New Orleans’s composer Jason Marsalis, renowned for being a prodigal drummer and vibraphonist, has announced the release of a new full-length album with his newly formed Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet. In A World of Mallets is due out on February 19th via Basin Street Records, and it will be his third album release on the label, following his 2000’s album Music in Motion and the 1998’s Year of the Drummer.

In A World of Mallets was self-produced and it features original compositions and contributions from Marsalis’ quartet members Austin Johnson on piano, Will Goble on Bass, and Dave Potter on drums, and also covers which are an hommage to former jazz greats, according to the press release.

The first taste from Jason Marsalis Vibes Quartet’s forthcoming effort is the marvellous ‘Blues Can Be Abstract, Too’, a track where Marsalis “questions those who believe blues must be primitive in nature”. Listen to it now.