Nolatet
LowDown
September 19, 2026
You might think jazz is one thing. That one thing could be old bebop like Charlie Parker, swing like Gene Krupa, or electrostatic sludge noise like Bitches Brew. These versions of jazz might materialize in slow corporate elevators, lime green conversation pits tinged with weed smoke, or the background of a horror movie. It doesn’t really matter what you think; there are players, and bands, who will break what you think, pick up the pieces, glue them back together into the shape of an elephant with a pineapple for a head, and hand What You Think back to you with a smile.
That’s been my experience every time I see Nolatet, the four-piece jazz group from New Orleans featuring Tulsa’s Brian Haas on piano, James Singleton on bass, Mike Dillon on vibraphone, and Johnny Vidacovich on drums. Not being someone prone to do so, I often in fact forget to think during the quartet’s singular shows, which is as high of a compliment as I can give. There are moments in life that defy comprehension, and you’ll experience at least one of them during a Nolatet show.
On Saturday night, the band was celebrating the release of their latest album, Somethin’ To Relax With, a title that is occasionally true but mostly comically false. While the opening track “Switchback” did indeed start with a soft pitter-patter of easy-listening chords, a turn from Haas towards the minor heralded a descent from lofty, angelic ease into gritty, sometimes harmonically agnostic gravel. It was a switch so severe that the audience laughed—but soon they were hooting and hollering at the new Phrygian-adjacent rock jam, pushed along by Vidacovich on the drums and, confoundingly but enjoyably, Dillon on an Indian tabla drum.
That sort of defiance against jazz is what makes Nolatet such a strong jazz outfit. See “Lanky, Stanky, Maestro” (from the group’s 2018 release No Revenge Necessary), a dirge of a tune in celebration of the—indeed—lanky Vidacovich. On the recorded track, the tune is certainly drum-forward; the swaggering drums trade the spotlight with Haas’s 32nd notes, rupturing the groove over and over to make explosive moments inside of a tight structure. That would be more than enough for most bands. Live, Nolatet takes it further, taking every moment of space after the opening lick to scream the title: “LANKY STANKY MAESTRO!” You won’t find it in a jazz methods book; it’s pure humor and enjoyment.