The Nth Power have a habit that says a lot about this band: they release albums at the exact moment the city they’ve grown into is breathing at full capacity. Never Alone arrived on May 1st, right in the thick of JazzFest, and there’s as much calculation in that timing as there is intuition. New Orleans in May is a city where music stops being an event and becomes a habitat. The air you breathe the moment you step outside. The Nth Power‘s record fits into that environment so organically that you start to wonder: maybe albums should only come out this way — at the moment when context itself tells you how to listen.

I keep thinking about how rarely records today convey a sense of the room. Studio albums gravitate toward sterility, toward a polished version of themselves, toward a sound that exists in abstract space. Never Alone was recorded in the farmhouse of Mike Gordon — Phish‘s bassist — in Colchester, Vermont, and the decision to go there was deliberate: away from the stage, away from familiar walls, away from routine. The trio — Nikki Glaspie (drums; with a résumé that includes Beyoncé and Dumpstaphunk), Nick Cassarino (guitar; collaborator with Christian McBride) and Nate Edgar (bass; John Brown’s Body) — brought with them a deep well of shared musical experience and stripped everything else away. Minimal overdubs, maximum first takes, total focus on the interplay within the trio. I value moves like this deeply, because there is a real courage in it: recording as a three-piece, with nowhere to hide behind the arrangement.

“Dream Alive” opens the record with a confidence that immediately sets the rules. This is jazz-funk, springy and swinging, with a groove that registers almost physically — the body reacts before the mind has time to parse the harmony. The track is built for live performance: there are pockets of air baked into it, spaces where the musicians can step in and stretch out onstage. For anyone encountering The Nth Power for the first time, “Dream Alive” works as the ideal entry point — it explains everything essential about the band.

“Crave You“ shifts the lens. A soft vocal emerges here, a delicate pop-jazz tint, and the track begins to glow — literally, there’s a brightness to it that feels like daylight after the nocturnal “Dream Alive.” What’s interesting is that The Nth Power lean into that brightness without compromise: the vocal stays gentle, the arrangement stays transparent, and yet the song sounds contemporary, with an obvious desire to reach a wider audience. That desire could read as a concession, but in the context of the album it registers differently — as an expansion of the palette.

And then “Thirsty” arrives, and the album slows down. This track is one of the most intimate on the record: time thickens, outlines blur, and what remains is a gentle sway and a warmth you want to call tactile. “Thirsty” operates on contrast with the energy of the first two tracks, and that contrast is calibrated with precision — it feels like a natural transition, the moment when the party quiets down and a real conversation begins.

The album’s center of gravity is “Could It Be ’74 (Remix),” seven minutes and eleven seconds during which The Nth Power allow themselves to unfold completely. This is romantic jazz delivered with close attention to dynamics and detail, and it uses its runtime honestly: there’s no filler, no treading water — the track moves, develops, and tightens, building toward a climax that justifies every one of those seven minutes. For an eight-track album, a piece this sprawling is a risky call, and it pays off: “Could It Be ’74” becomes the anchor around which the entire architecture of the record is built.

Alongside it sits “Smile“ (7:16), another extended track that takes on a different assignment. Where “Could It Be ’74” lives inside a single genre and explores its depth, “Smile” plays at the intersections: genres intertwine here, layer over one another, and by the midpoint the track has grown into a sweeping jazz canvas. Two long tracks back to back — that’s another risk, and it says something important about The Nth Power: the band trusts the listener. They believe the attention will hold, that seven minutes is time worth spending.

The closing “Simple Life” brings the album down on a funk-jazz wave with faintly classical undertones and a tasteful commercial sheen. That sheen is a conscious choice: it makes the record’s ending feel light, almost joyful, and after all the intimacy and scale of the preceding tracks, a finale like this lands like a breath of fresh air. A smart move — letting the listener go with a smile.

A separate word about the vocals — the kind of thing that in instrumentally driven trios often ends up on the periphery, something supplementary laid on top of the main course. The Nth Power have it wired differently. The vocal parts here grow from inside the group: the trio sings itself, and the voice becomes another instrument in the live dialogue, while also serving as the conduit for the album’s entire lyrical thread — connection, presence, love.

Is there anything to hold against the record? Perhaps in places the album is so comfortable, so cozy in its warmth, that you find yourself wanting more friction — a moment where the trio truly takes a risk, steps beyond its own comfort zone, puts itself in an uncomfortable position and plays from there. “Smile” edges toward that threshold but stops one step short. Then again, this is the kind of criticism that boils down to “I wanted more” — and wanting more after an eight-track album that plays in a single breath is, in itself, the best recommendation.

Those who feel the pull of Never Alone (and it knows how to pull) will soon have a chance to hear all of this live: The Nth Power are heading out on an extensive U.S. tour spanning all of 2026 — with headline shows, festival slots, and co-bills with Snarky Puppy. Considering the band was born on the live stage of JazzFest back in 2011, the tour is a return to their natural habitat.

The Nth Power – Tour Dates:

Monday, May 4th – Blue Nile – New Orleans, LA
Friday, May 29th – New Park Brewing – Hartford, CT
Saturday, May 30th – Michael Arnone’s Crawfish Festival – Augusta, NJ
Sunday, May 31st – The Iridium – New York, NY
Thursday, June 11th – Oxbow Brewing – Portland, ME
Friday, June 12th – Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club – Portsmouth, NH
Saturday, July 11th – Garcia’s – Chicago, IL
Friday, July 24th – Flood City Music Festival – Johnstown, PA

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