MIKE FREEMAN ZONAVIBE, Circles in a Yellow Room

A four time Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement grant recipient, multi-talented vibraphonist, composer, arranger and bandleader Mike Freeman is renowned throughout NYC for concert productions that highlight the history of Latin music in his Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, the tradition of vibes in Latin music and the countless original pieces he’s released on his solo albums and with Mike Freeman Zonavibe since 2007.

From the fast grooving, super percussive high-octane opener “Valentine” through the charming, seductive and sweetly whimsical “The Trek,” Freeman on the band’s latest album Circles on a Yellow Room presents an expansive landscape for his own vibe and marimba mastery while giving his quartet room to stretch out and improvise – most notably via dynamic solos by tenor saxman Jim Gailloreto and trumpeter Guido Gonzalez and the sizzling one two percussive punch of conga master Roberto Quintero and drummer Joel Mateo.

Among many notable highlights, longtime fans of Freeman should check out the playful, brass/vibe duality on “Marble Race Rematch,” a romp that updates and reworks “Marble Race” from his early solo album Wiggle Stomp. The vibrant good vibes – pun very much intended – of most of these infectious, colorful pieces roll in stark contrast to the dark time of the pandemic, whose endless array of traumas came between the completion of tracking this highly inspiring, freewheeling album in early 2020 and the opportunity to final release it in 2025.

Freeman’s poignant liner notes about his personal experiences, musical and otherwise, during the shutdown make powerful reading and put everything, including the music he’s finally sharing with us, in stark perspective.