Nelson Devereaux - infinity (Youngbloods)

Speaking of jazz/not jazz/might be jazz there’s an exciting newish kid on the block, who the eagle eyed might have spotted lurking in the Slow Jazz Playlist for the last three months. Well Nelson Devereaux’s album on the ever excellent Youngbloods label is finally out and surpassing my expectations.

Adopting a similar, I appreciate the saxophone greats between 1955-1975 but I’m going to f*^k things up a bit approach, as Sam Gendel, Devereaux runs absolute stylistic riot veering between bedroom pop, madcap synth abuse, weirdo outsiderism and jazz futurism whilst questioning everything and being OK that he didn’t receive any definitive answers, only existential coping mechanisms. Expect the unexpected and go with the (very listenable) flow.

Funnily enough, despite stating I wasn’t going down a wormhole researching the players on the previous tip, I peeked the credits for Infinity, mainly to see if Devereaux was alone or not, and I noticed Jake Baldwin plays trumpet on track 7. Excuse me while I take a moment to let that cosmic connection sink in and put a note in my diary to research the obviously vibrant Minneapolis jazz scene at some stage.

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Playlist Companion

Find Devereaux raising questions in the Slow Jazz Playlist: