| Jazz |
After a Decade Away, Trombonist and Composer John Yao Returns with a Blazing New Big Band Album.
It’s been ten long years since trombonist, composer, and bandleader John Yao last stepped into the spotlight with his big band. Now, with a renewed creative fire and a decade’s worth of life experience behind him, Yao returns in full force, delivering a new recording that fuses the bold swing of bebop with a contemporary orchestral flair, and signals not only a personal triumph but also a reaffirmation of the big band as a vital mode of expression in jazz.
From the opening track, Yao wastes no time reminding listeners of his distinctive voice as a composer and instrumentalist. Gleaming brass fanfares, complex harmonic movements, and a rhythm section that drives with both precision and soul, this is music that inhabits the sonic terrain somewhere between the muscular poise of Michael Dease and the exuberant energy of Nils Landgren, yet it’s unmistakably stamped with Yao’s singular identity.
Twenty years ago, Yao arrived in New York City, quickly establishing himself as a promising voice in the jazz world. His debut album Flip-Flop was met with critical acclaim, hailed for its inventive compositions and rich ensemble writing. With this new release, he returns not just with experience, but with a deeper well of emotion and narrative power, an album that bridges the past and present, and positions Yao once again in the center of the conversation about the future of jazz composition.
“A lot has happened over the past twenty years, events that stirred something deep within me,” Yao reflects. “Sometimes it takes a while for those emotions to settle, to steep in your consciousness. But eventually, they find their way into the music. It’s almost like osmosis.”
The album includes re-imaginings of some of Yao’s favorite pieces from earlier ensembles, reshaped into dazzling new big band arrangements that elevate their original architecture. Alongside these are fresh compositions, written in recent years and first performed as part of his “Big Band & Beyond” concert series at Greenwich House Music School—an ambitious project that followed the release of Flip-Flop and marked the evolution of his voice as an orchestrator and storyteller.
Indeed, it is the storytelling quality of Yao’s music that most distinguishes this new body of work. His arrangements evoke the textures and pacing of film scores, cinematic not merely in mood but in structure, with compositions unfolding like dramatic arcs, each track a short film in sound.
Several pieces are drawn directly from the most intimate chapters of Yao’s life: his marriage to Natalie, her harrowing battle with cancer, and the birth of their son Nolan following her recovery. These deeply personal moments are etched into the album’s emotional core. On “Early Morning Walk,” Yao captures the quiet tenderness of early love and the resilience required to endure illness, crafting a poignant, lyrical ballad that aches with restrained beauty. “Song for Nolan” is its emotional counterpoint, a joyful explosion of rhythm and harmony, an ecstatic tribute to fatherhood and renewal.
The emotional weight of these compositions is impossible to ignore. Yao writes music the way a screenwriter writes dialogue: with intent, nuance, and a feel for drama. “It’s an incredible feeling, one you want to relive again and again,” he says of the experience. “A great trombone solo is satisfying on its own. But to hear musicians from all over the world breathe life into your music, to connect with them so intimately through sound—that’s something profound. It’s transformative.”
The result is not just a collection of tunes, but an immersive musical experience. Each track offers both artistic sophistication and genuine emotional resonance, qualities that have earned Yao no shortage of praise. Lucid Culture has described him as “one of New York’s elite trombonists,” and praised his work as that of an “ambitious, spiritual, visionary composer and bandleader.” All About Jazz has called his music “powerfully eclectic.” In 2023, Yao was named in DownBeat magazine’s Critics Poll as a Rising Star both for Trombone and Big Band.
Now, with five albums under his belt as a leader and a growing reputation for daring compositions across ensembles large and small, Yao reaches a new pinnacle. In April 2025, he was named a Guggenheim Fellow in Musical Composition, an honor that not only recognizes his past achievements, but also the promise of what’s still to come.
For listeners unfamiliar with John Yao’s work, this album offers a perfect entry point. For longtime fans, it marks a triumphant return, an artist reclaiming his voice, his vision, and the wide open space of the big band format, and making it sing once more.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, June 7th 2025
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Album Preview Concert on June 26, 2025 at the Culture Lab LIC
Musicians :
Saxes:
Billy Drewes – Alto, Soprano Saxes
Hashem Assadulahi – Alto Sax
Rich Perry – Tenor Sax
Tim Armacost – Tenor Sax
Carl Maraghi – Baritone Sax
Trumpets & Flugels:
Nick Marchione
John Lake
David Neves
David Smith
Trombones:
Matt McDonald
Nick Vayenas
Sam Blakeslee
Max Seigel
Rhythm Section:
Hyuna Park, Piano
Robert Sabin, Bass
Andy Watson, Drums
Tracklist :
Upside
Not Even Close
Triceratps Blues
First Step
The Other Way
Early Morning Walk
Song for Nolan
Finger Painting
Recorded at Oktaven Studios, Mount Vernon, NY
February 12 and 13, 2024
Engineered by Ryan Streiber
Mixed by Brian Montgomery
Mastered by Fred Kevorkian, Kevorkian Mastering