Transcend – Dave Douglas & GIFTS Quintet

Transcend is the latest album by trumpeter Dave Douglas with the GIFTS Quintet, released on Greenleaf Music. The project takes Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts as its point of departure to explore the relationship between spiritual legacy and modern ensemble innovation.

The quintet—featuring James Brandon Lewis (tenor saxophone), Rafiq Bhatia (electric guitar), Ian Chang (drums), and Tomeka Reid (cello)—unfolds a radical instrumentation that fuses electronics, avant-garde improvisation, and acoustic lyricism.

Through reimagined versions and original compositions, the work charts a path between jazz tradition and new sonic frontiers. It is both a technical and emotional statement that establishes Douglas as an architect of dynamic ensembles capable of reconciling compositional craft with the absolute freedom of improvisation.