His 2018 debut album Phoenix featured a stellar cast of musicians and guests including trumpet legend Nicholas Payton, rising star Jonathan Hoard and guitar heavyweight Nir Felder, and was heralded by Jazz press and heavily featured at Bandcamp. Now, Javier follows up with a more modest acoustic instrumentation consisting of more traditional instruments like acoustic piano, upright bass and drum set.

The core band consisting of Ben Flocks and Dayna Stephens on saxophones, Corey Fonville on drums, Nir Felder on guitar and Zach Brown on bass recorded at the now defunct Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA in September of 2016. From there Santiago released eight of the tracks on Phoenix in June of 2018 - leaving several gems left over for a potential future release.

Santiago explains, “These compositions that didn’t make the original Phoenix record are very close to my heart and I just couldn’t stand to see them sit in the vault and collect dust… Hence the B-Sides...” In opposition to the more cutting edge and synthesized beatscapes of Phoenix, B-Sides offers the same lush harmonies and haunting melodies but in a more straight ahead setting.

B-Sides is set for release on October 18th, with preorders beginning on September 20.