AZUL is the new improvisational trio I play in, with my longtime musical partner-in-crime, trumpeter John D'earth, and a very exciting new drummer, Brian Caputo. The music is entirely improvised, but not always "free-form". Instead we conjure up grooves, melodies and textures, borrowing from established musical traditions where desired. In this setting I like to think of myself as "the orchestra" and as a "spontaneous composer". John is "the soloist", with his incredible lighting lines, deep understanding of harmony, and sardonic humor (listen for his vocalizations). Listening, pushing, and always surprising with his incredible colorations, grooves, and dramatic punctuation is Brian, a wonderfully intuitive musician, and my most recent collaborator. We recorded AZUL at The Sound Studios on May 14, 2013, in Charlottesville, Virginia. The trio had only performed three shows together, and I wanted to capture the chemistry of the group while it was still really fresh. My gratitude to engineer James McLaughlin, who seamlessly captured our performance, which I then took home and mixed slowly over the next several weeks. —Greg Howard