Justin Pierce: Sway
Dallas-based saxophonist Justin Pierce has performed with Arturo Sandoval, Bob Mintzer and Randy Brecker amongst others. His quintet’s rhythm section – pianist Sean Giddings, bassist Young Heo and drummer Matt Young – are former members of the One O’Clock Lab Band in which Pierce was lead alto player. His wife and musical partner, Ashley Pierce, sings with the quintet. Sway is their debut album. It comprises 10 standards from the Great American Songbook delivering classic swing laced with Latin and New Orleans jazz refinements. On it Pierce plays mostly tenor.
Title track Sway introduces Pierce’s impressive playing and Ashley’s sensual vocals. Sadly, the flow is interrupted partway by a strangely off-kilter piano interlude. The next track, a version of Fats Waller’s Honeysuckle Rose, opens with a bass and voice duet before the rest of the band move in. It’s succeeded by the first of three instrumentals, a rendition of Horace Silver’s Jody Grind with evolving tempos and vibrant sax. Then Mancini’s Meglio Stasera is refashioned as a sprightly samba with Italian vocals followed by the second instrumental, a revamp of Miles Davis’s All Blues into a fast-paced New Orleans rollick.
Schwarz & Dietz’s composition Alone Together is Latinised with amorous voice and smooth sax before leading into a waltzing Moon River. Ellington’s melodic In A Sentimental Mood, the third instrumental, comes next with breathy sax followed by a soulful revision of Bill Withers’ Just The Two Of Us before the album closes with a spirited New Orleans-styled version of Kaempfert & Gabler’s L-O-V-E.
Overall the band gels really well. Pierce’s sax playing is spot-on across the pitch and Ashley’s voice is superb – consistently clear as a bell and the warmest I’ve heard in a while.
Discography
Sway; Honeysuckle Rose; The Jody Grind; Meglio Stasera; All Blues; Alone Together; Moon River; In A Sentimental Mood; Just The Two Of Us ; L-O-V-E (48.03)
Pierce (as, ts); Ashley Pierce (v); Sean Giddings (p); Young Heo (b); Matt Young (d). Dallas, Texas, 5 May 2025.
Justin Pierce Music JPM-001
David Bode: Live At The 2026 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
Relatively unknown this side of the pond, New Orleans-born saxophonist and big-band leader David Bode released his debut studio recording, Good Hang, in 2025 with a 19-piece outfit. Now, he’s recorded a follow-up album live at New Orleans Jazz Festival with a 22-piece band.
The album’s eight tracks are all arranged by Bode. The first is an energetic rendition of Kenny Garrett’s Happy People, leading into Jeff Buckley’s poignant Lover, You Should Have Come Over. Next is James Black’s Monkey Puzzle with an arrangement based on Sammy Nestico’s Basie Straight Ahead. It’s followed by a version of Billy Strayhorn’s Lush Life with synthesizer soloing, vocals by Jenna Winston and an arrangement recalling 90s neo soul.
Bode’s cover of John Coltrane’s Syeeda’s Song Flute has a heavy rock beat, lengthy trumpet duelling and gaudy trombone solo. It’s followed by Bode’s raucous composition, Cold Train Funk which he says is inspired by Coltrane’s melodic language, Bach and The Meters although I was unable to ascertain any of this in the delivery. Radiohead’s Airbag is given a New Orleans slant with a bounce beat before the album closes with a Lennon & McCartney confection of Dear Prudence and Don’t Let Me Down, the latter rejigged in reggae rhythm.
This is contemporary big-band music but not as you know it. Be aware that the relentless backbeat pervading much of the proceedings and recurrent stage announcements constantly exhorting the crowd to “make some noise” can become a tad wearisome.
Discography
Introduction; Happy People; Lover You Should’ve Come Over; Stage Banter 1; Monkey Puzzle; Stage Banter 2; Lush Life; Syeeda’s Song Flute; Stage Banter 3; Cold Train Funk; Stage Banter 4; Airbag; Dear Prudence/Don’t Let Me Down (55.27)
New Orleans, 25 April 2026.
MunkMix
Sarah Pillow: Wanderer
New York singer Sarah Pillow performs across several musical genres – from jazz and classical to opera, early music and progressive rock. At the age of 18 she was singing at the Montreux Jazz Festival. She studied jazz at the University of California then classical music at the Oberlin Conservatory, has toured widely with a jazz quartet, performed with diverse groups such as Galileo’s Daughters (an early music ensemble) and sang opera at Carnegie Hall.
The 13 tracks of Pillow’s new album range from reinterpretations of Irving Berlin and Sérgio Mendes songs through revisions of Dizzy Gillespie & Charles Mingus’s music to the exotica of Eden Ahbez and the traditional Wayfarin’ Stranger. Pillow’s husband, Mark Wagnon, wrote the arrangements and plays vibes in her accompanying septet.
Almost all of Pillow’s singing plus her occasional scatting and wordless vocals are executed in what I can only describe as semi-operatic mode. Doubtless she is an accomplished opera singer but here the delivery has something of a Broadway showbiz feel to it. Whilst the band includes artists who many would regard as jazz luminaries i.e., Donny McCaslin, Dave Kikoski, Joe Martin and Mike Clark, their performance in this context seems a touch perfunctory and some of the numbers sound garish to these ears.
This is not really a jazz album per se. It’s difficult to say how you’d classify it – perhaps jazz-adjacent would be nearer the mark.
Discography
Blue Skies; So Many Stars; A Night in Tunisia; Duke’s Sound of Love; How High The Moon; Tonight At Noon; The First Circle; Café; Stella By Starlight; Eclipse; 500 Miles High; Nature Boy; Wayfarin’ Stranger (64.04)
Pillow (v); Donny McCaslin (ts); Nicola Caminiti (as); Joey Curreri (t); Marc Wagnon (vib); Dave Kikoski (p); Joe Martin (b); Mike Clark (d). Raw Recording Studio, Patterson, New York, USA. 13/14 January 2026.
Buckyball Records BR046
