If you’ve been listening to One Jazz at all over the last month you may have heard the magnificent “Queen King” from this album. An Afrobeat meets jazz-psych freakout that’s right up there as my tune of 2025 so far. Trio of Bloom is a triumvirate as good in practice as it is on paper. Marcus Gilmore plays drums, Nels Cline guitar and Craig Taborn keys. Imagine how mighty that might sound and double it. The album boasts twelve tunes each one as surprising and delighting as the next.
The initial inspiration for the project came from producer and poet David Breskin, a longtime collaborator with all three musicians, who imagined sparks would ignite when they met. “I’m always looking for ways to cross-pollinate and to bridge gaps,” Breskin explains. “I like to introduce people that might admire each other from afar but have never rubbed up against each other. I didn’t know what the combination would sound like, which is the most exciting aspect for me.”
It’s incredible these three Dons have never worked together before, but we owe Breskin a debt of thanks for dreaming the dream. “We all share the broadest range of possible influences,” Taborn says. “I wanted to lean into those rather than delimit a certain space. I was very aware of how everybody played, so the real question became what that signature would be overall. I tried to leave the possibilities open and to engage each piece on its own terms.”
“My initial thought was a combination of excitement and fear,” Cline describes. “These guys are such wizards. I didn’t know what the modus operandi would be, but we found a lot of common ground and shared affinities.”
“Nels is knowledgeable about such a broad spectrum of music,” Gilmore adds. “Craig plays at such a high level and also has a really wide-spanning knowledge of music. It’s exciting to be around people like that because you can learn a lot.”
This is Our Chosen One