easily are interpreted in an open dialogue with stunning joy of playing and improvisation.