For those not in the know, Border Crossings is the newest album by New York guitarist and composer Early Times. This is a straight-ahead jazz album spiced with soul and Latin rhythms.

Early has received airplay nationally and internationally. Since 2021 Early has released 4 albums. He has toured with 9-time Blues Music Award nominee E.C. Scott and recorded 2 albums with her. He has recorded with 3-time Grammy winner and blues legend Bobby Rush. Early is also a nationally broadcasted radio personality on SiriusXM satellite radio.

For this recording, Times recruited some of the finest and most decorated players around. Steve Gadd (drums) is a Grammy winner and has been inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame He has received two Honorary Doctor of Music degrees. Zaccai Curtis (piano) won the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album for his album Cubop Lives which also included Luques Curtis (bass). Both musicians feature prominently on Border Crossings.

Luques has previously recorded with Eddie Palmieri, Gary Burton, and Orrin Evans. Rounding out the lineup is Craig Handy (saxophone and flute) who has performed with Herbie Hancock and recorded with George Cables, The Cookers, and Steve Miller Band, & John Scofield.

1. Roadside Quickie
2. Succubus
3. It’s Been So Nice
4. Scarlet Dancer
5. On The Corner
6. Chicago Sundown

On an album where all the cuts, all written by Times, cover the spectrum from hard bop to Latin Jazz, he opens his new recording on the luxuriant hipsway of Roadside Quickie and the smooth funk of Succubus, and then we get brought forth the veritably shimmering It’s Been So Nice, the gently frenetic brilliance of Scarlet Dancer, before rounding out on the cinematically sculpted On The Corner, coming to a close on the George Benson-imbibed, ambiently hued, low key Chicago Sundown.

The album was engineered by 3-time Grammy winner Chris Sulit. Jay Messina served as co-engineer and co-produced the album with Early. Jay has engineered and mixed albums by countless artists from Miles Davis to Aerosmith to Eddie Palmieri.

Early Times - Border Crossings [Official Video]

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