Jordan Vanhemert - Nomad (2022)

With Nomad, tenor saxophonist Jordan VanHemert celebrates Korean culture through the melodies of both ancient and contemporary folk and children's songs, distilled through a modern jazz aesthetic and the open sonic canvas of the saxophone trio. His warm sound, unhurried phrasing and swinging melodicism are perfectly suited for high-level exploration of the jazz canon, but here, mainly with the eminent bassist Rodney Whitaker and David Alvarez III on drums, VanHemert offers a new repertoire, reminiscent of the creative choices rolled out by Sonny Rollins's trios over the decades. Following his 2021 release, I Am Not A Virus, which dealt head-on with the reality of anti-Asian hate crimes and prejudice, Nomad "...wanders and weaves through the story of our complex relationships with being Korean American. There is joy, there is sorrow (han), and through it all, there is the authenticity of the Asian American experience."