Flutist Nicole Mitchell, cellist Tomeka Reid, and drummer Mike Reed join forces to celebrate the music of the AACM on this 2015 release, one of the ways the organization paid tribute to itself on its 50th anniversary. The trio leap and caper through versions of pieces by many AACM luminaries, including Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Anderson, Amina Claudine Myers, and founder Muhal Richard Abrams. The simple instrumentation keeps the focus on the tunes, which are uniformly beautiful and at times quite dramatic, giving an excellent overview of the breadth of creativity to be found under the AACM umbrella. This trio has subsequently recorded their own work, but hearing them as pure, joyful interpreters is thrilling.

– Phil Freeman