Connection Works is the kind of Brooklyn institution that doesn’t just present jazz—it protects the conditions that make it possible. Artist-run and community-rooted, the nonprofit has become a home for world-class performances and educational events that keep the music close to the people it’s meant to reach. Its programming champions new work from established voices and rising artists alike, offering a forum where creativity is treated not as luxury, but as practice—something that nourishes the mind, body, and spirit, and strengthens the borough’s cultural heartbeat.
Now, Connection Works Records is turning that mission into two new recorded statements. The label has released new recordings from two of its co-directors: Michel Gentile and Rob Garcia, available worldwide—two projects that reflect different angles of the same ethos: deep listening, bold imagination, and the belief that jazz is still one of our most honest ways to speak.
With Flow- Light of Day, Michel Gentile (pictured) steps into long-overdue leadership on record, unveiling an ensemble designed around a deceptively simple idea: give every instrument the space and context to find its voice fully. The concept is embedded in the title itself—“flow” as a state of energized focus, where attention sharpens, time bends, and the music seems to move through you rather than from you. Gentile’s compositions aim to invite mental and emotional immersion, not just for the listener but for the musicians within the sound.
Light of Day is built with a wide palette—woodwinds, reeds, brass, strings, and percussion—each written with the intention of opening possibilities rather than narrowing them. The result is music that allows for group interplay without sacrificing individuality, shaped by the distinct timbres and musical maturity of the artists involved. The album features Gentile on flute, alto flute, bass flute, and piccolo, joined by Mike McGinnis on clarinet, Jacob Garchik on trombone, Chris Lightcap on bass, and Tom Rainey on drums.
Gentile describes the record as an ongoing search for new approaches to improvisation and group texture—an exploration that moves through cadenzas, solos, duets, three-horn improvisations, overlapping solos, and full-group improvisations. His guiding influences—Charles Mingus, Henry Threadgill, and Duke Ellington—can be felt not as imitation, but as lineage: a commitment to composition that breathes, and structure that leaves room for surprise.
The title track, “Light of Day,” carries a deeply personal dedication—written for Gentile’s wife, and crafted with the kind of care that radiates across the entire album. He speaks about the responsibility of writing for someone you’ve committed your life to: the music has to hold sophistication, complexity, and truth. In his telling, the piece unfolds through multiple identities coexisting at once, moving into a four-part canon, then into a rhythmic hocket inspired by the pygmies of the Ituri Forest, before evolving into an extended drum solo from Rainey. When the opening theme returns, it returns changed—rhythmically adjusted into three unified layers, as if the journey itself has reshaped the original light.
If Gentile’s record is about immersion and texture, Rob Garcia’s Sizzle Ensemble is about ignition—about the spark that turns a performance into a lived experience. Expanding on the legacy of Garcia’s celebrated group, the Rob Garcia 4, this bold new configuration widens the sonic frame while keeping the music grounded in clarity and feel. The ensemble features Garcia alongside Noah Preminger on tenor saxophone, Shane Endsley on trumpet, Gary Versace on piano, and Kim Cass on bass—an expanded lineup that delivers one of the most accessible and artistically rich statements of Garcia’s career.
The larger palette brings new color and energy to Garcia’s writing, reimagining his work for a fuller sound without losing its sharp edges. Alongside original compositions, Sizzle Ensemble also breathes fresh life into jazz standards through Garcia’s distinctive arrangements of pieces by legends including Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, and Marcus Miller. What stands out most is the chemistry: long-time collaborators listening with acuity, responding in real time, and building a sound that feels deeply rooted while staying adventurous.
Garcia frames the title with a definition that fits the music perfectly: “sizzle” as a state of great excitement or passion. For him, those aren’t embellishments—they’re essential ingredients of a fulfilling musical journey. The story here isn’t told in words, but in sensation: the moods, the heat, the lift, the momentum that only music can translate. And in that spirit, Garcia offers the record as both invitation and exchange—hoping listeners find as much beauty and inspiration in the experience as he found in making it.
With these two releases, Connection Works Records isn’t simply documenting performances—it’s extending its mission into permanence. Two co-directors, two distinct visions, one shared commitment: to keep jazz alive as a community practice, and to let Brooklyn’s creative pulse be heard far beyond the borough.
For further information on the artist and the Connection Works initiative, please visit the following link
https://www.connectionworks.org/cw-records
Images provided, courtesy of Red Cat Publicity
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