Well known for her collaborations with Archie Shepp and respected for her string arrangements for Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill Quartette Indigo cellist Akua Dixon returns in early-2015 with a new self-titled album shaped around the setting of an improvising string quartet.

Released on her own label Akua’s Music and bookended by Mingus classic ‘Haitian Fight Song’ and ‘Poinciana,’ the Nat Simon standard synonymous with Ahmad Jamal, the album’s repertoire moves through Ellingtonia via the Great American Songbook to Afro-Cuban and nuevo tango settings.

Joining the New York-born player and the core quartet are her son Orion and daughter Andromeda Turre as well as guests Regina Carter who solos on Ellington’s ‘Freedom,’ Cachao’s ‘A Gozar Con Mi Combo,’ and Piazzolla’s ‘Libertango,’ and John Blake Jr, on what is one of the former McCoy Tyner violinist’s final recordings. Look out for a release in mid-January.

Akua Dixon, above