Miles Okazaki

Over two decades guitarist and composer Miles Okazaki has built a body of work marked by rigor and restless curiosity. With Boomtown, his ninth album of original compositions and his fourth as a leader for Pi Recordings, he presents a large-scale, finely wrought, sometimes unruly work that hurtles forward with narrative force. The album continues the themes of Miniature America from 2024, described by pianist Ethan Iverson as “meticulously assembled, absolutely a blast to listen to, and informed by a generous – even carefree – spirit.” As on that album, Okazaki has assembled ten musicians: saxophonists Caroline Davis, Jon Irabagon, and Anna Webber, trombonists Jacob Garchik and Kalia Vandever, bassists Chris Tordini and Hannah Marks, Matt Mitchell on piano, Dan Weiss on drums, and Okazaki on guitar. It’s a group designed for precision and spontaneity alike, and cast with intentionally different voices on the same instruments to further explore the album’s sense of opposing energies.

Boomtown is the middle installment of Okazaki's third trilogy, which started with his early works (Mirror, Generations, Figurations), followed by three with his band Trickster (Trickster, The Sky Below, Thisness). The current series features large ensembles and an expansive sound, with broad gestures that court instability. While his Trickster projects exhibit the meticulous intricacy of a fine Swiss movement – undeniably influenced by the years that Okazaki spent as a member of saxophonist Steve Coleman’s Five Elements – Boomtown reflects a broad shift in his practice.