When it comes to music that we enjoy and consume, our preferred format will always be physical media and vinyl, cassette and CD’s which are the foundations and beginning of our love of collecting music. In recent years, some of our favorite labels and artists have been releasing music on multiple formats and Albina Music Trust has just added to our CD collection with an absolutely stellar of a Jazz album by Domo Branch titled “Hands of Gifts”. Having given it a first listen while I’m here in Japan, I couldn’t help that it really felt so peaceful and a perfect fit for any of the Jazz Kissa listening bars that I’ve visited over the last week and makes me want to get home to transform a portion of my living space into that same environment.
Gratitude is a powerful thing: an acknowledgement of past good and the humility to thank the people who have walked before in order to make a way for each person in the present. Drummer and composer Domo Branch is deeply attuned to the reality of those who paved the path and granted opportunities for him. Splitting his time between New York City and his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Branch has quickly risen as a leading voice in contemporary jazz, blending rhythmic sophistication with an emotional depth that resonates deeply with audiences. An in-demand performer and collaborator, he has appeared with Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Sean Jones, Stefon Harris, Catherine Russell, Terence Blanchard, Dianne Reeves, Taylor Eigsti, and many others. Now, astride his quartet of peers, Branch presents Hand of Gifts, an album united around themes of gratitude and celebration, due for release on October 31, 2025 via Albina Music Trust.
Branch describes Hand of Gifts as “a deeply personal journey through memory, movement, and tribute.” Branch seeks to use this album to give back and pay homage to his past, his community, and the broader world of jazz. A notable element of this idea of giving and acknowledgement is seen through the very label on which Branch’s album releases: Albina Music Trust. Named after a historically Black American neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, the Albina Music Trust is a non-profit organization and full-service community archive that is dedicated to the restoration of this community’s historic music culture. Branch’s partnership with the Albina Music Trust embodies both the intergenerational vibrancy the trust upholds and the spirit of gratitude by which Branch’s album is empowered.