Casey Abrams Makes Jazz Feel Dangerously Fun Again on #Jazz

There is something exhilarating about hearing an artist with formidable musical ability abandon the impulse to prove it.

That freedom courses through Casey Abrams’ #Jazz, an adventurous, sophisticated and wonderfully spirited 11-track collection that returns the singer, bassist and multi-instrumentalist to his jazz foundations without asking him to surrender any of the eccentricities he has accumulated along the way.

Produced with Davy Nathan, #Jazz treats the genre less as a rigid tradition than a living language. Swing, bebop, salsa, neo-soul, pop and intricate vocal harmonies move easily through the record, unified by Abrams’ instinct for improvisation and an obvious pleasure in musical discovery.

And what a pleasure it is to hear musicians having this much fun.

“Pizza” finds Abrams bouncing between upright bass, guitar and clarinet, while “I Choose You” draws from the sensuality of D’Angelo and the harmonic adventurousness of contemporary jazz-pop. “Love Is the Song” turns toward salsa, and a vibrant reinvention of The Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love” brings Haley Reinhart, Rebecca Jade, Charles Jones and Harry Reinhart together for a performance that feels less like a cover than a conversation.

The album’s formidable cast also includes two-time GRAMMY® winner Taylor Eigsti, GRAMMY®-winning trumpeter David Longoria, violinist Nora Germain and saxophonist Jacob Scesney. Yet #Jazz never feels burdened by its credentials. Its virtuosity is remarkably light on its feet.

That may be the album’s greatest achievement.

Abrams is deeply serious about music without demanding that music behave seriously. When a recording session required a shaker, he and Nathan reportedly reached for a container of Tic Tacs. It is a wonderfully absurd detail, but also an apt metaphor for the album itself: curiosity wins over convention.

Beneath that playfulness, however, lies considerable emotional weight. “Lifetime” draws inspiration from Abrams’ relationship with his girlfriend Laura, while “You Got Me Smiling,” featuring Longoria, captures the exhilaration of discovering love after darkness. Eigsti joins Abrams on “Really Saying Something,” a collaboration that helped encourage Abrams to lean more fully into his jazz roots.

Those roots ultimately lead home. Abrams grew up in Idyllwild, California, studying at Idyllwild Arts Academy under renowned bassist Marshall Hawkins, whose credits include Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. After American Idol, Billboard-charting albums, more than 100 million YouTube views with Postmodern Jukebox, international touring and an extraordinarily eclectic career, Abrams closes #Jazz with “Idyllwild,” a tender tribute to the town, family and mentor who helped shape him.

It gives an otherwise restless album a beautifully grounded conclusion. #Jazz works because Abrams understands something essential about the music: respecting tradition does not require embalming it. Jazz has always thrived on personality, risk, conversation and the thrill of not knowing precisely what will happen next.

Abrams embraces all of it.

The result is polished without feeling precious, technically impressive without becoming self-important and steeped in jazz history without being trapped by it.

Casey Abrams has come home to jazz—but rather than simply revisit where he began, he has thrown open the windows, invited everybody inside and made the place entirely his own.