The name Artemis has been in the news this week, but not because of anything musical. NASA’s moon exploration program is called Artemis. The latest mission of the program, Artemis II, just launched yesterday. For the next week a diverse crew of astronauts will be traveling to the moon, circling around it and returning back to earth. This is incredible! I have excitedly been following news and footage of of this historic flight.
Of course, this also reminded me of one of my favorite new jazz groups that is also called Artemis. Artemis was formed around 2019 by pianist Renee Rosnes and consists of an all-star group of musicians: Ingrid Jensen (trumpet), Nicole Glover (saxophone), Noriko Ueda (bass), and Allison Miller (drums).
In the early 1990s, there was an excellent show on the tv channel BET that I used to tune into regularly called Jazz Central. This was probably the first time I saw Renee Rosnes perform and it made a lasting impression. Here is a clip from that show where she performs the Thelonious Monk tune “Four In One” with Michael Bowie on bass and Billy Drummond (her husband at the time) on drums:
Allison Miller has been a long time collaborator with Ani DiFranco. Here they are performing together in 2012:
Around that same time Ingrid Jensen was playing with one of my favorite modern jazz drummers Terri Lyne Carrington:
Noriko Ueda is a member of the long-running big band DIVA Jazz Orchestra. Here is performance of that large ensemble with Ueda predominantly featured:
In 2019 these master musicians formed like Voltron into Atremis and they have been consistently performing and releasing records in the years since. The first time I heard them was this killer performance of Monk’s “Brilliant Corners” at the New York City Winter Jazzfest in 2020:
They are positively burning here! This footage highlights what makes them such a great group: tight interplay on a tricky tune with brilliant solos throughout.
They have put out three records since the group’s formation. Their latest record is last year’s Arboresque, which is today’s pick!
The album starts out with a fun run through of the Donald Brown tune “The Smile of the Snake”. The drums play a really slinky, funky beat throughout and there it features a great piano solo:
Another highlight is the fast swing tune “Sights Unseen”, an original composition by Ingrid Jensen:
Artemis has performed in Baltimore several times, at Keystone Korner, but I unfortunately have missed them every time (including just last month). Here they are performing “Sights Unseen” there which really makes me kick myself for missing the show:
Arboresque also contains the band’s take on the classic Wayne Shorter tune “Footprints”:
They also performed this at the Newport Jazz Festival in 2024. This rendition is great, but I think they really fine-tuned it by the time they recorded it for Arboresque:
Artemis also shows their diversity by playing the Burt Bacharach standard “What The World Needs Now Is Love”:
I’ve been mostly featuring the cover songs on the record, but the original tunes are also uniformly excellent. Along with “Sights Unseen” two other songs I want to mention are “Olive Branch” (composed by Renee Rosnes) and “Little Cranberry” (composed by Allison Miller). Soon after Arboresque came out they performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert. Their set consisted of all three of these tunes!
I’m glad Artemis II reminded me to revisit Arboresque because it has been a while since I have plopped it on my turntable. I’ve had it on a pretty steady repeat the past couple days and it confirms my previous assessment that it was one of the best records released in 2025.
