One of the sad consequences of the draconian COVID lockdown was the permanent closing of LA’s best loved jazz club, downtown’s Blue Whale. One of the regular artists, local pianist Josh Nelson, was always seen there either hanging out in the back, serving as sideman for someone, or leading his own swinging material. This release, optimistically titled “Volume 1”, captures him in a couple of settings in October 2018 and December 2019, and the music serves as a reminder of when jazz is played where people hang out, and the hang is great these evenings.
Nelson plays piano and keyboard with a mix and match team of Jeff Parker/Larry Koonse/g, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson/vi, Daniel Rotem/ts, Charis Lawrence/tp-fh, Artyam anukyan/cel, Brian Walsh/cl, Alex Boneham/b and Dan Schnelle/dr. All of the tunes are from Nelson’s pen, and show a wide palate of colors. Rich and thoughtful strings meld with keyboards as a pilaf for Rotem and Lawrence on the surging “Double Helix” while the team gets a bit spacey as the strings create a foreboding atmosphere for Walsh’s bass clarinet on “’Oumuamua”. Koonse delivers a graceful intro to lead into Boneham’s solo on the graceful “Peter Sellers”, with Nelson conversing lyrically with Boneham on the lyrical and gentle “Our Electromagnetic Hearts”. Nelson’s keyboards are soft and pastoral as they blend with Walsh on the succinct “Bluewhale Dives Deep”, making you wish for not only more of the same, but for the next volume to be released. Good memories of great sounds.