Our TOP Picks For Your Favorite Listens of July 2026

Boards of Canada return

0:00I'm Adam Maness. I'm Caleb Kirby. Welcome to another edition of Freshman Friday. It's the show where we review the new releases from the previous month. This month's previous releases are the month of June, 2026. A reminder, this show is brought to you by OpenStudio. Go to OpenStudioJazz.com for all your jazz lesson needs.

0:34That's OpenStudioJazz.com for all your jazz lesson needs. Oh, yes. Caleb, we're starting off with not even a jazz-adjacent album. This is Boards of Canada's new album, highly anticipated new album, Inferno. Yes, 10 years. 10 years since Boards of Canada's last album. And while they're not exactly a jazz group, they are beloved by most jazz musicians I know, and musicians in general. For sure. It's kind of like a personality trait to like Boards of Canada. If you're a jazz musician, same thing with Square Pusher, Aphex 20, any of that kind of stuff, I feel like is inspirational.

1:09Yeah, let's check out the track that we have lined up here. This is the second track on the album. This is called Prophecy at 1420 MHz. All right. And we're dropping in right in the middle here. Check this out. All right.

1:48Yeah, I mean, one of the things that I love about Boards of Canada is they're always playing with textures. They're always playing with form. You know what I mean? They're truly capturing something unique with every single album, and Inferno's no different, man. This really has lived up to the hype.

2:20You know, honestly, I was thinking that this album is a lot more cinematic than the last ones, you know? Like, I don't, I love Boards of Canada, but the last few albums have been like a lot of like analog textures, a lot of like, you know, you can almost hear machines. But this one, it feels like, yeah, I'm like watching a movie. Yeah, and a great listen front to back. Like, so listen to the whole album from the start to the beginning. It's an incredible experience. Yeah. Next up, we've got a new release from Cecile McLauren-Sullivan, one of our favorites around here at Freshpin Friday and Open Studio. And this is Cecile teaming up with the Metropole Orchestre, the incredible chamber pop orchestra.

2:55And this was recorded in the Netherlands. It features Jules Buckley conducting the Metropole Orchestre, Sullivan Fortner on the piano, David Wong on the bass, and Kush Abadie on the drums. And it's called With Every Breath I Take. And we're going to listen to the title track, With Every Breath I Take. Here we go. Also, right now we're showing you the official music video, and it's shot so beautifully. Yeah, it's just an accoutrement to an already amazing album.

3:29There's not a morning that I open up my eyes And find I didn't dream of you Without a warning Though it's never a surprise

4:03Soon as I awake Thoughts of you arise With every breath I take Sullivan Fortner on the piano, David Wong on the bass, Kush Abadie on the drums. You know, the Metropole Orchestre is one of the most innovative and collaborative pops orchestras on the planet. Always working with interesting people. So glad to see Cecile with them again.

4:37Absolutely. You've got to check that out this month. That's incredible. Haunting.

SML live at Zebulon

4:41Up next is SML, one of my favorite new groups of the last couple of years. And this album is incredible because it's actually just a live take at the Zebulon in L.A. So we're going to watch the video from when they recorded this, but you can get the track now. It's two tracks, A-side and B-side. They're both all improvised music, and it's really cool. This is brought to you by International Anthem Records, based out of Chicago. You can get the track with the Zebulon in L.A.

5:25It's like an album that just kind of gets you going it's sml the album's spontaneous music live you must check it out it's pretty incredible

6:21the sml is uh anna buttress on the bass jeremiah chu on the modular synthesizers and electronics josh johnson on saxophone and electronics booker stardrum on drums percussion and gregory ulman on guitar yeah incredible stuff and they all have their own projects so please dive in on that it's really cool next up we've got new music from the incredible lakeisha benjamin this is so great to see it's been wonderful to watch lakeisha's star rise and keep rising over the last several years uh i've known her since college we went to school together at the new

6:54school and she was a few famous people in her time she was killing all the way back then and she's killing now this new album's called would dream we dream and it features an amazing cast of musicians oscar perez on the piano uh mickey hayama on the piano elias bailey on the bass jonathan barber on the drums terence blanchard on the trumpet sean jones on the trumpet and flugelhorn uh chief zion atunde ajua on the trumpet chris potter on the saxophone jeff tain watts haromi bilal tank ball

7:27casa overall uh it's just dang maybe next time they can get some heavy hitters i know it's insane it's insane so this is uh lakeisha benjamin we dream this track actually has two modes so let's listen to it as it switches over familiar sounding bass line so

8:00so guitar solo

8:40It's not over It's so good, man It's so good, so good You gotta check out where that goes

9:12It's just incredible Next up is a new project With some heavy hitters Sam Barsh, Mark Giuliana And St. Louis' own Keon Harold This is a really cool album When I discovered it I was like, okay This is right up my alley This is also right up Mark Giuliana's alley If you ever checked out his music Beat music This falls right in line With everything he's made there This record was produced by La Reserve Records So you gotta check out everything they do But let's get right into it This is Fergament Park

9:44Love this cover too Mmm Thank you.

10:27Yeah, Mark Juliano almost sounds like a percussion ensemble or something. So groovy, man. And then Keon Harrell, just a fountain of language, of melody, always, always sounded great. That's amazing, man. Yeah. June is hitting pretty hard, I have to say. June is hitting pretty hard.

Emmett Cohen trio

10:46Next up, we've got a new album from the incredible Emmett Cohen. It's called Universal Truth. It features Emmett's rhythm section that he's been playing with the last couple of years, Joe Farnsworth on the drums, and Yasushi Nakamura on the bass. It also features some incredible guest artists, including Jeremy Pelt on the trumpet, Tavon Pinacott on the tenor saxophone, the one and only Ron Carter on the bass on a couple of tracks, and George Coleman, the legendary George Coleman, on the tenor saxophone on a couple of tracks.

11:16So we're going to listen to the track, Budo. This feature is just the trio with Joe Farnsworth and Yasushi. I love Joe, man. I love Joe, man.

11:44Woo!

11:52Man. Man.

12:22Yeah, yeah, yeah.

12:26Oh, so good. Yeah, what a trio. I mean, you can tell, you can hear that they play together all the time. You know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. You can hear the tightness, the fact that they've been a unit for a while. Just those little time fluctuations, like, you know, they're exaggerating everything, and that's just something that you get through chemistry. It's like, it's incredible. Next is Fred Hirsch and Mick Goodrick, and I actually pulled up a clip here that's going to explain this album a little bit better than I could, so let's check out what Fred has to say.

12:57In the 1980s, I was teaching in Boston at New England Conservatory and played some pickup gigs in various bands that Mick Goodrick was in. And I always loved playing with him, and I always loved playing with him, and I had a little studio here in New York in this very room with this piano, and I invited him down to do a dual album. We spent an afternoon, and we recorded on the very first digital two-track machine, live mix, just played some things we liked and improvised.

13:35I really liked it, but nothing really happened with it. And then Mick passed away, and his executor, David Lee, got in touch with me, and he said, you know, Mick always liked that album. Could you listen to it again? And so I listened to it, and I said, wow, this is really nice. And I made a quick sequence of about 40 minutes of music, and I got back to David. I said, yeah, I like it, but I need to check with Manfred Eicher at ECM, make sure that he's cool with me releasing it. I sent it to him, and Manfred said, oh, this is great.

14:09We want to put it out. Mick is one of my favorite guitarists.

14:14Pretty cool stuff. An amazing story. Yeah, so recorded in 1988, but released in June 2026. Yep. And a great way to remember, Mick. Yeah, let's check out the title track, Feebles, Fables, and Ferns.

14:46And a great way to remember, I think, and I've been playing for a couple days. I'm going to go, well, I'm going to take a little bit more. I'm going to go, well.

14:59Mmm. Mmm. Mm. Mm.

15:05Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Thank you.

15:40It's so hard to do this, Caleb, like between piano and guitar and they're both such masters and you could hear the chemistry immediately. And it takes really great chemistry, I think, to be able to pull it off at that level, which is a very, very high level. And the first thing that just pops out at me is there's so much storytelling and like how they're playing. Like, yeah, Mick is, you know. Incredible player, incredibly melodic player. You know, beautiful melodies pouring out of the guitar. As, of course, Fred Hirsch, which we all know, but great to hear them together.

16:13So glad that they've decided to put this out for real.

Phoenix Trio

16:16Finally, we're going to end the show with a new album by the Phoenix Trio. The Phoenix Trio is Mark Turner on the tenor saxophone, Joe Martin on the bass, Marcus Gilmore on the drums, the great Marcus Gilmore on the drums. Their new album is called Tomorrow Is Today. Tomorrow is today. I get it. I get it. And we're going to listen to 1946 here, which is yesterday, really. It's a long time ago. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing.

16:46It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. It's all one thing. Yeah.

17:42As a pianist, it pains me to say, but I feel like the saxophone trio is perhaps the most conversational configuration in jazz. It's incredible. Yeah, I was just about to say the amount of freedom that you get with this kind of album is so fun, especially with players like Mark Turner. I mean, it needs more big, thick chords in there, in my opinion, but other than that, it's a pretty amazing recording. No, it's awesome. And these three masters really bring out that medium really, really well.

18:13Yeah, I have to agree. Well, Caleb, thanks for joining us here on Fresh Spin Friday. Happy to be here. It was a great month. We'll be back next month for all the new music that's coming out in July 2026. Until then, you'll hear it.

18:38Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Try singing. Thanks for watching. I'll be right back. Bye.