POP MUSIC : SMALL FACES

Phish is starting work on its first album since last year’s Top 10 live set. Meantime, “Surrender to the Air,” a free-jazz album organized by Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio and featuring such stalwarts as former Sun Ra saxophonist Marshall Allen, as well as Phish drummer John Fishman, is due March 12. . . .

Epitaph Records owner (and ex-Bad Religion co-founder) Brett Gurewitz is working on his debut with his new band the Daredevils. Epitaph has a single scheduled for early March, with the album probably coming in September. . . . Meanwhile, Epitaph’s biggest band, Offspring, is expected to start work in March or April on its follow-up to its 5 million-selling “Smash.”

English trip-hopsters Portishead are working on their second album at home in Bristol. It’s due in spring or summer. . . . Johnny Cash is in L.A. working on the follow-up to his lauded debut for Rick Rubin’s American Recordings. . . .

Indie folk-punk Ani DiFranco has a new album, “Dilate,” due April 23, with a show planned for L.A.’s Mayan Theatre on June 2. . . . Capitol Records executives heard Rosanne Cash’s demos for her first album for the label and liked them so much they decided to release them as they are. The set is due April 2.