Shunzo Ohno - Shunzo Ohno Live at Joe's Pub (2026)

In a dimly lit jazz club, the first notes of a trumpet rise and seem to suspend in the air, fragile yet commanding. For those who know him, Shunzo Ohno is more than a trumpeter—he is an alchemist of sound, a magician whose phrasing defies expectation. Watching him play, one cannot help but see parallels with our friend, the French cornetist Médéric Collignon, whose explorations of orchestral form are equally daring. Despite their different cultural contexts—Japan for Ohno, France for Collignon, the result is similarly breathtaking: music that transcends technique and touches the sublime.

Both artists are fearless in their phrasing, unfettered by subject matter, and in their hands, orchestral and rhythmic forms are vehicles of freedom. Ohno’s peers often call him a “trumpet magician,” a reputation earned over decades of collaborations with giants like Roy Haynes, Machito, Larry Coryell, and Gil Evans, as well as his early tenure with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers starting in 1974. These experiences shaped a musician equally at home in orchestral jazz and fusion, a player whose improvisations seem to carve space itself.