Linda May Han Oh - Strange Heavens (2025) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Linda May Han Oh's evolution as a jazz bassist has reflected a steady widening of her creative scope, from intimate, straight-ahead explorations to ambitious, cross-genre concept works that balance compositional complexity with emotional directness. Oh has gotten progressively more progressive over the years, a creative growth that hit a notable peak with 2023's ambitious The Glass Hours, on which she worked in a quartet format augmented by the vocals of Sara Serpa. Strange Heavens finds Oh stepping back from the conceptual intensity of The Glass Hours and instead focusing on works that are more intimate and visceral. Featuring a tight trio of Oh, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Tyshawn Sorey, the music is unashamedly rooted in the groove-oriented interplay between the agile muscularity of Oh's bass playing and Sorey's kinetic drum work. Managing to be simultaneously locked-in and exploratory, this rhythm section is a dizzying force of nature, easily shifting gears between holding the fort down while Akinmusire unleashes a fiery solo (as on "The Sweetest Water"), going into scalp-peeling improv ("Home"), or laying down a sneaky bit of future funk ("Skin").

The communication between the three players is remarkable, as it's almost never Oh's bass or Sorey's drums that are centered; Akinmusire's trumpet is typically the one bearing the melodic load. Yet, this is still very much a trio record. Although the bulk of the pieces are relatively short (only one crosses the five-minute mark, and even then, just barely), the concision of the musical language that Oh employs allows for considerable invention and improvisation throughout. With all three players in conversation with one another, themes are pronounced and then quickly picked apart, underlining a "back to basics" ethos that dominates Strange Heavens. At times, this trio evokes the atmospherics of Miles's second great quintet; at other moments they sound like wild-eyed free-jazz revolutionaries, and at still others, like sophisticated modern fusionists. The result is an album that's as accessible as it is electrifying.

TRACKLIST

1 Portal
2 Strange Heavens
3 Living Proof
4 Acapella
5 The Sweetest Water
6 Noise Machinery
7 Home
8 Paperbirds
9 Folk Song
10 Work Song
11 Skin
12 Just Waiting



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