| Jazz |
Summary: Jazz Legend in Action: Master trumpeter 大野俊三 (Shunzo Ohno) blends orchestral jazz, bold improvisation, and cultural depth into music that transcends boundaries.
Mastery Across Borders: The Orchestral Brilliance of 大野俊三 (Shunzo Ohno)
In a dimly lit jazz club, the first notes of a trumpet rise and seem to suspend in the air, fragile yet commanding. For those who know him, Shunzo Ohno is more than a trumpeter—he is an alchemist of sound, a magician whose phrasing defies expectation. Watching him play, one cannot help but see parallels with our friend, the French cornetist Médéric Collignon, whose explorations of orchestral form are equally daring. Despite their different cultural contexts—Japan for Ohno, France for Collignon, the result is similarly breathtaking: music that transcends technique and touches the sublime.
Both artists are fearless in their phrasing, unfettered by subject matter, and in their hands, orchestral and rhythmic forms are vehicles of freedom. Ohno’s peers often call him a “trumpet magician,” a reputation earned over decades of collaborations with giants like Roy Haynes, Machito, Larry Coryell, and Gil Evans, as well as his early tenure with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers starting in 1974. These experiences shaped a musician equally at home in orchestral jazz and fusion, a player whose improvisations seem to carve space itself.
“Ohno’s artistry is both disciplined and wild,” says a longtime colleague. “You hear the control, but also the breath of freedom in every phrase.” His latest album, Live at Joe’s Pub, exemplifies this balance, seamlessly moving between seven original compositions and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14, the famed Moonlight Sonata. “I really had to immerse myself in the Moonlight Sonata,” Ohno admits, “but the arrangement needed to reflect me, to carry my own signature.” He selected Beethoven not just for the piece’s beauty but for the composer’s resilience and determination. “Beethoven’s life was so difficult,” he notes, reflecting on the personal struggles behind the music.
Ohno’s inspiration is rooted in life itself. The piece Lea’s Run honors his daughter Léa and her determination to secure a spot on her field hockey team. But his artistry also draws deeply from his homeland. Since the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 2011, Ohno has traveled each year to Japan’s northern regions, witnessing communities rebuild in the aftermath of unimaginable trauma. These experiences infuse his music with both poignancy and a resilient optimism that resonates across continents.
The richness of Shunzo Ohno’s music derives as much from lived experience and literature as from musical theory. While his compositions are deeply compelling, it is his trumpet playing—the audacious phrasing, the soaring, timeless notes, that captivates listeners most profoundly, particularly in the Western hemisphere, where his work remains somewhat underappreciated. Experiencing his oeuvre as a whole reveals the intentionality behind each choice. As Ohno himself reflects, “I feel profoundly optimistic about the future, even at my age and in light of the critical societal context we are navigating. It is precisely here, in these moments, that we forge a renewed and courageous future. I hope this album can offer listeners such a vision.”
For Médéric Collignon, similar currents run through his cornet playing. Both he and Ohno push orchestral and jazz forms beyond convention, drawing on culture, rhythm, and narrative to create music that feels both timeless and urgent. The dialogue between their respective approaches, one rooted in Japanese sensibilities, the other in French, reveals how musical mastery transcends borders.
This is more than an album or a performance; it is an experience to inhabit. Each note, each phrase, invites listeners into a world where artistry and human resilience converge, where the past and present meet in a harmonious arc. Live at Joe’s Pub is proof that music, crafted with mastery, courage, and heart, can speak universally, offering a vision of hope and beauty that has a place everywhere in the world.
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, April 3rd 2026
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To buy this album (April 17, 2026)
Musicians :
Trumpet: Shunzo Ohno
Piano/ Keyboards: Clifford Carter, Noah Rott
Guitar: Quintin Zoto
Bass: Kip Sophos, Yoshi Waki, Jeremiah Edwards
Drums: Thierry Arpino, Jerome Jennings
Cello: Sasha Ono
Violin: Emily Garrison, Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim
Viola: Molly Goldman
Percussion: Cyro Baptista
Track Listing:
Going Home
Vision
Moonlight Sonata
Heroic Dance
Firefly
Léa’s Run
Dreamers
Musashi