What's New on WDCB... with Paul Abella

Stephen Parisi, Jr. – Buddy! (Shifting Paradigm Records)

Chicago bassist Stephen Parisi, Jr. is releasing his new album, Buddy!, this Friday, February 20th, on Shifting Paradigm Records. I was lucky enough to get a pre-release copy, and I can report that this debut album is a lively affair that provides an excellent snapshot of a few of Chicago’s young up and coming Jazz musicians. Parisi enlisted the help of Jordan Lerner on the saxophone, Josh Achiron on the guitar, Nicholas Olynciw at the piano, and Kabir Dalawari on the drums. The quintet sounds great, no matter what they’re tackling, from the mellow sounds of “Tro,” the sensitive ballad “The Judge (for Ray),” or the Poinciana-grooved “The Italian Space Program (for Angelo)” to the raucous “I Tried to Buy a Shark on the Dark Web.” You can hear the drive of a young band here, but you can also hear the good taste and solid swing that comes with tons of jam sessions, hours of playing together, and time spent listening to the masters. This young group of musicians is the real deal, and Buddy! is the proof.

Bob Reynolds – Eddie Told Me So (NOSAHU Records)

Saxophonist Bob Reynolds tells a story in the liner notes to Eddie Told Me So wherein he was immediately hooked by the inimitable sound of Eddie Harris. After hearing Eddie’s unique tone, he was again floored by the sound of Harris during a Joshua Redman live Blindfold Test for DownBeat magazine. And then a third time after he had bought a few of Eddie Harris’ records. As a fellow Eddie Harris fanatic, I can relate. Reynolds came up with a rather unique way to salute Harris on Eddie Told Me So. As opposed to just playing a handful of Eddie Harris songs, He wrote a couple of songs in tribute (“Harrisburg” and “Eddie Told Me So”), and played five standards the way that he thought Harris might play them. Rounding out the cast on Eddie Told Me So is Andrew Renfroe on guitar, Mike Gurrola on bass and Charles Ruggiero on drums. At no point does it sound like Reynolds is trying to imitate Harris, which is a good thing. Instead, you hear Eddie’s influence on rhythmic phrases, the occasional quote or in his rather high-pitched tenor tone. The end result is an album that references one of the underappreciated greats of the tenor saxophone, even while the artist is searching for his own path forward. And that makes Eddie Told Me So a fascinating listen.

Naoya Ogura – Colors of a Journey (Bandstand Records)

Trumpeter, bandleader and arranger Naoya Ogura has kicked off 2026 with an impressive big band album, Colors of a Journey. It swings, has some great writing for the horns, and the players are all fine musicians. There’s imagination to these songs, even when they’re well worn standards like “Anything Goes” or “Everything Happens to Me.” On a Be-Bop classic like “Moose the Mooche,” it would be all too easy to everything and the kitchen sink into an arrangement in the name of innovation, but, thankfully, that’s not happening here. Instead, we get a hard swinging take on the song that gets funky just long enough to let us know that Ogura is not at all stuck in the past. On the songs where the writing looks to the present or future, like the leadoff track, “Moon,” everything is done so tastefully that it’s hard to do anything else other than love the results. Colors of a Journey is an impressive start for what is hopefully a very long and fruitful career for Naoya Ogura.