Toronto saxophonist/composer Jacob Chung’s (b. 2000) debut release, Epistle, is a swinging 45-min album of original music written for quintet. This release hints at a new era for Canadian jazz, signifying the hope and promise of a new generation’s coming of age in a post-Covid world. The musicians on this record are some of the most exciting young Canadian talents. Pianist Felix Fox-Pappas, drummer Petros Anagnostakos, and bassist Thomas Hainbuch, who at 24 years of age is the band’s eldest member, comprise the rhythm section while trumpet player Christian Antonacci joins Chung on the frontline. The 6 track album features Chung’s Epistle Suite which draws on Chung’s own experience in finding faith and reflecting the joy of the gospel message through a commitment to the spirit of swing. Rounding out the album are 3 hard-driving bop tunes, each a contrafact on a familiar form.

Epistle Suite borrows its structure from the Christian Reformed theology of salvation. Part I “Conviction” and part II “Justification” of the suite appear on the same track, joined together by a brief piano interlude. “Conviction” is an athletic exposition of the suite’s recurring musical motifs. The horns waste no time, delivering the melody’s punchy one-liners before launching into energetic horn solos and culminating in drummer Petros Anagnostakos’ robust free-form solo. “Justification” is a response, beginning in contrast with a flowing rubato piano interlude. The movement builds into a hard-hitting medium swing that features the neo-soul improvisational stylings of pianist Felix Fox-Pappas.
The third movement, “Sanctification,” is a bittersweet straight-eighths ballad that first features Thomas Hainbuch on the bass and slowly builds into a climax near the end of solos, at which point Chung and Antonacci soar high together. Anagnostakos’ mallet work in his orchestration of this exotic melody evokes the Exodus story in which God’s people trek through the wilderness towards the promised land, a destination portrayed in “Glorification,” the fourth and final part of the suite. “Glorification” is an up-tempo, celebratory movement based on the 16-bar congregational worship and praise form of gospel music. The movement captures the sound of Sunday morning, inviting the listener to celebrate life and express gratitude for all that we are given.

The other three tracks are hard-hitting contrafacts that highlight Chung’s orientation toward the tradition in search for inspiration. “Bouncin’ at Bonafide” is a slick contrafact of Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation,” and is named after a restaurant in Toronto’s Kensington Market where many young musicians would play; Bonafide became a community hub before it closed its doors during COVID. The playful rhythm-changes “Sizzler Kabab” is likewise named after a restaurant and is dedicated to the late-night post-gig hang, an indispensable institution to any jazz scene. Finally, the strident track “Triage” takes its inspiration from Billy Strayhorn’s tune “Upper Manhattan Medical Group” in structure and nomenclature. The melody recalls the acrobatic mastery of the pioneers of bebop.
Jacob Chung’s debut record Epistle is a proclamation. Chung and his young, swingin’ band emphatically state, “we are right here, right now; we play hard and believe in swing; this is jazz in Canada.”