| Jazz |
In August as in September, jazz albums have a way of carving their place in history and tradition. On that front, this one is no exception, brimming with charm, anchored by brass arrangements that feel tailor-made for the setting, and played by musicians whose excellence wraps around the listener until the whole experience becomes downright addictive. Spin it a few times and you’ll find certain melodies lodging themselves in your head, surfacing unexpectedly, like welcome old friends.
Jason Forsythe has been a master of composition for decades. His artistic life began in the fertile grounds of the 1960s and ’70s, when, as a young jazz devotee, he painstakingly transcribed hundreds of solos while developing his own voice as a composer. Physical limitations sidelined his performing career in the early 2000s, but they never dimmed his pen. “The life of jazz, night after night, year after year, is hard,” he says. “But the music is still alive. It’s thirsty to be heard again.”
This is an album you settle into, an album where you savor each instrument’s solo. The trombone solos in particular feel like a meditation on the role of the instrument within this ensemble. “It’s not surprising that trombonists, playing an instrument more often used in the section than out front, understand the subtleties and drama of harmonies,” Forsythe reflects. “That’s essentially what they’re hired for every day. Many trombonists, Slide Hampton, J.J. Johnson, Billy Byers, Bob Brookmeyer, Melba Liston, came up through big bands and became arrangers.”
When the history of jazz serves today’s jazz, you inevitably find yourself surrounded by experts. Forsythe distills this idea beautifully in the magnetic sonic pull of It’s About Time, where dynamic range is paramount. Like the best film composers, who enhance the mood of a scene through an undercurrent rather than an overstatement, Forsythe’s trombone writing, sometimes stepping forward, often in the background, gracefully supports the overarching themes, always in service to the music. His years in Latin dance orchestras left their imprint: “My music for sextet comes directly from that experience,” he explains. “It was music built for dancing and joy, always accessible, never academic or esoteric, always swinging, always in rhythm, always connecting with the people on the dance floor.”
The album rests on an architecture as intricate as it is balanced. Balance of sounds, of melodies, of solos, of instruments, being right there, in the exact moment when something happens and the musician pours out everything inside, contributing his own stone to the structure.
Reflecting on his jazzman’s heritage, Forsythe notes, “We all came to New York in the ’80s and ’90s to play this music, and we built our careers on it. Our shared experience gave us a sense of what this music should be.” The results, captured on It’s About Time, make for an album thrilling in every detail, one you have to take the time to truly absorb.
This is music that invites deep reflection, brimming with wisdom and lessons, where substance matters more than surface. It has the power to reach into the listener, to stir something profound, a kind of nostalgia that never tips into melancholy. On the contrary, it’s a celebration of the passing of time, firmly rooted in the present moment.
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, August 13th 2025
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To buy this album (September 5, 2025)
Musicians :
Brian Lynch – Trumpet and Flugelhorn
Walt Weiskopf – Tenor Saxophone
Steve Davis – Trombone
Michael Weiss – Piano
Ugonna Okegwo – Bass
Andy Watson – Drums
Guests:
Kenny Rampton – Trumpet on “Sanctity”
Donny McCaslin – Tenor Saxophone on “Sanctity”
Jason Forsythe – Compositions (ASCAP), Arrangements, Trombone on “Sanctity”
Tracklisting:
- Fourth Rites (5:57)
- Simple Samba (7:13)
- The Professor (6:18)
- It’s Got To Be Sweetness (3:19)
- Probándome (5:49)
- Home (6:14)
- Outer Limits (7:52)
- Sentimental*(6:03)
- Sanctity (3:32)
David Stoller – Recording Engineer
Grady Bajorek – Video Engineer
David Darlington, David Stoler, Brian Lynch – Mixing
David Darlington – Mastering
Richard Vugmayster – Graphic Design
Jeff Kravitz – Photography
Produced by Jason Forsythe and Brian Lynch
Recorded May 22 & 23, 2024 at Samurai Hotel Recording Studio, Astoria, New York