Trumpeter Dave Guy releases his debut album, Ruby. Guy’s work as a supporting musician is usually  with The Roots on tour and The Tonight Show. He also counts Lizzo, Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones, and Pharrell as past employers.  On his first solo album, he blows lines of fluffy, weightless notes on a purely instrumental jaunt. He has some of the sass and soul of Freddie Hubbard, who also played his horn with a purposeful delicateness rooted in the blues. “Drony Boy” belongs in a drama or mystery film for its sly rhythm movements and pensive lingering notes. Guy knows how to create moods with his instrument and that includes the celebratory nature of “Footwork,” which infuses the air with playful phrases to incite dancing and partying. The palette of his emotions is not always so clear-cut, as “Pinky Ring” sounds like cool driving music or the backdrop to anything happening in everyday life, a musical morning stretch. Dave Guy’s Ruby is his first major recorded step from band member to leader  and it is a contemporary triumph of post-bop jazz traditions, including the West Coast school of chill. 

Dave Guy’s “Still Standing” captures the last days of summer with the warm brass of his horn situated in both jazz and funk worlds. The trumpeter is usually busy playing with The Roots on The Tonight Show and tours. “Still Standing” is from his debut album, Ruby, and it follows the previously shared soulful panache of “Footwork” and “Pinky Ring,” the Donald Byrd-esque “7th Heaven,” and the swinging “Morning Glory.” Guy’s love for footprints of jazz from the past is not nostalgia but inspired playing of the present. The Brooklyn-based Big Crown label releases Ruby on September 20th digitally, on vinyl, cassette, and CD. 

El Michels Affair and Black Thought release their Glorious Game album. Leon Michels and Black Thought started working on the album in 2020 during the pandemic. Michels’ band is known for playing live but GG inspired a different approach. The musician decided to use lots of samples of his live playing and some lifted from soul records. Michel’s production spins Black Thought’s movie-worthy tales on an axis of nostalgic sounds that become new again. The vintage flavor courses through the survival creed of “Alone” with peppy drums and jazzy horns and the imported harmonies surrounding the autobiographical story of “The Weather.” Black Thought described GG in a press statement: “To me, these songs are like scenes from a film that is my life. That’s the way it evolved.” The Roots’ emcee’s relentless microphone rarely rests as he just shared his Cheat Codes album with Danger Mouse last year. Glorious Game is on time to make new spring and summer memories and playlists. 

El Michels Affair and Black Thought drop “That Girl” from their upcoming Glorious Game album. The Roots frontman and Leon Michels’ band unify to pay tribute to the emcee’s muse. The falsetto-led doo-wop sample collapses and a numbing beat comes in as the bedrock for Black Thought’s ode to his greatest love. The lyrics mention a caramel-colored woman as his loving inspiration but the description of her captivating the whole world also sounds like hip-hop is his lover. “That Girl” is the second single from their Glorious Game project which comes out in the spring. Black Thought’s Cheat Codes album with Danger Mouse from last year is still streaming heavily.