1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9! Believe it or not, we’ve arrived at the ninth edition of ACT’s holiday institution, “Christmas with My Friends.”

There are albums that arrive like gusts of wind, reshaping landscapes, and there are albums that fall like snow, quietly, imperceptibly, until you realize the ground has been entirely transformed. Bugge Wesseltoft’s It’s Snowing on My Piano was one such album. Released in 1997 on ACT Records, it slipped almost modestly into the holiday season, offering not bombast but restraint, not cheer but reflection. To everyone’s surprise, including the pianist’s own, it became one of the label’s defining successes, an unlikely seasonal classic across Europe.

There was no great cunning master plan that brought noted jazz instrumentalists Bob James {keyboards}, Lee Ritenour {guitar}, Nathan East {bass} and Harvey Mason {drums} together to form a supergroup. Released in October 1991, Fourplay - aided by the success of the smash single 'After The Dance' - peaked at No. 1 in America' s Contemporary Jazz charts for 33 weeks and sold over a million copies.

Minnesota based singer, songwriter and guitarist Mark Cameron has been active in live music for over thirty years. Mark began his performing career in the rich folk-rock scene of the early 1970s and brought this influence into several bands he founded during the 1980s and 1990s. Today his focus is centered on crafting original Blues songs with strong melodies and memorable lyrics. The range of Mark’s material stretches the Blues beyond safe limits with a focus on “foot stompin', butt shakin'” music that is built for a live audience.

Musically, Inkyra sounds at least as colourful as its predecessor Chroma, which was recorded with another band. The anthemic intro, for example, has its roots in the spiritual sound of the sixties. There are densely layered textures that reach into prog rock, as in ‘Moondrawn (dreaming)’, or references to Brazilian rhythmic roots, as in ‘Marshmallow Tree’. Some tracks, such as ‘Anima Rising’, sound as if they were played not by a sextet but by an entire jazz orchestra, while others, such as ‘Time, And Other Thieves’, sound like a mixture of heavy indie beat and shimmering psychedelia, especially thanks to Gareth Lockrane's far-reaching flute.

In the vibrant music landscape of Chicago, BJRNCK's journey as an artist was undeniably shaped by her roots, deeply embedded in the city's rich musical community and her early experiences in the church.

Just about anytime I write about Brandi Carlile, I make sure to note that no one in America loves their job more than she loves hers. And it’s true – especially when you see her perform live, Carlile’s joy is both palpable and infectious.

Boppin' with the Chet Baker Quintet is an album by trumpeter Chet Baker which was recorded in 1967 and released on the Prestige label.

Cool Burnin' with the Chet Baker Quintet is an album by trumpeter Chet Baker which was recorded in 1965 and released on the Prestige label.

British producer Shackleton meets the transnational collective Saagara for a shapeshifting, top to bottom remix of the group's celebrated 2024 album 3.

Saagara’s new album 3, is the third installment of this acclaimed collaboration between Polish producer/multi-instrumentalist Wacław Zimpel and four virtuosic musicians from the Carnatic musical tradition of southern India: percussionists Giridhar Udupa (ghatam), Aggu Baba (khanjira) and K Raja (thavil) and violinist Mysore N. Karthik.

For Aesop Rock, the phrase “I heard it’s a mess there too” started out as a lyric, but it didn’t take long for that line to get its hooks into him. It felt familiar, like a line he’d said a thousand times in recent years while checking in with friends across different cities, swapping stories about where each other are, and what’s going on there. The more he sat with the phrase, the more it started to feel like the center of something bigger. I Heard It’s A Mess There Too lives at the intersection of two personal urges for Aesop: the need to venture out and document your surroundings, and the desire to stay connected—especially when things feel uncertain.

Swedish/Danish pianist and composer Henrik Lindstrand is set to release his fifth full-length album, Space Between The album features 10 evocative compositions that further cement Lindstrand’s reputation as a master of minimalistic and emotionally resonant music.

Radjha Ally's Niinee is a vibrant and deeply rooted debut album released in 2025. The album exudes tradition, yet is simultaneously characterized by a modern approach. Radjha Ally's music is primarily based on Tufu, a rhythmic music style from northern Mozambique characterized by powerful percussion, energetic female choral vocals, and pentatonic melodies. This genre, rooted in Swahili culture, is traditionally played at community celebrations and religious ceremonies.

Known for their exhilarating live-to-record albums such as last year's critically acclaimed Wood Blues and Giant Beauty, سماع [Sama'a] (Audition) is the first of two releases that will surface after [Ahmed]’s first studio recording sessions at North London’s The Fish Factory in early 2025.