NEXUS - Open Mouth Blues

An unreleased 1981 recording already testifies to the fact that energy has been the founding pulse of Nexus from the very beginning. In 1983, the group expanded into a quintet and released "Open Mouth Blues", a powerful and uncompromising statement that firmly established its artistic identity.

Bold in vision and rich in color, the album channels a post-Mingusian spirit while embracing emblematic archaic echoes that root the music in the deepest jazz tradition. The vibrant crackle of marching-band sonorities, Minafra’s “fat” mutes evoking the Ellingtonian jungle sound, and Bonvini’s expansive trombone – recalling the expressive force of Roswell Rudd and Kid Ory – converge in a sound that is both celebratory and fiercely individual.

Two major influences shaped this creative trajectory: Roland Kirk, to whom Tononi would later dedicate a landmark triple CD infused with the expanded language and distinctive flavor of Nexus, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, whose visionary approach profoundly informed the group’s aesthetic direction.