| Jazz |
Glitter in Every Note: A Dazzling Debut That Shimmers with Promise
There are moments in the life of a music writer that feel less like work and more like a private epiphany. Discovering a new artist with no preconceptions, pressing play and being struck, in the space of a few bars, by a rare combination of brilliance, generosity, and modernity
is one of those moments. Such is the case with the debut album of BLOW GLOBE, a trailblazing 13-piece ensemble led by drummer and composer John Sturino, recipient of the prestigious 2024 New Jazz Works Grant from Chamber Music America.
With a formation anchored in eight brass instruments and a rhythm section that breathes with unusual vitality, BLOW GLOBE’s music is both cinematic in scope and intimate in tone. The group masterfully merges the intricate language of instrumental jazz and classical music with the texture of contemporary electronic sounds and the lyrical spirit of the singer-songwriter tradition. From the first track, listeners are struck not just by the tight, expressive writing for winds, but also by the rich interplay of the rhythm section, which animates complex musical structures with buoyant energy.
Sturino, a Juilliard School graduate, conducts this compact brass orchestra with the finesse of a symphonic maestro and the fire of a jazz innovator. His compositions conjure vivid soundscapes, one can imagine them underscoring a scene by a bold auteur filmmaker or accompanying a daring ballet. Each piece carries a narrative arc, alternately joyful, melancholic, playful, and grand. This is music that speaks across forms, a hybrid language of emotion and architecture.
Part of what makes BLOW GLOBE so captivating is its global makeup. Hailing from diverse regions and traditions, its musicians are bound together by the fertile ground of New York’s jazz scene. Their collective sound taps into centuries of musical heritage, seamlessly interweaving echoes of various times and geographies into a unified artistic vision. The result is not pastiche, but an aesthetic of coherence and conviction, rooted in both tradition and experimentation.
Sturino himself embodies this duality. Trained classically yet steeped in the history of American jazz orchestras, he seems to channel the spirit of a 21st-century Gershwin, had Gershwin absorbed the turbulence of rock and the nuance of jazz-fusion. There’s a sense that this young composer is writing not just within genres but between them, creating a personal vocabulary that feels both new and inevitable.
For a debut album, the level of execution is remarkable. From the sequencing of tracks to the clarity of production and the ambition of the compositions, this is a recording that feels like the work of a seasoned artist.
Even the album cover, with its bold, global visual language, reflects an expansive artistic vision.
The only question one is left with, after the final note fades, is: Where can Sturino go from here?
When the bar is set so high on a first outing, the road ahead is as daunting as it is full of possibility. But if this album is any indication, the journey promises to be a thrilling one. Only time will tell. But for now, we have this: a radiant, inventive debut, glittering in every note.
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 29th 2025
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MUSICIANS :
JONATHAN BESHAY – FLUTE & ALTO FLUTE
NATHAN REISING – ALTO SAXOPHONE
ABDIAS ARMENTEROS – TENOR SAXOPHONE GARRETT WINGFIELD – BASS CLARINET & BARITONE SAXOPHONE
SUMMER CAMARGO – FLUGELHORN & TRUMPET KAZUNORI TANAKA – FRENCH HORN
JASIM PERALES – TROMBONE
MAX LIGHT – ELECTRIC GUITAR
ROY BEN-BASHAT – ACOUSTIC GUITAR
CHRIS MCCARTHY – PIANO
RAUL REYES – DOUBLE BASS
JOHN STURINO – DRUMS, COMPOSER, PRODUCER REMY LE BOEUF – CO-PRODUCER
PRODUCTION:
AARON HOLTHUS – PRODUCTION ASSISTANT, VOCAL ENGINEER
MIHO HAZAMA – PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
DAVID STOLLER – RECORDING ENGINEER
GRADY BAJOREK – ASSISTANT ENGINEER BRIAN MONTGOMERY – MIXING ENGINEER NATE WOOD – MASTERING ENGINEER
TRACKLIST :
1 – Year Of The Globe (7:46)
2 – Renewal (9:59)
3 – Only In Dreams (feat. Mar Vilaseca) (8:07) 4 – Slug (8:17)
5 – Bonafides (10:10)
6 – Morning Sun (4:45)
7 – PLG (Prophets Lefferts Gardens) (9:57)