Today, jazz, jam and fusion guitarist Ari Joshua has shared “Tagine,” a new single pulled from the vault and released via Music Factory Records. This archival gem dates back to the early 2000s and features performances from Marco Benevento and Joe Russo. With Benevento on the organ and Russo behind the kit, the trio cultivates a smoky, dark atmosphere that swirls with portent as the artists intermittently exorcise their experimental impulses.

“Tagine” takes its name from a Moroccan restaurant in New York that hosted a weekly jam led by Benevento which drew a who’s-who of future jam figureheads. “I was playing a lot around the city, Marco and Joe were two of my favorite players, we played several times in various configurations, and I would come to Tagine with my guitar, and later The Knitting Factory ready to create,” Joshua recounts of the track’s origins. “I knew they had something special, I was hoping to play with them more, but they were getting increasingly busier and busier. I just love to play with both Marco and Joe. I am so glad we got to do this recording.”

More than an artifact from the gig-to-gig origins and early collaborative habits of 20-something Russo and Benevento, “Tagine” refracts a moment of social crises, harkening back to the ambitious, harrowing and broadly defined origins of psychedelic fusion and prog-rock to express the grief of New York in the early aughts. “This track is something I wrote after 9-11,” the artist recalls. “The week after 9-11 we were driving with all our gear in Marco’s Subaru across the bridge. It was like a military shutdown. They searched the vehicle, but the guys must have known the difference between a Hammond organ and a bomb cause they let us through, and we crossed the bridge and played at Tagine.”

Joshua’s latest single was put to tape at Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Wombat Studios in the early ‘00s. As the release notes that it is the first of the session to see release, fans could hear another dispatch from the archives of Joshua, Benevento and Russo sometime soon. For now, “Tagine” is available on all streaming platforms.

Listen to “Tagine” below, and visit arijoshua.com for more information on the artist.