NYO Jazz: We're Still Here

The "NYO" in NYO Jazz is shorthand for National Youth Orchestra, a marvelous concept that should be cloned and shipped to as many cities, towns and villages as possible. NYO, comprising carefully chosen musicians, ages 16 to 19, from across the U.S.A. is based at Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute in New York City, and We're Still Here marks its first full-length recording.

The NYO's artistic director is trumpeter, composer and educator Sean Jones who is featured on Ayn Inserto's "Mr. Jones and Co." and Miguel Zenon's "Run with Jones." Others making guest appearances are tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana ("Run with Jones," Zenon's "Oyelo") and trombonist Wycliffe Gordon (his own boisterous "We're Still Here/He's Alright"). Jones wrote the scorching finale, "Transitions." The rest of the program is broad and ambitious, encompassing themes by Duke Pearson ("Bedouin"), John Beasley ("Fete dans la tete"), Duke Ellington ("Mr. Gentle and Mr. Cool"), Igmar Thomas ("RPMs"), Ralph Peterson Jr. ("The Art of War") and Neal Hefti's Count Basie classic, "Cute."

The orchestra is given a vigorous workout on the thorny "RPMs," wherein there are no solos, only arduous tests for brass, reeds and rhythm, which NYO passes with flying colors. Here, as elsewhere, listeners would be hard-pressed to deduce that these remarkable musicians were teenagers. But they were, at least when We're Still Here was recorded in 2021. The artistry continues on the fast-moving "Run with Jones," sections of which resemble Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's mercurial "Flight of the Bumblebee." Even so, it is one of the slower-paced numbers, "Mr. Gentle and Mr. Cool," which emerges as a definitive highlight, thanks in part to exemplary solos by (and exchanges between) trumpeter Kellin Hanas and violinist Gianna Pedregon.

That is but one highlight among many, as the NYO is laudable from start to finish, as are its well-schooled soloists. Drummer Colman Burks, on brushes, and trumpeter Cameron Davidson are especially engaging on "Cute," which precedes the propulsive "Art of War" and chops-wrenching "Transitions." It is a pity that not all of the improvisers can be named; suffice to say that none of them is less than impressive, nor is NYO as an ensemble, in what it is hoped will be the first of many superlative youth-centered recordings upholding and enriching the time-honored tradition of American big-band jazz.