By Dara Kerr
Publication Date: 2026-04-11 12:00:00
JAson Moran, a well-known jazz composer and pianist, received a strange call from a friend last month. The friend, bassist Burniss Earl Travis, was curious about Moran’s new record, which he had seen on the music streaming service Spotify.
“It says your name,” Travis told him. “But I don’t think it’s you.”
Moran said he doesn’t use Spotify or put his music on the platform, preferring to just use the website Bandcamp, which is why this wasn’t recorded. After some research, he found an artist profile with his name on Spotify that was filled with albums from his former label, Blue Note Records, which owns the rights to his early music. There he saw a new EP called For You. The album cover was in a moody Japanese anime style and featured a young woman sitting on the ground in the rain. He listened to it.
“There’s not even a piano player on this whole damn record,” Moran said, laughing. He described the music as indie pop, saying: “It wasn’t anywhere near that…
