Jazz’s new generation is taking plenty of liberties with the form, and two forthcoming albums from Josh Johnson and Christian McBride arrive from very different corners of that impulse.

Johnson, the Chicago-raised, Los Angeles-based saxophonist, keyboardist, synthesist, composer and producer, will release Animative physically on Oct. 23 via International Anthem/Nonesuch, with its streaming release following Nov. 10. The album is his third under his own name and his first for the label, and it finds him building an electro-acoustic language from skeletal soul-jazz, post-bop, electronic minimalism and dreamy ambience.

More from Spin:

• ‘SNL’ Summons Turnstile, ROSALÍA, KATSEYE, Abrams
• ‘Who’s’ Next? It’s A New War On Drugs Song
• Slipknot Deploys The ‘Arsenal’

Johnson has become increasingly difficult to pin down to any one scene. He is a key member of Jeff Parker’s ETA IVtet, co-leads the all-star experimental ensemble SML and works across a sprawling network of collaborators. He also produced Meshell Ndegeocello’s Grammy-winning 2023 album The Omnichord Real Book and was heavily involved with Flea’s solo debut, Honora, and has been playing in the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist’s live band.

Animative sounds like a logical culmination of those disparate musical lives. Co-produced by Johnson and Paul Bryan, the 10-track album features contributions from Ndegeocello, Macie Stewart, Marquis Hill, Ben Lumsdaine and others. Johnson frequently uses his saxophone to control a sampler or drum machine, triggering changes in loops and effects, but the technology is ultimately subordinate to physical expression. “I’m looking to make it feel more human,” Johnson says.

Johnson will preview the album Sept. 21 at Los Angeles’ 2220 Arts + Archives, where Animative will be played in full between DJ sets from International Anthem’s King Hippo and Jocelyn Brown. Release shows are planned for Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Brooklyn, with Johnson performing as a trio with SML bassist Anna Butterss and drummer Lumsdaine.

Meanwhile, McBride is unveiling a very different kind of hybrid with Points of Light, the debut album from his newest ensemble, Ursa Major. The 11-time Grammy-winning bassist, composer and bandleader will release the album Oct. 30 via Mack Avenue Records.

Ursa Major brings McBride together with saxophonist Nicole Glover, guitarist Ely Perlman, pianist Mike King and drummer Savannah Harris, four younger musicians he began assembling in 2022 around the idea of a band that could move freely between acoustic jazz, funk, soul, hip-hop and more experimental territory. “I had been itching to put together a new band, what I like to call a ‘hybrid band,’ for some time,” McBride says. “I didn’t know at first what form that band would take, but I knew that it had to be a young band.”

Terrace Martin, whose production work spans Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock, produced the album, with Quintin Gulledge also contributing production and instrumentation. Martin captured the quintet’s live energy before adding synths, keyboards and vocoder to the proceedings. The album consists primarily of original material from each member, with one spontaneous exception: a version of George Duke’s 1992 single “No Rhyme, No Reason,” released alongside the album announcement and featuring Martin’s atmospheric soundscapes and vocoder.

“This album is basically an extension of what we’ve been doing live for the last four years,” McBride says. “It’s been fun to watch a band develop and grow and progress when everything is so wide open.”

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.