Aaron Frazer

Okonski: Magnolia

by Chris May
February 26, 2023

Every so often an album emerges out of--well, not nowhere exactly, but in this case Loveland, Ohio, which could be considered, in the nicest possible way, to be getting pretty close--that is as delightful as it is unexpected. Magnolia is a pensive, late night, piano-trio musing on melancholy, loss and empty, moonlit city streets. It is Edward Hopper's Nighthawks without the party vibe. Not that it evokes, exactly, isolation or rejection; more a feeling of quiet introspection and reflection. Not ...