Ralph Alessi’s A Sun That Never Sets is a 2026 ECM release that finds the trumpeter leading a new quintet and extending his distinct strain of contemporary jazz into richer, more family-rooted territory. The album features 11 originals performed by Alessi on trumpet alongside his brother Joseph Alessi on trombone, Matt Mitchell on piano, John Hébert on bass, and Ches Smith on drums and vibraphone, marking his first recorded collaboration with Joseph and his first quintet project as a leader in about 15 years. Across pieces such as the title track, Nothing Is Dead, Relaxed Misery, Sweet Spot, Ether, Of Trees (Variations on a Theme by TB), Duck Face, and Transitional Imagery, the group balances angular written structures and chamber‑like textures with open improvisation, creating music that sits at a crossroads of post‑bop, chamber jazz, and Alessi’s own idiosyncratic harmonic language.The record opens with A Sun That Never Sets, a highly rhythmic, fanfare‑like piece whose precise staccato attacks and restless atmosphere gradually dissolve into a more dreamlike soundscape, setting the tone for an album that thrives on tension between discipline and freedom. Tracks like Relaxed Misery pair plunger‑muted trumpet and trombone over an insistent piano ostinato, building from conversational interplay into energetic, contrapuntal lines, while Nothing Is Dead and Sweet Spot explore more spacious, ballad territory colored by Mitchell’s painterly piano and Smith’s shimmering vibraphone. Reviewers emphasize the way the quintet’s chemistry allows Alessi’s compositions to feel both intricate and inviting: critics note the “sometimes-mellifluous” character of the music, praise the inventive writing and brass interplay, and highlight the album’s exploration of “fascinating tonal possibilities” as it injects fresh energy into 21st‑century jazz without sacrificing emotional warmth.
