Immanuel Wilkins Announces First Live Album, “Live At The Village Vanguard”

GRAMMY-nominated alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins is set to release his debut live album, Immanuel Wilkins Quartet: Live At The Village Vanguard, a three-volume collection documenting his quartet’s performances at the iconic New York City jazz club. Volume 1 will be available on March 20, 2026, in LP, CD, and digital formats, with Volumes 2 and 3 following on April 17 and May 15, respectively, as digital releases. [Source: Thatericalper.com]

Capturing a Legacy at the Village Vanguard

The album features Wilkins alongside Micah Thomas on piano, Ryoma Takenaga on bass, and Kweku Sumbry on drums. The quartet’s expansive explorations of Wilkins’ original compositions were recorded within the historic walls of the Village Vanguard, a venue renowned for hosting seminal live recordings by jazz greats such as John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, and Dexter Gordon. [Source: Blue Note Records]

“Charanam” – A First Taste of the Album

The release is preceded by the quartet’s stirring performance of Alice Coltrane’s devotional composition “CHARANAM,” originally from Coltrane’s 1981 album Turiya Sings. This single offers a preview of the live energy and creative tension captured on the album. [Source: Universal Music Canada]

A Sono-Spatial Experiment

As noted in the album’s liner notes by Tina M. Campt, Live at the Village Vanguard is a “bold endeavor to summon the Vanguard’s sonic history and make it audible.” Campt describes the Village Vanguard as a space holding “cumulative layers of musical genius from decades of jazz performances,” and Wilkins’ album as a practice of improvisational sounding, congregational listening, and devotional ritual. [Source: Thatericalper.com]

With this release, Immanuel Wilkins joins a distinguished lineage of jazz musicians who have captured the magic of the Village Vanguard on live recordings.