Trumpet Virtuoso Daniel Sky Collaborates With Globe-Spanning Jazz Luminaries for New Album Songs For The World

Adhyâropa Records is thrilled to announce Songs For The World (ÂR00176), the new album by Polish-born, New York-based trumpet rising star Daniel Sky. Teaming with like-minded luminaries of the world jazz community, Sky has gifted this simple 12-track document of peace and compassion to the musical world. 

In short order, Sky has established himself as one of the great rising talents in the New York jazz scene. Graduating in 2021 with a masters from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, studying with Joe Lovano, Danilo Perez, and Kenny Werner, and has performed with Dayna Stephens. Daniel was awarded a prestigious grant by the Polish Ministry of Culture, and was recognized by Downbeat Magazine for outstanding solo performance.

“This album is a departure from what people normally associate with me and my playing, particularly those who are familiar with my first album,” Sky says, referring to 2024’s Introduction to the Sky Vol. 1 & 2. “I wanted to make music which was adequate for our times. Before beginning this project, I asked myself what I thought the world needed to hear at this time, and needs to hear from artists like me. We live in such turbulent times, and I thought it was important to make something that would help the listener feel an inner peace; something to help them feel more, not less, connected with the world around them.”

Indeed, the music on Songs For The World represents a meditative,  plaintive side to Sky’s compositions that wasn’t as evident on his previous releases. Track one, ‘Intro,’ announces this intent from the first notes, and makes for a fitting first single. Keyboardist Yessai Karapetianlightly adorns thespare melody with clouds of modal harmony, which Sky’s solo unspools into delicate phrases, a continuous, unbroken melody that comes to a close just as you expect a change in texture, revealing the segue to track two, ‘Dreams Keeper,’ the album’s second single. Here, drummer Ilya Blazh makes for the main counterpoint to Sky’s gorgeous playing. A ¾ ballad clearly influenced by 70’s artists from the jazz-rock world but using a vocabulary purely of its time, Sky and Blazh riff off each other throughout the song’s several sections before reaching a satisfying climax. “I really love playing in ¾ – this might be a part of my evolution as a musician. I’ve been uncovering the power of triangular musical shapes.” The title comes from a dream catcher Sky kept near his bed that had an unintended consequence: “When I hung it, I realized that I started to remember all of my dreams! So I wrote this tune about it, but gave it a more appropriate name.” Sky lists Kamasi Washington’s 2017 EP Harmony of Difference as a major influence on his compositional language and nowhere is it more evident, though the playing likewise recalls the flowing lyricism of Theo Croker, or fellow Pole Michał Urbaniak.

The structures of the songs are not simplistic, but they are simple; unfussy, uncluttered, staging areas for Sky’s melodic gift and his easy rapport with his collaborators. “It’s quite intentional that I called these Songs, not compositions, or pieces. The point of this project was to create something in which every listener would recognize a familiar part of themselves, something fundamental to their shared humanity. It was important that an average listener be able to hum or sing every melody on the album, even – or especially – the improvised ones. By making the song forms accessible, an open door, I feel that it brings people closer to us when we’re ready to take them on our improvised journeys.”

The feeling of instant, intimate communication that drenches the music of Songs For The World is made possible by the instant, intimate communication that Sky’s collaborators have with each other. “Almost, every musician on the album goes back with me to my Berklee days,” Sky says, “and I chose them for this project because they were musicians and humans with whom I had that kind of natural comfort and rapport. These are the musicians I knew would understand my vision, my music, and what this album was always meant to be. The two keyboardists on this album, Tom Oren and Yessai Karapetian, are very dear friends, and in fact Yessai currently tours with Tigran Hamasyan because he has the same rapport with him that he has with me, even though Tigran’s music is quite different than mine!”

Oren has a gorgeous solo feature to lead off the reverb-drenched track ‘Forgive,’ a mini-set within the album for a rhythm section also featuring Italian bassist Marcos Varela. Here the harmony turns impressionistic, evincing Sky’s background in classical music and his noted affection for Debussy.  

The album’s third and final single is the sultry ballad ‘Purple Depth,’ which returns us to the original rhythm section of Karapetian, Battaglia, and Blazh. “I was practicing late at night one night using a Velvetone mute, and I just loved the way it was darkening my tone, almost a flugel-like sound. And the melody of this tune revealed itself to me – I had to take a video to save the moment. Later on I transcribed it and developed it into the song that made its way onto the record.” Even in a slower tempo and mellower tone, Sky’s command of his instrument is what stands out. After the haze of the introduction he takes the melody and is the only soloist, an accompanied soliloquy that is as impressive in its command of melodic line and instrumental tone as any pyrotechnic display of chops. 

Which is of course, what follows, on ‘Sky’s Interlude,’ on which Sky lets loose with Lee Morgan-esque half valve lines ranging all over his instrument, and even indulges in some subtle studio wizardry with an octave effect and harmonization. Sky has chosen his palette for this recording to be sure, but he uses the whole palette. “This recording uses a more ‘modern’ musical vocabulary than my previous releases,” Sky says. “The music on this project is as much a continuation of my development as it is an evolution.”

Artist: Daniel Sky

Album Title: Songs For The World

Label: Adhyâropa Records

Release Date: April 1, 2026 (single: ‘Intro’); April 20, 2026 (single: ‘Dreams Keeper’); April 27, 2026 (single: ‘Purple Depth’); May 1, 2026 (album: Songs For The World)

Purchase: https://danielskytrumpet.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-the-world

Performers: Daniel Sky (trumpet); Yessai Karapetian - (piano); Tom Oren (piano); Stefano Battaglia (upright bass); Marcos Varela (upright bass); Ilya Blazh (drums, percussion); Arina Bagaryakova (vocals)