| Jazz |
The Path is a remarkably accomplished first recording, displaying a level of maturity, confidence and musical vision that many artists take years to achieve.
From the first track, Gratitude, and the very first notes, the album conveys the feeling of a project that has been carefully nurtured over time, shaped by experience, reflection, and a clear sense of purpose. Rather than sounding tentative or exploratory, The Path emerges with the assurance of an artist who knows exactly what he wants to express and has found the ideal musical setting in which to do so.
What makes this debut particularly impressive is the balance it achieves between technical accomplishment and emotional authenticity. The music never feels calculated or overly ambitious; instead, it unfolds naturally, drawing the listener into a world rich with imagination, sensitivity, and humanity. For a first album, the level of artistic cohesion is truly extraordinary.
The Path is not merely a promising debut, it is a stunning introduction, one that immediately establishes its creator as an artist of genuine substance and vision and leaves the listener eager to discover where the journey will lead next.
Originally from Victoria, BC, Josh Warren is a bassist, composer, arranger, and musical director based in Toronto. While rooted in the jazz tradition, he plays in a variety of styles, jazz, pop, rock, and soul, shared the stage and recorded with a plethora of Grammy-nominated and JUNO Award-winning musicians, including Ingrid Jensen, Jeremy Ledbetter, Rich Brown, Allison Au, Joaquin Nunez, and performed all across the country at iconic venues and major festivals from coast to coast.
All this experience, all these shared stages and absorbed influences have crystallised here into something genuinely personal. Yet what is most striking about this record is not any single influence, but the way those influences dissolve into something that is wholly Warren’s own.
The album features a winning cast of talented musicians, and it is the quality of their collective listening rather than individual demonstrations that makes The Path so consistently satisfying. This is an ensemble record in the deepest sense: a group of musicians who trust each other completely, who understand that the spaces between notes matter as much as the notes themselves and who have collectively felt that their music is always more important than themselves.
As leader and bassist, Josh Warren himself sets the tone for this collective ethos from the first track, Gratitude and its very first notes. Throughout the album his bass playing carries a rare combination of authority and generosity, always present, always grounding the music, yet never competing for attention. A great bassist, it has often been said, is like a great host: you feel the warmth and security of their presence without ever being made to feel that it is their party alone. Warren understands this intuitively, laying down bass lines of impeccable taste and rhythmic intelligence that invite every other musician in the ensemble to find its best self. On a few tracks we feel Jaco Pastorius’s shadow hovering above Josh, enveloping him, sublimating him.
Matteo Romaniello’s drumming throughout the album is a masterclass in the art of support, alternating between subtlety and finesse, like on What Remains, or more energetic and more dominant when necessary. The pulse is irresistible.
On What Remains Miles Cakebread-Kraus’ guitar flies away, freed from all constraints, with a luminosity and a force of attraction which takes this track to the top of the album compositions.
Much could also be said about the quality of the three other musicians (trumpet, tenor sax, piano), but to save repeating the same congratulations to each of them, it is preferable to say that they are undoubtedly gifted and excellent. Sometimes warm and fragile, sometimes nervous and almost heartbreaking, their phrasing reveals a rare emotional intelligence. The instruments know exactly when to emerge and when to disappear into the collective breath.
What elevates The Path above the level of a very good debut album is something rarer: the sound of a group of musicians who have found a common language and are speaking it with joy, intelligence, and mutual respect. Nobody here is trying to be the most impressive person in the room. Nobody is using the recording as a showcase, a technical exhibition, or a calling card. Every musician on The Path is simply playing the music, listening, responding, supporting, elevating. The result is an album that feels, from first note to last, like a conversation between fantastic musicians: warm, generous, and alive.
Josh Warren’s original compositions are influenced by the people, places and experiences that have shaped him (the second track, Spirits, is dedicated to his first dog who died during the summer of 2023), and that personal rootedness gives the music its particular glow. It is music made because it needed to be made, by a musician who had something genuine to say and the wisdom to surround himself with people who could help him say it beautifully. And this is perhaps how you must ultimately approach Josh’s music: not through analysis, but through emotion, by agreeing to let yourselves be guided by his talent as a composer and musician.
The Path is one of the most assured, most musically satisfying debut album to emerge from the Canadian jazz scene in years. Josh Warren has found his voice. The journey is just beginning, and it is already magnificent.
Frankie Pfeiffer
Editor in chief – PARIS-MOVE
PARIS-MOVE, August 25th, 2026
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Engineered and mixed by JUNO Award-winner Patric McGroarty
Musicians:
Josh Warren: Electric bass
Christian Antonacci: Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Ethan Zabarylo: Tenor saxophone (tracks 1, 3-5)
Miles Cakebread-Kraus: Guitar
Emmett Hodgins: Piano
Matteo Romaniello: Drums
Miles Johnson: Percussion (track 5)
Tracklisting:
Gratitude – 6:27
Spirits (for Jinx) – 5:29
Everything, in time – 2:37
The Path – 8:31
What remains – 7:15