Okonski // Additions

On Additions, Okonski turn a year of scattered singles into something that feels less like a stopgap than a compact statement of intent. The trio of keyboardist Steve Okonski, drummer Aaron Frazer, and bassist Michael Isvara “Ish” Montgomery remain rooted in the patient, spiritually minded jazz language that made Entrance Music so inviting, but these six tracks widen the frame without disturbing the group’s sense of restraint. “Easy” sets the tone with the trio’s gift for letting groove and atmosphere do equal work, while “Flying” brings in saxophonist Cochemea, whose presence adds another contour without crowding the music. Harpist Rachel Kitchlew appears on “Axes,” further opening Okonski’s palette while keeping the music grounded in the trio’s understated pulse. Two live cuts, “Lafayette Ave” and “The Mountain,” give Additions a looser middle stretch before the concise “All Time” closes the set. What holds the EP together is the group’s refusal to overstate anything. Okonski’s music can suggest spiritual jazz, soul jazz, beat music, and the hip-hop-informed sensibility heard in their earlier Trio Session Demos, yet it rarely settles into a single reference point. Instead, the trio treats those languages as shared vocabulary. The cassette edition, which pairs these new pieces with the early Trio Session Demos, makes that throughline especially clear. Arriving ahead of a third LP planned for 2027, Additions works as both appendix and preview, a snapshot of a band expanding outward through collaboration while preserving the conversational chemistry at its center.