ALDEN HELLMUTH - Tether ALDEN HELLMUTH

In any band there is a constant push and pull. A state of tension and release between written music and improvisation, between leading and following each other. In the instinctive, unpredictable world of jazz, that push and pull can explode groups and compositions into entirely new forms, yet no matter how far each player might be stretched there is always something connecting them back to each other and back to the tune. A tether.
 
For New York-based saxophonist and composer Alden Hellmuth, that innate sense of connection between bandmates and between the dual states of form and freedom is a crucial aspect of her creativity. Following her German Jazz Prize winning 2024 debut album Good Intentions, Hellmuth now returns with the aptly titled Tether, an eight-track exploration of jazz, punk and freeform improvisation that centers on the notion that regardless of how loud and unruly her band might get, the tether always ties the players back to the listener and their invigorating experience. Tether will be released via LEITER on limited edition vinyl and all digital platforms on June 26, 2026.
 
“The record is a study in how to effectively write and communicate improvisational ideas,” she says. “We’re always bending and pulling to make something new out of the music in the present moment and even in the improvising world you have to stay tethered to other people in the band. All of us are connected.”
 
Drawing on the free jazz double bass ensembles of Ornette Coleman and Andrew Hill, Tether sees Hellmuth enlist the thunderous ensemble of two innovative bassists – Logan Kane and Miller Wrenn – alongside drummer Justin Brown (Thundercat, Aja Monet) to deliver a suite of heavy low-end compositions. Panning each bassist left to right and playing off Wrenn’s and Kane’s distinct timbres, the resulting record veers from the frenetic rhythmic shuffle of opener ‘Microfictions’ to the punk-inflected riotousness of ‘Face The Wall’, the meditative bass harmonics and textural melodies of ‘Guesswork’ and the wonky polyrhythmic interchanges of the group’s take on the John Coltrane standard ‘Satellite’. Throughout, Hellmuth’s alto saxophone playing is bright, nimble and deeply felt, wreathing sharp lines through the heady bass-weight of her quartet to deliver a lead performance that only serves to uplift the group rather than subsume it in her virtuosity.
 
“I want to challenge and push myself all the time,” she says. “There was a lot of energy behind the project and I hope people can feel that. It isn’t just a jazz record – the influences range from Anthony Braxton to Japanese punk bands like October Beaver to Deerhoof and we were just letting it all fly.”
 
Growing up in Hartford, Connecticut – home of pioneering saxophonist Jackie McLean – Hellmuth was drawn to the instrument from an early age and began playing in middle school bands where she was exposed to jazz. “I was in awe the first time I heard Charlie Parker,” she says. “The idea that you could do all that on the saxophone opened my whole world up.”
 
Going on to study at the Hartt School in Connecticut, Hellmuth honed her compositional skills and after moving to New York post-graduation she formed the quintet featured on her 2024 debut album, Good Intentions. Across eight original compositions, Hellmuth builds a confident soundworld of lively improvisation and emotive melodies anchored in her lithe lines on the saxophone. The record led her to win the 2025 German Jazz Prize for Debut Album of the Year International, as well as earning the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award in 2024. 
 
Riding high on the success of her remarkable debut, Hellmuth had little time to rest on her laurels as she soon enrolled into the Master’s program at the prestigious Herbie Hancock Institute at UCLA. Mentored by contemporary jazz greats like trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, saxophonist Walter Smith III and Herbie Hancock himself, who Hellmuth had a chance to tour with, she soon began formulating the ideas that would make up Tether. 
 
“One of the bassists, Miller, asked me to play a show with him at a DIY performance space in LA called Non Plus Ultra and opening up for us was Logan performing this incredible solo bass set,” she says. “I felt really inspired by the grittiness of the space and suddenly thought, why not bring all of us together to write music with that ethos for two bassists?”
 
Adding LA drumming powerhouse Justin Brown into the mix, the group headed to the studio and began honing their spirited blend of written compositions with intuitive improvisations. “I was so inspired by all the artists I had been discovering and studying,” Hellmuth says. “’Microfictions’ was inspired by Anthony Braxton’s Ghost Trance Music, for instance, and the way that he communicates expansive improvisational ideas through meticulous melodic structures, while ‘Face the Wall’ was inspired by the Japanese punk music I was listening to; the idea for ‘Satellite (K)’ came about after I heard the pianist Kaja Draksler’s project ‘Punkt’ and ‘Fake(rs)’ was written in cyclical groupings that could be played at any point to fit together like a weird puzzle. It’s a choose your own adventure piece that allows the players themselves to transform the music.”
 
Enlisting other friends including pianist Paul Cornish and trumpeter Yakiv Tsvietinskyi as featured guests to round out the ensemble, the resulting record is a remarkable feat of impassioned influences that cohere in the tethered energy of the band’s universal forward motion. 

Finding a home for the record in the innovative and experimental roster of LEITER artists and with plans to bring this music to live audiences later in the year, as well as continuing to work on new repertoire for her sextet and quartet groups, Alden Hellmuth is clearly an exciting new talent with plenty more to say. “This album is simply me and my love of music,” she says. “It’s wholly authentic and that’s all that will ever matter.”