| Jazz |
Justin Pierce’s Sway: Ten Standards, One Marriage and a Dance Floor Full of Warmth, Swing and New Orleans Joy.
Sway, the debut album of Dallas–Fort Worth saxophonist Justin Pierce and his wife, vocalist Ashley Pierce, is made to be lived with. It is the sort of record you put on while dinner simmers, while friends arrive, or while two people in the corner of a room forget that anyone else is there. Ten songs from the American songbook and the jazz tradition, played with warmth, taste and a generous dose of Latin rhythm and New Orleans second-line spirit by a quintet that obviously enjoys every minute. It is charming, elegant and very easy to love.
The idea behind the album is simple and lovely. Justin and Ashley Pierce met in college and have been husband and wife and musical partners ever since, for more than twenty years. They have spent that time on bandstands where the music has a very concrete job: to be the soundtrack of a moment between two people, like the couple on the dance floor. Sway is their attempt, as Justin puts it, to bottle that feeling and share it with a wider audience.
Their story began on the Gulf Coast. As students at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, they started playing together at a restaurant in town, and in 2010 they toured Romania with the McNeese Jazz Band. Justin, who has played the saxophone since the age of twelve, went on to earn a Master’s degree and a doctorate at the University of North Texas, where he was lead alto saxophonist in the famed One O’Clock Lab Band (Lab 2012). He has shared stages with Arturo Sandoval, Randy Brecker, Bob Mintzer, Doc Severinsen, the Temptations and the O’Jays, and has taught at the University of North Texas and Oklahoma Baptist University. Ashley, from Orange, Texas, has sung with him ever since, in concert halls, at galas and at private events across Texas and beyond. The Gulf Coast has left its mark on the record: those New Orleans rhythms are not decoration, they are part of who the Pierces are.
The album was recorded in a single session, on May 5th 2025 in Dallas, and you can feel it: there is a relaxed, in-the-room energy that no amount of studio polish could manufacture. Justin chose three musicians he trusts, all University of North Texas alumni and former members of the One O’Clock Lab Band: Pianist Sean Michael Giddings, from Kansas City, has toured internationally with Christopher Cross and Pat Green and has his own solo albums on Origin Records, including Red Willow. Bassist Young Heo, born in Seoul, has more than twenty studio credits, plays in the Dallas String Quartet and has collaborated with Ellis and Delfeayo Marsalis. Grammy-nominated drummer Matt Young has toured the world with White Denim and moves comfortably between jazz, pop and indie rock. Together they form a rhythm section that swings lightly, listens closely and knows exactly when to push. Rich DeRosa, Grammy-nominated composer and director of jazz composition and arranging at UNT, called the record “an impressive musical statement”, and he is right.
At the front, Justin Pierce plays mostly tenor saxophone with a pleasing tone and a thorough mastery of the swing and bebop vocabulary, while Ashley Pierce sings on seven of the ten tracks with a voice that is clean, unaffected and naturally warm. They are the perfect partners: when she sings, he accompanies like a singer’s friend; when he plays, the melody never loses its song.
The programme is a lovely mix of vocal standards and instrumental features, and each song has been given its own rhythmic colour: “Sway” (4:19) opens the album with Ashley’s voice over a relaxed Latin groove, direct, elegant and rhythmically buoyant. Justin and pianist Sean Michael Giddings take the first of the album’s many fine solos, and the tone is set. “Honeysuckle Rose” (5:23) is the Fats Waller classic in a bright, swinging, conversational mood. It begins as a duet between Young Heo’s walking bass and Ashley’s voice, which dances happily above it, before the rest of the band joins in. It is one of the most charming moments of the record.
“The Jody Grind” (4:19) is Horace Silver’s tune, an instrumental with a funky boogaloo feel and shifting tempos, the kind of arrangement that Silver would have enjoyed. The band settles into the groove with real gusto, and Justin’s saxophone sparkles. “Meglio Stasera” (5:27) is Henry Mancini’s tune, sung by Ashley in Italian and turned into an energetic, double-time samba. It is a colourful, almost cinematic moment, and a first sign of the Pierces’ love of rhythmic reinvention.
“All Blues” (4:57) is the surprise of the album. Miles Davis’s famous blues is taken at a faster tempo than you expect, with a New Orleans second-line double-time feel and a funky groove from drummer Matt Young. The blues stays at the centre, and the tune acquires a new personality, one that makes you want to stand up and move. “Alone Together” (5:01) gets a faster Latin treatment, with Ashley’s voice bringing out the dark, romantic character of the song while the arrangement gives it forward motion and intensity. “Moon River” (3:59) is the most tender vocal moment of the album: a simple, lyrical, emotionally direct waltz in three-four, which lets the melody speak for itself.
“In a Sentimental Mood” (5:18) is a quiet instrumental feature for the saxophone. Duke Ellington’s ballad is played in a restrained, lyrical way with a breathy tone that carries one of the most beautiful melodies in the jazz repertoire. “Just the Two of Us” (5:15) turns Bill Withers’ song, which Grover Washington Jr. made famous, into a funky soul-jazz ballad, with Ashley’s voice linking the vocabulary of jazz with a warmer, more contemporary groove. “L-O-V-E” (3:59) closes the record with a joyful vocal feature in a New Orleans second-line double-time feel, a spirited parade-rhythm version that leaves you with a smile and the urge to press play again.
What makes Sway work is that it never pretends to be something other than what it is: a record about melody, swing, lyricism and respect for the tradition, made by musicians who honour songs with warmth, taste and honest expression. The arrangements bring fresh rhythmic ideas to familiar tunes (a second line here, a samba there, a Latin groove somewhere else) without ever losing sight of the song. The solos are concise and tasteful, the band gels beautifully, and Ashley’s voice, clear as a bell and genuinely warm, is a pleasure from start to finish.
The record was produced by Justin Pierce, with vocal production by Rosana Eckert, mixing by Kent Stump and mastering by James Driscoll, and the sound is natural and inviting, which is exactly what this music needs. The album is available on CD, LP and digital formats on Justin’s own label, and its handsome packaging, with artwork and photography by Beau Raines, is a bonus for collectors.
It is a debut that sounds like an old friendship: relaxed, confident and full of affection. If you love classic songs played with joy, if you like your jazz with a bit of dance in it, or if you simply want an album to turn an ordinary evening into an occasion, put Sway on, and let it carry you.
Frankie Pfeiffer
Editor in chief – PARIS-MOVE
PARIS-MOVE, October 21st, 2026
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Tracklisting:
- Sway (feat. Ashley Pierce) 04:19
- Honeysuckle Rose (feat. Ashley Pierce) 05:23
- The Jody Grind 04:19
- Meglio Stasera (feat. Ashley Pierce) 05:27
- All Blues 04:57
- Alone Together (feat. Ashley Pierce) 05:01
- Moon River (feat. Ashley Pierce) 03:59
- In a Sentimental Mood 05:18
- Just the Two of Us (feat. Ashley Pierce) 05:15
- L-O-V-E (feat. Ashley Pierce) 03:59
Musicians:
Justin Pierce – saxophone
Ashley Pierce – vocals
Sean Michael Giddings – piano
Young Heo – bass
Matt Young – drums
Credits:
Recorded May 5, 2025 in Dallas, Texas
Produced by Justin Pierce – vocal production by Rosana Eckert
Mixed by Kent Stump
Mastered by James Driscoll
Executive producers: David Livingston and Dowell Stackpole