Review: Helen Sung Big Band’s ‘Oracles’

Pianist and composer Helen Sung delivers her first big band album with Oracles (Sunnyside, 2026). The seventeen-piece big band is under the conduction of Alan Ferber. It features such mainstays as trumpeters Tatum Greenblatt and Alex Norris, trombonist James Burton III, and saxophonists Dave Pietro, John Ellis, and Nicole Glover. Accompanying Sung on piano in the rhythm section are bassist Vincente Archer, drummer Adam Cruz, and percussionist Samuel Torres. 

At the highest level, Oracles is essentially a tribute album, with nods mostly to her mentors who mentored her in the inaugural class of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, now known as the Herbie Hancock Institute. They also all happen to be iconic artists. Sung composed eight of the album’s twelve compositions – musical portraits of legends Clark Terry, the Institute’s then Artistic Director Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, Barry Harris, Kenny Barron, Herbie Hancock, Sir Roland Hanna, and Jimmy Heath, the last of whom taught her that the jazz bandstand is the greatest of all democracies.

But long before her attendance at the Monk Institute, Sung walked a courageous path. The daughter of Chinese immigrants’ upbringing left little space for the arts. Her piano training as a child came from a strict Russian teacher. Under his tutelage, she focused heavily on Western classical music. But as an undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin [editors note: Hook ‘em Horns!], she reconsidered her musical tastes and began to explore jazz, defying many of the limitations imposed on her. Her presence at the Institute came directly from following that new path. Admission was highly competitive but her immense skills and hard work got her through the process. Once admitted, she immediately began working with the masters to whom Oracles is dedicated. Sung sees the album as her most poignant statement yet on liberation and unity because she has integrated her own story into a larger narrative, giving voice not only to her mentors but also to the other musicians in her band. 

Despite the emphasis on honoring the legends, Oracles begins with a non-tribute tune. Sung’s “Convergence” is a high-flying number for which baritone saxophonist Andre Gutauskas and bass trombonist Gina Benalcazar Lopez set the pace. Norris solos, Sung attacks the keys vigorously, and Ellis takes the band home with a free-ranging tenor solo.

But, as noted, the essence of the album are pieces that have specific subjects in mind. Sung arranged the brief “Samba Da Gumz” by Clark Terry, giving voice to the entire trumpet/flugelhorn unit, which includes, besides Greenblatt and Norris, Mike Rodriguez and Nathaniel Williford. That foursome, along with trombonist Willie Applewhite and altoist Pietro, grace Sung’s composition for Terry, “C.T.,” emulating Mumbles’ uplifting spirit. 

Sung’s arrangement of Wayne Shorter’s indelible, gorgeous ballad “Diana,” finds the leader on Rhodes as Ellis fearlessly takes up a mournful tenor.  Those two then continue in Sung’s own composition, “Wayne’s World,” with the pianist now on acoustic piano as full orchestra revels in soaring melodies, playful riffs, and Shorter’s patented quirks.

Sung reverses the sequence for another vital member of Miles’ Second Great Quintet, Ron Carter, beginning with her own “Mr. Virtuoso,” featuring the low-end voices of Gutauskas and Lopez as, once again, the entire contingent majestically soars. The piece segues directly to the pianist’s own brief arrangement of Carter’s famous “R.J.,” where she provides the principal voice. Arguably, and justifiably, the most swinging track is “A Little Bird Watchin’” for Jimmy Heath, where Glover, Sung, and Archer find Heath’s trademark wit in their joyous turns.  

Oracles’ most pivotal moments arrive in the three-part piano concerto inspired and somewhat melded by Sir Roland Hanna. “Pianism” honors Harris, Barron, and Hancock. Sung channels some of her Western classical roots here but emphasizes bebop for Harris with the help of well-articulated altoist Alejando Aviles. The focus on lyricism in the second movement is intended to reflect Kenny Barron, with a sublime flugelhorn from Rodriguez. Sung shifts to electric piano, an instrument Barron has recorded on only briefly in his early career but continues to use regularly to compose. On the blissful nod to Hancock in the third movement, Sung goes full throttle, trading fours with trombonists Sara Jacovina and Burton,  trumpeter Williford, and saxophonists Petro and Ellis. The full force of the ensemble is simply glorious.

To go out calmly, Sung exhorts the ensemble to unveil multiple textures in her arrangement of Horace Silver’s “Peace.” It is a remarkably fitting conclusion to her highly crafted, stellar big band debut. Oracles unquestionably draws from the masters and does not hide its musical indebtedness. But like those to whom she honors, Sung goes fully her own way. She takes the real lessons from those who came before, not merely try to replicate them in her own voice. Few can conceive a greater honor.

‘Oracles’ is out now on Sunnyside Records. It can be purchased on Bandcamp.