Trumpet virtuoso Anthony Stanco pays tribute to the Hard Bop Tradition in a Contemporary Spirit on his spirited new album, recorded live at Michigan’s The Alluvion.

In the Groove, out October 17th, 2025 via OA2 Records, features an All-Star Quintet with Randy Napoleon, Xavier Davis, John Webber and Joe Farnsworth.

The title of Stanco’s Time, the 2024 release by trumpet virtuoso Anthony Stanco, delivered two meanings. The strongly bebop-flavored album found Stanco slipping back into time and style that he wanted to explore and celebrate, but it was also a confident assertion that in time the Detroit-bred trumpeter had arrived at his full potential, seizing the moment to showcase his audacious technique and torch-bearing love for the jazz tradition.

Stanco’s dazzling follow-up, In the Groove, contains a similar play on words. Due out October 17th, 2025, on OA2 Records, the album is loaded with deep-pocket grooves, as Stanco travels forward in the music’s trajectory to exult in the buoyant spirit of hard bop. At the same time Stanco himself is in full stride on this outing, further developing the eloquent agility that made its predecessor such a standout, bolstered by the livewire energy that only a concert environment can provide.

1. T. Sea [6:11]
2. Say You’re Mine [6:06]
3. Riptide [5:45]
4. Pyramid Point [6:38]
5. In the Groove [6:27]
6. Hey Cute One [6:57]
7. Tales [4:45]
8. Sonny Boy [8:49]
9. Just a Moment [4:45]

Having been captured live at The Alluvion, a gorgeous and intimate jazz club in downtown Traverse City, Michigan, this new recording opens on the smooth as silk T. Sea (whose title is a play on Traverse City’s initials) and a low slung yearn that drifts through pianist Duke Pearson’s Say You’re Mine and then we get the upbeat and preppy Riptide and the late-night ambiance of the delicately hued Pyramid Point (named for a popular spot in the city for hiking).

Along next is the crowd-participated, rousing beaty of the titular In the Groove and the gorgeous Hey Cute One and they are in turn followed seamlessly by the all-embracing Tales, the set rounding out on the tantalizing Sonny Boy (where he pays tribute to his 9-month-old boy Sonny), closing on the formidably charged, drum-tastic Just a Moment (a contrafact of John Coltrane’s “Moment’s Notice.”)

“I grew up on the east side of Detroit – fifth generation Detroit Italian,” Stanco states proudly. “My entire family and roots are from there, and I grew up under the tutelage of Marcus Belgrave and Rodney Whitaker. But Traverse City has become a second home to me. I’ve managed to create a lot of great musical and personal relationships there.”

That home is headquartered at The Alluvion, where Stanco has a monthly residency. The club’s owner, Jeff Haas, also founded a non-profit organization called Building Bridges with Music that Stanco is deeply involved with, bringing music education into underserved Detroit-area schools. A pianist and composer, Haas also contributed the lively “Tales” to the album’s repertoire.

In the Groove was inspired, in style and in spirit, largely by the classic live (and “live”) albums released in the late 1950s and ‘60s. “I love those classic hard bop albums that feature a signature boogaloo groove,” Stanco says, “and I just don’t think you can create a boogaloo as convincingly in the studio is you can live.”

Musicians:
Anthony Stanco - trumpet
Randy Napoleon - guitar
Xavier Davis - piano
John Webber - bass
Joe Farnsworth - drums

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www.anthonystanco.com