Add to playlist: Dark Mist by Los Angeles saxophonist Aaron Shaw and this week’s best new songs | music

from Los Angeles
Recommend if you like Miguel Atwood Ferguson, flute music by Chabaca Hutchings, and Coltrane
the next The debut album And So It was released on February 13

For woodwind players, breath is everything: the artistic life force, the thing that gives the sound character. But a few years ago, Los Angeles saxophonist Aaron Shaw realized he was becoming increasingly breathless. In 2023, when he was 27, he was diagnosed with bone marrow failure, meaning he wasn’t producing enough red blood cells that carry oxygen. A change of approach was required.

Shaw got up quickly. He studied with Kamasi Washington, worked alongside Herbie Hancock and Anderson Buck, and taught Andre 3000 in music theory. Shaw works regularly with Los Angeles bandleader Carlos Nino, and played on his new 2024 jazz album “Placenta” and last year in a collaboration with poet Saul Williams. In turn, Niño produced and played percussion on Shaw’s upcoming debut album And So It Is, which has something of the West Coast jazz you find in Niño and Washington’s music. But Shaw’s voice is actually a lower, darker mist, and he navigates it with quiet caution.

Shaw plays mostly tenor saxophone and drum flute. It’s easier for him to play the latter instrument—it takes less breath—and yet he continues to play his original instrument, floating Lester Young-style, over the top of Chick Corea’s “Windows to the Soul,” and fighting through a long hold over the heart of the phoenix. Throughout the record, you hear a young musician coming to terms with the end of one’s musical road, and feeling wary of what comes next. Intimate loops and unexpected flourishes on the flute provide upbeat notes about this remarkably open register. Hugh Morris

The best new songs of the week

Kim Gordon – Not today
To date, Gordon’s solo career has been so abrasive and raucous that hearing her sing, utterly forlorn, over warmer racing instruments rather than her usual industrial rumble, is truly disarming. L.S

Morgan Nagler – Grassolin
“I know Jesus won’t save me / And if he did it would just be crazy,” the Los Angeles songwriter sings in an instantly indelible ode to green, all messy and endearing. L.S

Rafe Sapira – The Butcher’s Scale (with Benny the Butcher)
The Best of Streatham Hill heads stateside, mixing his Punjabi flow and instrumentals with boom-bap beats and guest poetry by Benny the Butcher; Ghostface Killah is among the other guests on the new EP. BPT

Wu Lev – Tabernacle of Good Meeting
The Mancunian rockers amassed a cult following in the 2000s, and this comeback could summon them back: it’s an 11-minute anthem that moves from spirited march to sprint. [Not on Spotify: stream here] BPT

Elsas – Nino
Part of live band Sampha and a session player with the likes of Little Simz and Jockstrap, the Spanish musician has released a solo debut that mixes explosive metal beats with sacred vocals – the Rosalía comparisons are inevitable. L.S

Sun Ya))) – Black Glory
A lively, sassy little chorus accompanying the TikTok dance…kidding! The Seattle band’s return is, of course, 10 minutes of massive guitar purring like a snoring dinosaur, albeit with a surprising minor piano interlude. L.S

Bo Wanzer – profuse cough 17
Slithering as if from a barrel of molten bitumen, this is a dark and brutal track from the outside dance producer’s new EP, backed by a distorted dembo beat and devilish declarations. BPT

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