| Jazz |
Summary: Brad Goode and Ernie Watts deliver a stunning live jazz performance filled with daring improvisation, emotional intensity and extraordinary musicianship, creating one of the most compelling contemporary jazz recordings in recent years.
Brad Goode and Ernie Watts Turn Live Jazz Into Pure Electricity
There was this album cover in muted shades of blue and gray that had been staring back at me for weeks. I kept leaving it in plain sight, almost deliberately, stretching out the anticipation because printed across the sleeve was the name of a musician who has fascinated me for years. A multi-instrumentalist of rare imagination, most often associated with the trumpet, though “playing” hardly feels like the right word for what he does with the instrument. Brad Goode does not simply perform notes. He sketches them into space, shaping sound with the instinct of a painter working with light and shadow. In many ways, that single image captures his place in contemporary jazz, an artist who continues to expand the vocabulary of the trumpet while remaining deeply connected to the emotional core of the music.
Then the CD finally slipped into the player, and through the studio monitors came the opening track, “Covid Nightmare.” The title alone suggested that this deeply sensitive musician also possessed a sharp sense of humor, perhaps even a touch of self-awareness about the absurdity and tension of recent years. But what struck me almost immediately was something else entirely. It took several minutes, and eventually the first burst of applause, before I realized I was listening to a live recording. The sound is captured and mixed with such extraordinary precision that the performance initially feels almost impossibly controlled, as though crafted in a studio rather than unfolding in real time before an audience.
Brad Goode remains as captivating as ever. He is one of those uncommon artists who seem to exist slightly outside conventional categories, a musician whose creative reach occasionally reminds me of the French virtuoso Médéric Collignon. Both possess that same fearless instinct to push beyond boundaries, venturing deep into uncharted musical territory while somehow maintaining coherence, emotion and swing.
The musical partnership between trumpet virtuoso Brad Goode and legendary saxophonist Ernie Watts began roughly eight years ago when the two first shared a stage. Their chemistry appears to have been immediate and undeniable. Since then, they have toured regularly, returning year after year with performances that electrify audiences through sheer energy and daring improvisation. Listening to them together often feels like watching a high-wire act without a safety net. Their constantly evolving repertoire of original compositions becomes the framework for conversations that are spontaneous, risky and alive.
Certain passages inevitably bring Miles Davis to mind, especially echoes of the bebop years. Yet Goode is more restless, more volatile, almost driven by a sense of urgency. The resemblance lies less in phrasing than in intention. Like Miles during his most exploratory periods, Goode understands how silence, tension and sudden bursts of lyricism can completely reshape the emotional atmosphere of a piece. When the instrumental tension momentarily eases, one can sense faint connections between a legend of the past and what increasingly feels like a legend of the present: Brad Goode himself.
And surrounding them is a magnificent quintet that gives the music its full dimension. Every player seems committed not merely to accompaniment but to elevating the entire performance. The rhythm section deserves particular praise for the way it sustains both momentum and flexibility, allowing the compositions to breathe while still driving them forward with relentless energy. At times the piano enters almost cautiously, laying down fragments of harmony before the trumpet suddenly erupts into the foreground, answered moments later by Ernie Watts with lines of astonishing warmth and clarity. There is beauty in the energy and beauty in the poetry of the moment.
Seeing the names Ernie Watts and Brad Goode together on a concert poster already promises something special. Hearing them together onstage is overwhelming. You can hear the audience responding to it throughout the album. Not with polite appreciation, but with that heavy, almost physical intensity of genuine pleasure that great jazz performances can provoke. Listening to this record, I would have given almost anything to witness such a concert in person.
That level of intensity once belonged to the great eras of Miles Davis, Weather Report, the finest years of Spyro Gyra or Yellowjackets. Those groups became institutions because they created not merely music, but experiences that stayed with listeners long after the final note. Brad Goode feels destined for that same trajectory. He does not posture or hide behind technical brilliance. He gives himself completely to the audience, exposing vulnerability alongside astonishing command. There is something almost regal in his presence as a trumpeter, a quiet authority that persuades listeners, point by point, of the force and depth of his art.
What makes this recording even more remarkable is the place it occupies in modern jazz today. At a moment when many live albums can feel overly polished or emotionally distant, this one preserves the danger and unpredictability that once defined the greatest jazz performances. It is rooted in tradition without ever sounding nostalgic. Instead, it pushes forward, insisting that jazz remains a living language capable of surprise, risk and genuine emotional impact.
In my profession, I receive an enormous number of albums. Many are excellent. Very few feel exceptional. This one belongs firmly in that latter category because it is powered by the same principle that has defined nearly every truly great jazz record: the ability to bring together exactly the right musicians in pursuit of something approaching perfection. Not perfection in the sterile sense, but the kind that allows an audience to experience real emotion.
Within that framework emerges a dialogue between saxophone and trumpet so rich and intelligent that one imagines Wayne Shorter himself might have smiled listening to it unfold. The exchanges between Goode and Watts never feel rehearsed or decorative. They challenge one another constantly, pushing phrases further, stretching harmonies, responding instinctively to every shift in rhythm and mood. And the most remarkable aspect is that it all rests on original compositions. How could one not admire that?
I listened to “Live Your Dream” repeatedly, even while writing these words, almost afraid of losing the intensity of what the music transmitted. One can only hope this quintet continues to tour extensively because performances of this caliber deserve to be experienced live, by as many people as possible.
This is not merely an impressive jazz album. It is the kind of recording that reminds listeners why jazz still matters. Any serious jazz lover should own it.
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, May 26th, 2026
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Musicians:
Brad Goode – trumpet
Ernie Watts – tenor saxophone
Adrean Farrugia – piano
Jay Anderson – bass
Adam Nussbaum – drums
Track Listing:
1 Covid Nightmare 8:36
2 For Michael 8:05
3 Half Moon 11:12
4 Lover Man 5:49
5 Live Your Dream 11:10
6 I Miss Missing You 8:58
7 Some Day My Prince Will Come 4:03
8 Goose Dance 7:36
Compositions by:
(1) Goode; (2,5) Watts; (3,8) Farrugia; (6) Nussbaum;
(4) Jimmy Davis, Roger Ramirez, & James Sherman;
(7) Frank Churchill & Larry Morey
Production Info:
Produced by Brad Goode
Recorded by Buzz Kemper, Audio for the Arts at North Street Cabaret, Madison, WI, On October 5, 2025
Mixed by Socrates Garcia, Johnstown, CO
Mastered by Chris Wright at Violet Studio, Boulder, CO
Liner notes by Neil Tesser
Cover design & layout by John Bishop