Immanuel Wilkins Quartet - Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1 (2026 Blue Note Gatefold 2LP)

Immanuel Wilkins Quartet - Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. 1 | 2 x Vinyl LP - 2026 Blue Note (00602488170871, GZ Media)

Immanuel Wilkins was born in 1997 in Philadelphia. He studied at Juilliard. His Blue Note debut Omega arrived in 2020 and was followed by The 7th Hand in 2022, both Grammy-nominated. This quartet has been his working band from the start: Micah Thomas on piano, Ryoma Takenaga on bass, Kweku Sumbry on drums. On May 15 and 16, 2025, they played the Village Vanguard.

"Warriors" opens the record. It originally appeared on Omega as a studio track; the live version here runs fourteen minutes, the solos extended past anything the studio had allowed. Wilkins's alto carries echoes of Eric Dolphy's angularity and Coltrane's spiritual intensity without imitating either. Thomas's piano solo follows at the same level of commitment. "Composition II" is the quietest piece, modelled on Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Takenaga's bass given an extended solo that draws the room into silence.

"Charanam" on Side C is Alice Coltrane's devotional composition. Wilkins brings it into the set as the one piece not written by a member of the band. Thomas opens with a piano vamp that builds slowly before Wilkins enters, his alto tone shifting toward something more oboe-like as the piece develops through eighteen minutes. "Eternal" closes Vol. 1 at nearly twenty minutes. The final thirteen minutes consist of the quartet repeating a measured 11-note phrase in a cycle that is profoundly hypnotic. 

This is the first of three volumes. Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 followed digitally in April and May 2026. Pressed by GZ Media; lacquers cut at Sterling Sound Nashville.