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NEW YORK, NY – September 19, 2025 – For the first time since its release over three decades ago, the landmark 1994 album In Love by the legendary Jazz Passengers will be available on all major streaming platforms beginning today, September 19, 2025.
An eccentric, genre-defying gem from New York’s downtown scene, In Love is a wild, heartfelt, and often hilarious collaboration that brought together an extraordinary lineup of musical icons. Featuring rare studio performances by Jeff Buckley, Debbie Harry, Mavis Staples, Jimmy Scott, Freedy Johnston, Bob Dorough, Marc Ribot, and produced by the late Hal Willner, with Hugo Dwyer as producer and engineer, the album remains a cult favorite among adventurous music lovers.
Until now, In Love has only existed in physical form, traded lovingly by diehard fans and collectors. This fall, the album gets a long-overdue digital rebirth, making its rich tapestry of avant-jazz, soul, cabaret, and experimental pop accessible to a new generation of listeners.
Roy Nathanson, co-founder and saxophonist of Jazz Passengers, recalls the project as “one of those very few times in my life when I knew I was involved in something truly magical.” “By 1994, the Passengers had been a kind of simpatico, improvising machine for about six years, but we’d never landed a deal with a major label,” he explains. “When my good friend Bob Appel suggested we do a vocal record with special guests and asked if I could get Hal [Willner] to produce it, I said—great idea! Hal began gathering these amazing singers while I started writing songs with Ray Dobbins and David Cale, and suddenly the album started to take shape. Some songs were written with specific vocalists in mind—‘Dog in Sand’ for Debbie Harry, for instance—while others, like ‘Kidnapped,’ didn’t find their singer until Hal brought in Mavis Staples. Curtis [Fowlkes] composed ‘Jolly Street,’ and Ray and I wrote lyrics once we knew Jeff Buckley would sing it.”
“As the sessions unfolded, this transformative energy built around the project,” Nathanson continues. “By the time we recorded ‘Imitation of a Kiss’ with Jimmy Scott, it was electric—goosebumps. Every session had its own energy. The singers and the songs were perfectly matched, and it was all filled with love. Everyone involved—the Jazz Passengers, the guests, the producers—was, quite literally, in love. You can hear it. That’s why it always felt tragic that this record was unavailable for so long. To finally release it now—well, I just can’t tell you how happy that makes me.”
Bob Appel, Executive Producer, “After so many years of being unavailable, a new audience will get to hear Jazz Passengers‘ masterpiece In Love. Every member participating in beautiful writing. Guest vocalist like Debbie Harry, Jeff Buckley, Mavis Staples and many others turned in performances of a lifetime outside of their usual genres. There are lyrical gems that belong in the great American songbook. And all of this orchestrated by the masterful project production of the very missed Hal Willner. Roy Nathanson and Jazz Passengers deserve another look as a leading ensemble of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Songwriter David Cale adds, “Eccentric, emotional, playful and serious, I don’t know of any recording quite like The Jazz Passengers’ “In Love” album. My time in the studio with Jimmy Scott recording “Imitation of a Kiss” was one of the most artistically thrilling experiences of my life. When Jimmy started singing, the song left the ground. He took it to a place I never could have imagined. Happily it’s all captured on the recording.”
Guitarist and composer, Marc Ribot, who contributed to the album, adds: “There are records that document history, and then there are records that create their own world. In Love does both. Playing on it felt like stepping into a surrealist jazz cabaret run by geniuses and madmen. I’ve never heard anything quite like it, before or since.”
The Jazz Passengers are revered for their boundary-pushing compositions and theatrical flair. In Love captures the group at their creative peak, assembling an ensemble that defies category while remaining unmistakably New York.
Streaming Debut: September 19, 2025
Platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and all major DSPs
Listen Early: https://soundcloud.com/thejazzpassengers/sets/in-love
For interview requests, advance links, or additional press materials, please contact:
Jay Wilson jaydwilson@gmail.com 646-320-6701
The Jazz Passengers