Nolatet: Somethin' To Relax With

Nolatet unites four veteran voices from the New Orleans jazz scene. Bassist James Singleton and drummer Johnny Vidacovich have formed one of the city's most durable and inventive rhythm sections since the late 1970s, anchoring Astral Project and backing everyone from Professor Longhair to Dizzy Gillespie. Vibraphonist Mike Dillon brings his trademark guerrilla energy and percussive mischief from Garage a Trois, while pianist Brian Haas—a longtime architect of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey—contributes rangy, classically informed harmonies and fearless improvisation. The four crossed paths for years before formally uniting in 2016, forging a collective sound steeped in New Orleans tradition while veering into spaces where swing, abstraction and punk-bred attitude comfortably share the same table.

This LP arrives eight years after No Revenge Necessary (Royal Family Records, 2018), yet the chemistry sounds untouched by time. Captured live over two sold-out nights at Tulsa's LowDown club, the album preserves the breathing pulse of the room, the audience's energy and the unforced interplay that only emerges when seasoned musicians trust one another enough to jump without checking for a net.

The set opens with "Switchback," where crisp rhythmic exchanges and delicate tonal brushstrokes from Dillon and Haas establish an immediate conversational ease. The unhurried title track follows blues-inflected and slyly patient metrics with Haas darting across the keyboard in rapid runs before the quartet circles back to its deceptively simple central motif, proving once again that simplicity is often the hardest trick in jazz.

"Doc Richter To You" stretches past nine minutes and unfolds like a slow-burning debate among old friends who disagree on everything except where the downbeat lives. Dillon and Haas sculpt a semi-free framework that mutates into melodic overtones, fractured patterns, and linear movement, propelled by Vidacovich's endlessly inventive rhythmic logic and Singleton's elastic bass lines, which bend but never break.

"Black Pencil" carries a sly, crooked grin, thanks largely to Vidacovich's sharply accented tabla work and Haas' phantasmagorical voicings. "Cluster" wanders into abstract terrain, sounding at moments like four musicians assembling a puzzle without looking at the box, before snapping back together with quiet authority. "Surely Hazard" closes in a warm afterglow, equal parts reflection and combustion.

Throughout, Singleton and Vidacovich provide support that never overwhelms, giving Dillon's shimmering vibes and Haas's probing piano lines room to breathe, jab or dig deep as the moment demands. The live setting adds human warmth and those welcome imperfections that remind listeners jazz is best when the paint is still wet.

Somethin' to Relax With delivers what its title promises, although "relax" here is relative. This is New Orleans relaxation, where the pulse never quite sits still and somebody is always liable to set the furniture on fire. It is a compelling third chapter from a quartet still finding fresh corners to turn.