It has been quite some time since we heard from second generation AACM members  Adegoke “Ade” Steve Colson and Iqua Colson, but GLOW: Music for Trio … Add Voice (Silver Sphinx, 2025) sums up their artistry well: protest pieces, spirituality, and pure jazz that is more accessible than you might think.  The couple has been married for fifty years. Ade joined the AACM in 1972 and has long been a major voice in experimental music, having written over two hundred and fifty compositions for various ensembles. The legendary drummer Andrew Cyrille and inventive bassist Mark Helias are joining them on this effort. If you’re unfamiliar with the Colsons, you should be drawn to the record by Andrew Cyrille’s presence alone. Iqua performs vocals, both with lyrics and without, on four tracks. Ade composed all pieces except “Atrocities,” which was penned by Iqua. 

The track that is already garnering attention is the protest song, “Atrocities.” Iqua says that they did not intend to make a politically-charged album, but in these times, music must bear witness. This bent traces back to their “Triumph of the Outcasts, Coming” from Triumph! (Silver Sphinx, 1980). “Atrocities” asks, “When will we be truly free?” and couched within are lines such as “Thoughts and prayers don’t change the game/Can you list each murdered name?” This nine-minute epic begins with Ade’s somber chords, Cyrille’s patented skittering, and a robust bassline from Helias underpinning Iqua’s Abbey Lincoln-like vocal approach. Ade takes a relatively structured piano solo that soon breaks free of tempo and convention, the trio’s answer to Iqua’s pleas.  Intensity lessens as Helias’ bassline keeps them on track for Iqua’s re-entry.  

The rest of the album addresses different themes. The album opener, “Getting Comfortable,” is an upbeat, samba-influenced tune that showcases Colson’s ever-venturing left hand, Helias’s robust tone, and Cyrille’s ability to sound like multiple percussionists on his drum set, at times as if he is playing castanets. “Clouds on a Sunny Day” also has a spiritual approach to resilience and hope. On it, Iqua sings gleefully, reminding us to retain joy in dark times. Cyrille’s brushwork is unparalleled here and on “Truly,” a Monk-like angular piece on which Ade and Helias also excel in their turns. Iqua’s warm vocals and acute phrasing are on display in the rhythmic, tricky “Midnight Samba.” It’s a tune that the duo has often played in live performances but has not brought to record until now. Again, Cyrille is also uncanny on Brazilian fare. 

Yet another upbeat piece is “For Freddie,” a nod to the late hard-swinging trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, one of the few of his generation equally at home with mainstream jazz and the avant-garde. Hubbard plays on Eric Dolphy’s Out to Lunch (Blue Note, 1964) and Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation (Atlantic, 1960) in addition to his revered Blue Note and CTI catalogs. Fittingly, the trio swings hard on this one, with Ade bouncing around the piano while Cyrille and Helias bring the heat. Listen carefully and you’ll hear quotes from Hubbard’s tunes as well. 

Speaking of heat, the trio closes with the title track, a sublimely gorgeous piece imbued by Helias’s arco and pizzicato bass, Cyrille’s unmatched brushwork, Iqua’s wordless vocals, and immensely bright piano in this medium-tempo waltz. Trumpet great, the late powerhouse Hannibal Marvin Peterson first recorded it in 1968, showing he had a softer side, too.  

GLOW contains almost six decades of music, practically a career retrospective for the Colsons, wrapped into seven tidy pieces. Those decades of experience show through on this fine recording, abetted by the stellar bass-drum tandem of Helias and Cyrille. 

‘GLOW: Music for Trio … Add Voice’ will be released on August 22, 2025 on Silver Sphinx Records. It is available on Bandcamp