David Bixler Trio Incognito - Incognito Ergo Sum

Jazz

Incognito, Therefore We Are: A New York Jazz Trio’s Quiet Revolution

There is a kind of jazz that does not call attention to itself, yet lingers in the air like a memory, impossible to ignore. It unfolds not in brash solos or pyrotechnic virtuosity, but in the understated elegance of a sound that belongs wholly to New York, cool, considered, and quietly radical.

That’s the kind of jazz offered by the trio incognito ergo sum, led by saxophonist and composer David Bixler. Their latest album, bearing the name of the group itself, is less a collection of tunes than a manifesto, one delivered in hushed tones, built on a philosophy of presence through anonymity, and shaped by a city and a moment in time that changed everything.

Not everyone will be seduced by this music. It speaks a language reserved for those who listen beyond the obvious, for whom music is a kind of communion. The opening track is almost weightless: a soprano saxophone melody floats above a sparse rhythm section, an aerial trace suspended over deep silence. Only by the third piece does the ensemble truly coalesce into a trio in the full sense of the word, like a time traveler from a future era where form yields to storytelling, where music becomes the means of conveying a deeply personal interior world. A castle of thought, to which only these three musicians seem to hold the key.

The album follows their 2020 debut Inside the Grief, a work forged in response to the turbulence of that year. But incognito ergo sum looks further inward, and further outward. It draws its lifeblood from those early pandemic days when the trio played in the parks of New York City, offering music where it was most needed. Born of global upheaval, this recording transcends stylistic boundaries, folding bebop, free jazz, rock, and Venezuelan folk traditions into a sound both defiant and rooted. There is a sense of resilience here, but also tenderness, even mischief.

It’s impossible to hear this album without revisiting that strange shared time. Some of us, scattered in remote corners of the world, myself in the depths of the French countryside—remember how the animals emerged from the woods, oblivious to danger. Birds wandered along empty roads. Squirrels reclaimed the parks. And in the heart of New York, a trio played for anyone who would listen. That spirit, playful, unassuming, almost secret—is etched into every phrase of this record.

The title, incognito ergo sum, “I am incognito, therefore I am”—is more than a clever turn of Latin. It signals the ethos of the group. In its early days, the trio performed in shadows, names withheld by design. It was not a gimmick but a statement: that music matters more than ego, and creation more than identity. That sense of collective purpose animates the entire album, which thrives in dialogue, not declaration. It resists labels. It resists certainty.

Yet it evokes something deeply familiar. For me, it calls back to the streets of Paris in my adolescence, where free jazz musicians from around the world played on corners and boulevards, a crowd always gathered around them. Music then was spontaneous, alive, sometimes dissonant, but full of wonder. This record draws from that same well of collective memory, that shared archive of fleeting, beautiful moments that remind us who we are.

David Bixler is no stranger to the New York jazz scene. Over the course of a decades-long career, he has worked with legends like Lionel Hampton, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and the Chico O’Farrill Afro-Cuban Big Band, an ensemble with which he earned a Latin GRAMMY. His recent discography (In the Face of Chaos, BEATitude, Blended Lineage, The Langston Hughes Project Vol. 1) reflects a renewed artistic voice, emerging after a long silence with works that are bolder, more personal.

Here, he is joined by musicians whose names may not be on the marquee, but whose presence is essential. This is not a leader with backing; it is a trio in the truest sense. And while their name may suggest concealment, there is no hiding the clarity of their vision. They may move incognito, but they leave footprints on the soul.

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 31st 2025

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