Lage Lund is acclaimed as one of the finest guitarists of his generation, and one of the more compelling jazz artists today. A regular in the “Rising star – Guitar” category in the Downbeat Critic’s Poll, he has been hailed by Pat Metheny as a favorite young guitarist, and is “all music and all soul” according to Russell Malone - one of the judges who awarded Lund top prize in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition.

Armed with a growing and impressive body of original compositions, and mastery of the standard repertoire - Lund swings with great authority displaying a staggering harmonic sophistication and a singularly fluid voice as a soloist. He also brings a “casually magnetic” presence to the stage, “channeling reticence into a whisper-quiet mystique” and "balances his abundant proficiencies with an aesthetic of gleaming calm" (New York Times).

Born and raised in Norway, Lund relocated to Boston after high school on a scholarship to Berklee College of Music. In 2002 he moved to New York and soon became the first electric guitarist ever to enroll at the Juilliard School of Music. In the years since his Monk Competition victory, he has become a sought-after sideman with the David Sanchez Quartet, the Maria Schneider Orchestra, Mark Turner, Seamus Blake and many more.

After a series of three releases featuring bassist Ben Street and drummer Bill Stewart 2019 sees the release of "Terrible Animals”. Joined by a never-before-convened, top-of-the-pyramid rhythm section (Sullivan Fortner, piano; Larry Grenadier, bass;Tyshawn Sorey, drums) it is the most compositionally ambitious and daringly performed of Lage Lund's five albums on Criss Cross. Ten far-flung originals that elicit the full measure of their creativity , spurring Lund - who makes ingenious use of effects within his flow - to some of his most dynamic and varied playing on record.

Through frequent appearances and tours stateside and throughout Europe, Asia and around the world, Lund has ascended to the highest ranks as a performer and a creative force. He is among those setting the agenda for jazz improvisation in the 21st century.

"Of the younger cats, Lage is THE one. He's a wonderful player. Scary actually!” Kurt Rosenwinkel

The Ohio-born, Los Angeles-raised Turner is one of the most admired saxophonists of his generation, renowned for his exploratory intellect and intimate expressivity on the full range of the tenor horn. For ECM, the New York-based musician released his sixth album as a leader, Lathe of Heaven, in 2014. The quartet for Lathe of Heaven included trumpeter Avishai Cohen, bassist Joe Martin and drummer Marcus Gilmore, with The Guardian describing the band appreciatively as “sounding like Birth of the Cool floated over a 21st-century rhythmic concept.” That album followed two for the label in the cooperative trio Fly with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard (Sky & Country and Year of the Snake), along with appearances on key ECM recordings by Billy Hart (All of Our Reasons and One Is the Other) and Enrico Rava (New York Days). About Turner, National Public Radio has said: “He has an innovative sonic signature, a certain floating chromaticism, rhythmic mindfulness and lightness of tone, filled with subtleties. Basically, his music has personality, which keeps the best musicians ringing his phone, and the aspiring ones listening hard.”

Matt Brewer was born in Oklahoma City but spent most of his youth in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Born into a musical family, Matt was surrounded by music from an early age, both his father and grandfather being jazz musicians, and his mother an avid music lover and radio DJ (who, even before Matt was born, would play classic jazz albums for him). After graduating from the Interlochen Arts Academy, Matt attended the inagural class of The Juilliard Jazz Program and studied with bassists Rodney Whitaker and Ben Wolfe. After spending two years at Juilliard he decided to leave school to make time for his busy touring schedule. Since then he has worked with artists such as Greg Osby, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Lee Konitz, David Sanchez, Terence Blanchard, Antonio Sanchez, Vijay Iyer, Adam Rogers, Steve Coleman, Dave Binney, Aaron Parks, Jeff “Tain” Watts, and many others. He recently recorded his second album as a leader on the Criss Cross Jazz label. He is an adjunct faculty member at The New School, and has been a frequent guest artist/teacher at the Banff Center.

An award-winning saxophonist and composer, Lehman – who holds a doctorate in composition from Columbia University – is widely celebrated for his “sure-footed futurism” (New York Times) in the domains of modern jazz and contemporary classical music. Here, he showcases yet another side of his astonishing creativity in producing and overseeing nearly every aspect of Xaybu. The project makes frequent use of advanced compositional techniques and cutting-edge improvisation: Each aspect of Lehman’s musical identity is an inextricable part of this artistic statement. Pulling this off requires enormous trust and commitment among the musicians, which is only possible through Lehman’s longstanding musical relationship with the members of the group. HPrizm (a.k.a. High Priest), a legend of New York’s underground hip-hop scene and a founding member of Antipop Consortium has been one of Lehman's closest collaborators for almost two decades. Saxophonist Maciek Lasserre, began studying with Lehman in 2005 and introduced him to the burgeoning Senegalese hip-hop scene in 2010. Lasserre later urged Lehman to include Gaston Bandimic – one of Senegal’s most distinctive young rap stars – as a founding member of Sélébéyone. Drummer Damion Reid has also been an integral member of Lehman’s ensembles since 2006. His innovative drum set adaptations of J-Dilla beats on Robert Glasper’s In My Element (2007), are often cited as the beginning of the “drum set as MPC” wave amongst the current generation of young drummers. True to form, Reid’s playing on Xaybu is remarkably adept at moving back and forth between electronic and acoustic textures – check out his work with brushes at the beginning of “Dual Ndoxol.” Pieces like “Gagaku,” “Zeraora,” and “Gas Akap” highlight Reid’s improvised interactions with both saxophonists in a series of explosive duets.
Tracks like “Djibirl” and “Lamina” feature unconventional sonic landscapes that throw HPrizm and Bandimic’s searing lyricism into relief. Both integrate contemporary notions of Islamic mysticism into their rhyme schemes, and frequently mine profound connections between spirituality and artistic practices. On “Liminal” they calmly navigate a meticulously-crafted quagmire of polyrhythms and Lehman’s characteristic razor-sharp saxophone lines. Percussive accents drift in and out of time, ebbing and flowing one moment, and snapping into the grid the next. On “Souba,” Lehman’s experience in the contemporary classical music realm comes to the fore, with the subtle orchestration of harp, strings, flutes, and percussion, deftly shadowing the rhythmic nuance of Gaston’s rapid-fire verses.
Lehman reflects on the evolution of Sélébéyone: “When we first came together in 2016, I think we really had to work hard to see if this thing could even work, not just in terms of finding a way to perform together on stage, but even the artistic viability of it all. But, this time around, it really felt like we already know how to do this and we know what we’re about. And for that reason, there was very little discussion about how we were going to bring the second record to life. And even the guiding principle of xaybu/al-Ghaib emerged almost on its own. That fascination with the invisible, the imperceptible, the kind of concealed elements of spirituality and creativity is what really ties us all together. And I think this album kind of represents that on-going search for music that we haven’t heard before and that doesn’t sound like anything else.”