Joel Frahm Trio At Magy's Farm

Joel Frahm Trio
Magy's Farm
Dromara, N. Ireland
October 17, 2025

After 30 years in New York and then Nashville, tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm has swapped the year-round blur of club dates and tours for the relative security of the teaching faculty at Texas State University. It is undoubtedly great news for that renowned institution's music students, but a loss for jazz fans around the world who are not going to see Frahm with anything like the frequency of yesteryear.

All the more reason to celebrate the return of the Joel Frahm Trio for four Irish dates, 18 months after last gracing these shores. Ireland is the first leg of a 12-date European tour for Frahm, drummer Ernesto Cervini and bassist Dan Loomis. Last time round Frahm's trio played Scott's Jazz Club in Belfast (see review here), Magy's Farm in the Dromara hills and Arthur's Blues and Jazz Club in Dublin. This Irish leg of the tour retraced those steps.

While one can imagine that Frahm has embraced the academic life in Texas with passion and the utmost professionalism, the vim and vigor with which he attacked the music on the tour's opening night suggested he misses the road more than he might care to admit.

Cervini's rousing Charlie Parker-esque blues bopper "The Nurse Is In" established a brisk opening tempo, with drummer and bassist quickly raising a sweat as Frahm tore into a meaty solo with relish; In the rearview mirror Parker, in the wing mirror Sonny Rollins—Frahm's breathless, joyous invention belonged squarely in the melodious, rhythmically athletic, thrill-seeking tradition of those two saxophone greats. Quotations from Sammy Cahn's & Jule Styn's "Let It Snow," The Champs' "Tequila" and John Williams theme for Indiana Jones—alongside bebop signatures and calypso strains—came and went like lightning flashes amid tumbling clouds.

It was neither Parker nor Rollins that Frahm namechecked as one of his main inspirations, but Benny Golson, "a player who doesn't get talked about enough in the history of jazz as a composer and as a player, especially as a player," Frahm asserted. The mid-tempo swinger "Thinking of Benny"—from the trio's debut album The Bright Side (Anzic Records, 2021)—saw Frahm balance the scales between the elegance and adventure typical of Golson. Cervini leaned into a sing-song solo, accompanied by guttural vocal punctuation, followed by an exhibition of controlled power from Loomis that led back to the head.

A set highlight came with Loomis' Afro-Cuban flavored "The Road," from Revolutions (Adhyâropa Records, 2024), an album inspired by the Haitian revolution and South America's liberation from Spain. SimónBolívar was the source of inspiration for "The Road," the bassist carving out an exquisitely slow ostinato evocative of Orlando 'Cachaito' Lopez. Cervini progressed from hand percussion to sticks as Frahm fanned the flames. When Loomis soloed, his feet were firmly rooted to the floor—the feet-tapping left to the audience as bassist and drummer cooked up a wicked groove.

While history remembers some for revolutionary heroism, it remembers others for lesser deeds. Mexican baseball player Mario Mendoza has gone down in baseball folklore for his .200 batting average in 1979—the threshold of batting failure. In baseball jargon this threshold is known as The Mendoza Line. "The Mendoza Line" was Frahm's tongue-in-cheek reference to his own batting average as a composer. There was stretching out room for each musician in turn on this Rollins'-esque post-bop romp. With an American rock band also called The Mendoza Line, Señor Mendoza must be used to this sort of homage by now.

A touring tradition sees Frahm set himself the challenge of writing a new tune on the flight across the Atlantic. He duly unveiled a freshly penned tune of rhythmic vitality and mellifluous charm. The saxophonist gave the tune the working title of "Miles and Charlie" in honor of two lambs belonging to the venue's owners, Linley Hamilton and Maggie Doyle. The couple's hospitality is legendary, though one supposes that lamb was off the menu during the trio's stay.

There were a couple more tunes from the trio's second album, Lumination (Anzic Records, 2024) First up, Cervini's fiery "Loo Lee," featuring a thunderous solo by the drummer. The brushes-steered ballad "Moonface Lament" followed, with Frahm and Loomis in lyrical, understated mode. Frahm preceded the final number, Hank Mobley's "This I Dig of You" with a heartfelt appreciation for the tireless work Hamilton and Doyle do to support jazz. He is not wrong. Just two days earlier Hamilton had seen his 92-year-old mother returned to the soil. Still, there was never any thought of letting the trio down by cancelling the gig. Talk about jazz ambassadors?

And as he sometimes does, Hamilton brought his trumpet to the party, harmonizing with Frahm before unleashing a passionate solo that smashed the Mendoza Line and raised cheers. Frahm responded in kind with a barreling improvisation laced with micro-quotations—little nods and winks to those who paved the way. A rattling intervention from Cervini increased the temperature further still before the four musicians united on the head.

Who knows when the Joel Frahm Trio will pass this way again? Perhaps the lure of hand-knitted woolen jumpers—courtesy of Miles and Charlie—could entice them back to Magy's Farm, a unique venue where people, animals and music really matter.

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