Michael Eckroth Minas Messengers Announce New Album New Paths, a journey of self discovery through the oral traditions of Minas, Brazil
Out June 19, 2026 via Truth Revolution Recording Collective
Truth Revolution Recording Collective is proud to announce the June 19 release of New Paths, the latest album from pianist and composer Michael Eckroth and his Minas Messengers. Recorded in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the album is the product of a Fulbright Scholar residency and draws on the folkloric Congado traditions of Minas Gerais, finding the intersection of these cultural forms with jazz improvisation, Brazilian popular music, and Eckroth’s personal compositional voice. The album features longtime collaborators and new musical connections, including bassist and co-producer Eneias Xavier, guitarist Magno Alexandre, drummer Cyrano Almeida, percussionist Talles Bibiano, and special guest, Minas guitar legend Toninho Horta.
Congado is a centuries-old Afro-Brazilian tradition that emerged during the colonial era, as enslaved communities preserved cultural expression through processions of percussion, song, and dance. Rooted in specific villages and passed down through generations, these festivals blend Catholic ritual with ceremonies honoring the coronation of the King of the Congo. While unified in origin, each community maintains its own distinct rhythmic identity. Eckroth encountered Congado firsthand while traveling with Talles Bibiano through small towns in Minas Gerais. Those experiences became central to shaping the music for this project.
Eckroth has maintained deep ties to Belo Horizonte since the late 1990s, when his college roommate introduced him to the city and its musical culture. When the opportunity arose to apply for a Fulbright Scholar Award, he seized it as a chance to formalize what had long been an ongoing musical dialogue with Minas. The residency, spanning portions of 2023 and 2024, gave him something rare: sustained daily time for composition. Writing while renting apartments in Belô, performing at local venues like Café com Letras, and participating in the Tabuleiro Jazz Festival, Eckroth assembled the material that would become New Paths with The Minas Messengers project developing over this period.
The album opens with its title track, a loop-based composition drawn from recorded Congado procession music. Driven by layered motifs and improvisations over vamps, “New Paths” sets the tone for an album in which rhythmic texture and compositional structure are in constant dialogue. “Saideras” draws from the spirit of the Clube da Esquina movement associated with Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges, while incorporating synthesizer textures and a lead guitar solo from Magno Alexandre. “Congado Novo/Novo Congado” evokes the feeling of hearing a procession approach in the distance at dusk, featuring sopranoist Breno Mendonça alongside a clarinet melody carried by David Fernandez and doubled by Xavier on bass, with voice contributions from Talles Bibiano and guest vocalist Natália Coimbra. “Canto I” is a samba written in 3/4, a rhythmic variation associated with Minas musicians, and features rhythm guitar by Toninho Horta alongside a wordless vocal performance by New York vocalist Sachal Vasandani. “Canto II” serves as the album’s ballad, spare and reflective, built on a piano and guitar doubling of the melody.
“Cançao da Serra” (“song of the hills”) deploys a full reed section of flute, clarinet, soprano, alto, and two tenor saxophones, and draws on the influence of Hermeto Pascoal in its layering of repeated melodic material with contrasting textures and solo passages. “Inward Flow” channels the feel of Congado into an energetic vehicle for improvisation, while “Mood” offers a slightly funky take on the bossa nova, inspired by the evening light over the valley outside Eckroth’s Belo Horizonte apartment. The album closes with “Waltz for Feya,” a jazz waltz written in memory of South African trumpeter Feya Faku, who performed alongside Eckroth at the Tabuleiro Festival in 2024 and passed away shortly after.
Eckroth’s previous work has drawn extensively on Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican traditions, situating his compositional voice within the broader landscape of Latin jazz and its folkloric roots. New Paths represents a distinct and parallel direction, turning toward the interior of Brazil and the hills of Minas Gerais, deepening his engagement with Latin American musical traditions in a new and less-charted territory.
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