| Jazz |
Nick Finzer has become something of a fixture in our pages, and with good reason. Time and again, the trombonist and composer has delivered music of remarkable depth and consistency. The last time we spoke of him here, it was for his 2023 release Legacy, a recording that cemented his reputation as both an imaginative writer and a commanding voice on his instrument. Now, Finzer takes a bold step into new territory: his first full-length recording for big band. It’s a leap that feels both surprising and inevitable, and as with so much of his work, the result is an album that defies easy classification while reaffirming his singular place in today’s jazz landscape.
Finzer doesn’t approach the large ensemble format with timidity. Instead, he embraces the challenge head-on, writing with the kind of confidence that suggests years of patient listening, study, and lived experience. As he himself has said, this project was never a calculated move, rather, it grew organically, the culmination of years of sketches and arrangements that gradually revealed themselves as a body of work demanding a big band canvas. Duke Ellington looms large here, not only as a model of orchestral elegance, but as a reminder of what it means to write for people, not merely for instruments. Finzer carries that lesson forward with striking originality, channeling his own clear, burnished trombone sound into an ensemble identity that feels at once deeply rooted and wholly his own.
The personnel list reads like a who’s-who of New York’s younger jazz vanguard, musicians who bring energy and precision to every phrase. Among them, saxophonist Lucas Pino stands out, not merely as a longtime collaborator, but as an instrumental voice whose own discography deserves to be heard more widely. Together, they form a unit capable of embodying the weight of jazz history while projecting it into the present with vigor.
Finzer’s orchestrations are full of contrasts, bursts of brass fire followed by passages of chamberlike delicacy, lines that coil around each other before opening into full-throated shout choruses. One can hear echoes of Mingus in the way he choreographs motion within the sections, and perhaps a trace of Thad Jones in the way melodies unfurl with unexpected warmth. Yet the balance he maintains, between his own voice and that of the collective, marks him as a writer of rare sensitivity.
Among the album’s many highlights, We the People stands apart. Originally conceived in 2016 against the backdrop of a fractious U.S. election, the piece was later arranged by Jack Courtright, one of Finzer’s most talented former students at the University of North Texas. The music channels both despair and determination: Finzer recalls those post-election days in New York as “some of the darkest I can remember,” yet the piece radiates a stubborn hope, affirming the power of communities to rise together and defend institutions that serve rather than betray. In today’s climate, the message feels as urgent as ever.
There is a long tradition of jazz as political expression, as the voice of a collective conscience, as a reminder that music can, and must, point us toward higher ground. Finzer’s contribution fits squarely within that lineage. He resists the easy path, instead seeking a melodic architecture that is both rigorous and supple, a sound world that acknowledges the past while refusing to be bound by it. The result is music that is simultaneously classic and contemporary, serious in its intent yet joyful in its execution.
Listening to this album is no passive experience, it demands volume, attention, and a willingness to be carried along by the swell of a big band in full flight. In the end, this is not background music; it is an event, a statement, a testament to what large-ensemble jazz can still mean in 2025. And if the year seems to have inspired artists across the spectrum to surpass themselves, Nick Finzer is no exception. His new big band recording may well stand as one of the finest large-ensemble albums of the year, proof once more that he remains an artist for whom growth and reinvention are second nature.
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 24th 2025
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August 25, 2025: Dizzy’s Club, Jazz at Lincoln Center, NYC
Sets at 7 PM & 9 PM
Musicians :
Saxophones:
● Michael Thomas (Alto 1)
● Jordan Pettay (Alto 2)
● Lucas Pino (Tenor 1)
● Evan Harris (Tenor 2)
● Tony Lustig (Baritone Sax)
Trumpets:
● Augie Haas (Lead)
● Anthony Hervey
● Nadje Noordhuis
● Chloe Rowlands
Trombones:
● Rob Edwards (Lead)
● James Burton III
● Sara Jacovino
● Altin Sencalar
Rhythm Section:
● Alex Wintz (Guitar)
● Glenn Zaleski (Piano)
● Dave Baron (Bass)
● Jimmy Macbride (Drums)
Track Listing :
Say When
The Guru
Lament
We The People
Again And Again
Just Passed The Horizon