Finding the Strange Heavens: Linda May Han Oh on Improvisation, Hope, and Community at the 2026 Newport Jazz Festival

With only a few clicks or taps, we can find out about pretty much everything in the known world. We can discover long lost relatives. Meet new friends. Even uncover our soulmate. The internet, when fully considered, is a truly wondrous thing. But all is not rosy. Paradoxically, the search for deeper ties often leaves people detached and despondent. In a network full of people, loneliness and isolation too often emerge. And while it has almost become cliché to say that “live music matters” and can get us out of such funk, the statement is also axiomatic. There is a unique power behind live music that provides a communal catharsis seldom found elsewhere in modern life. If we truly wish to improve the world around us, and ourselves, such connection is essential. One cannot help but sense this truth when listening to Linda May Han Oh’s Strange Heavens (Biophilia, 2025).

Few embody cultural interconnectedness as fully as Oh. The bassist was born in Malaysia to Chinese parents. She was raised in Australia, where her studies included Indian music, before heading to the melting pot of New York to cut her teeth. She is also married to the brilliant Cuban-American pianist and composer Fabian Almazan. Hues of these traditions, along with several others from around the globe, emerge throughout her work. The diversity of her music often highlights the shared humanity of all people while celebrating their differences. 

In the case of Strange Heavens, Oh revisits an idea she first explored sixteen years prior. Her debut record, Entry (self-release, 2009), found her joined by trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and drummer Obed Calvaire. Strange Heavens mirrors the setting, swapping Calvaire for Tyshawn Sorey behind the kit. But it is a mistake to view Strange Heavens as a sequel to what came before. Obviously, Calvaire and Sorey are different people with divergent experiences and thoughts. But the same can largely be said of the current Oh and Akinmusire and their counterparts from over a decade and a half ago. The earlier music hinted at the young artists’ great futures. Now, they are at the forefront of contemporary creative dialogues. Parenthood, the pandemic, and professional development have all reshaped them and their approaches to sound.  

The pieces on Strange Heavens are more than mere showcases for the prowess of some of the best artists performing today. Instead, the artists’ skills share themes about community and humanity that are lasting and meaningful. The marching upbeat pulse of “Living Proof” is both inspired by, and itself advocates, acts of self-improvement. The melancholic folk anthem “Acapella,” featuring Akinmusire’s smoothly flowing horn, both acknowledges the need for change in this world while producing an anthem for its healing. The bass-driven bounciness of “The Sweetest Water” pushes back against isolation by underscoring the importance of community even when things are not always simple. 

Human flourishing requires meaningful connections with other people and the ideas, cultures, and communities that help shape who they are. Perhaps ironically, it is the chordlessness of the Strange Heavens trio that best reveals, in a live setting, the invisible cords between people. And there are few places to better experience this firsthand than at Newport.  

PostGenre: Growing up in Western Australia, do you remember the first time you heard of the Newport Jazz Festival?

Linda May Han Oh: I’m not entirely sure. Though I do remember my first time there. It was with Dave Douglas.

PG: Sound Prints with Dave and Joe Lovano in 2012.

LMHO: That’s right.  Playing there has always been a big deal in my mind. And when I have performed there, it’s been super fun. Amazing lineups and really memorable moments.

The last time I was there was [in 2022] with Vijay [Iyer]. And the time before that, [in 2018],  was with Pat [Metheny], and we got rained out.

PG: Oh yeah. Massive flooding of the field.

LMHO: The audience was getting completely drenched.

PG: The group sounded great, though.

LMHO: It was rare for us to play a set with Pat for less than three hours. So, we got the most out of the limited time we had that day.

PG: Given that Pat is one of the top guitarists performing today and the guitar is a quintessential chordal instrument, do you feel the experience of working with him has shaped how you compose for chordless settings like your Strange Heavens trio?

LMHO: I feel like the chordless element comes from a lot of listening to chordless settings. Albums like [both volumes of] Sonny Rollins’ A Night at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 1957) and Kenny Garrett’s Trilogy (Warner Bros., 1995) to name a few.

I would say that my work with Pat has informed my attention to detail when it comes to composing, putting together a song, and honoring the song and the composer’s meaning when performing it.  There’s a push and pull between how much people want to improvise and stretch material, and how much they want to follow the written page. There needs to be a balance between your intention as an improviser and the composer’s intention. In a time of your life when you’re playing a lot and trying to really expand what you can do as an improviser, it’s good to be reminded that there is an element of honoring the underlying song that needs to be addressed.

PG: In the context of the Strange Heavens trio specifically, how important is it that Ambrose and Tyshawn are also great composers in their own right?

LMHO: I think that is an important part of the trio. Ambrose and Tyshawn think like both composers and performers in a way that I think is part of the bigger arc of a set, the bigger arc of a song. They’re such great listeners. They really have phenomenal ears. Aside from both having absolute pitch, where they can identify exactly what pitch they hear, they can also match texture and subtleties with dynamics. I feel like when something is done within the group, there’s a very quick reaction for how to adjust or react in a very explicit way.

PG: Does each live show differ significantly compared to what came out of the studio then?

LMHO: Absolutely. I think having an audience in front of you changes things. The audience is as much a part of the performance as we three are in many ways. We’re all in that space together, and the direction things go depends on the audience, how they react, and how we respond to them.

For Newport specifically, we actually haven’t played with this group at a large outdoor festival before. I do think that element changes things and will produce something different from what would come in a more intimate setting like the Village Vanguard. It will be a lot of fun to see where we go because of that.

PG: With Strange Heavens, you return to the bass-trumpet-drums setting of Entry. What first interested you about that particular instrumentation?

LMHO: Part of it came from meeting Ambrose at the Manhattan School of Music. He was a year or two above me and we lived in the same neighborhood. It was a beautiful time in Harlem with so many musicians in the area. Gerald Clayton lived in the same house as Joe Sanders and Justin Brown. Marcus Gilmore lived around there too. It felt like everybody was there and so much was happening.

Entry was born out of a session I had with Ambrose and Obed. I wanted my first record to have a format where I could have space for a bit more freedom within the group. I liked the bass-trumpet-drums format because it was less common, and I wanted my first record to not follow a standard formation. I wanted something a little different.

PG: Were you hesitant to revisit that unique form, albeit with a different drummer, for Strange Heavens?

LMHO: I wasn’t hesitant at all. It was always in the back of my mind to revisit the format. I do think most of my recordings are indicative of the space and time I’m operating in. I love the idea of documenting where everyone is at a particular time. I think Entry is like a beautiful journal entry of where we each were and how we were developing as artists. I love Obed [Calvaire]. He was also on my last record, The Glass Hours (Biophilia, 2023). But I’ve also been playing a lot with Tyshawn in Vijay’s group. It seemed like a natural transition to use this lineup.

PG: The general concept behind Strange Heavens is that too often we cling to things that are comfortable but not good for us instead of seeking things that are more difficult but better.

LMHO: So much of what is good or not is relative and subjective. The album focuses more on the idea that if you’re in a place you don’t want to be in, how you should search for something else or adjust to what you need in order to be where you want to be.

I had a conversation with my son yesterday, and it was a beautiful moment. He’s five years old. He asked my husband [pianist Fabian Almazan] and I if we always wanted to be musicians. We both said there were other things that interested us, too, that maybe we would try later in life. Our son asked what those things might be. Fabian has said that he always wanted to be a zoologist because he’s really interested in nature. I said that I really want to get my Mandarin together so I can translate for people. And our son asked why we don’t just do those things. It was so funny, but also amazing, to hear him say we should just do what inspires us. It was all so clear to a five-year-old. Obviously, there are other factors involved when it comes to making a living, but that idea of simply doing what makes you happy as long as it’s not hurting anyone is so incredible.

PG: Do you feel that as an artist, especially someone who improvises, you may be more attuned to taking those types of opportunities than others because you are in a field that is more comfortable with risk-taking than most careers?

LMHO: When it comes to being an artist, I think that the readiness to accept what is in front of you and make the most of what happens around you is a skill that can be readily obtained when you’re improvising. That applies to both music and improv comedy. I see parallels between that art and music in terms of being ready to wholeheartedly embrace what’s happening.  

But I wouldn’t say that we could necessarily do that better than somebody with a nine-to-five job. I don’t think it’s occupation that matters. I just think it’s about our habits, re-examining our habits, and doing new things. Doing things outside of your comfort zone is good for you. It creates new synapses that light up other areas of your brain, which keeps you healthy. Getting stuck is not a healthy thing.

I will say that a lot of the themes of Strange Heavens are focused on problems that are larger than us in many ways. But a big part of it is also focusing on what we can do on our own in our own community to realize how beautiful things are around us.

That’s the reason I wanted to include a piece like “Acapella” that is related to that idea of hoping for more with a twinge of sadness and melancholy. It was heavily inspired by Joni Mitchell’s “The Fiddle and the Drum,” which has those elements and an aspect of hope too. We’ve gotta have hope. There’s so much going on in this world. Hope is essential.

I would encourage everybody to play music. To learn how to experiment with improvising, having fun with it as a small child would, and seeing where that leads. I think the whole world should practice improvising from time to time. It would let us learn how to work better with other people. It would help people remember that they are not the only person in this world but instead that they need to work with others.

PG: There are, however, certain fields where improvisation is not necessarily a good thing. You do not want a surgeon or engineer improvising at work, for instance.

LMHO: I mean, they do take calculated risks. Even with kids, there is the idea of risky play and how that calculation of risk is a better thing than having someone tell you what is risky and what isn’t. If you read any of Dan Levitin’s books about the effect music has on the brain and how surgeons have to think on the fly, they are using problem solving and improv; they use both. There’s an element of improv that is very valuable and it is not always necessarily based on risk.

PG: To go back to what you were saying about your son, it’s fascinating how much kids, from their innocent perspectives, actually teach their parents, whose mindsets have been so guided by society and its perspectives. It’s amazing the wisdom kids can have as people who have not been on Earth that long.

LMHO: Absolutely, absolutely. They see things with different eyes, and that unbridled emotion and thought is amazing.

PG: Do you see parenting as fitting into the theme of Strange Heavens too? Being a parent inevitably brings uncertainties about how to care for the new life you have brought into the world but there is also so much reward in taking that risk.

LMHO: I think so. What’s interesting to me is that, looking back, when I recorded my first album with Ambrose, we were practically kids. I had just graduated from school and he graduated barely before me. I’m very proud of [Entry] but so many things have changed since then. Both Ambrose and I are parents now. Tyshawn is too. And I think that being a parent does change you. It makes you see things differently, and that, in turn, makes you make music differently.

PG: Do you feel the way you communicate musically with Ambrose has changed as a result?

LMHO: I think so. It has been twenty years since Entry, and I think that with age comes an idea of not needing to prove yourself as much. I think getting rid of that element of feeling you need to prove yourself does change the way you communicate and respond to other people. I’m not saying all young people are always trying to prove themselves, but for me personally, that was definitely something that I felt as somebody who came all the way from Perth, Australia, and was trying to come up the ranks in New York City. I did every jam session I could. I was playing all the time and wanted to prove how strong I was as a bass player. There are still elements of that which will never go away, I think, as a musician. But now I feel a bit of clarity in seeing the bigger picture.

PG: Obviously, being a leader brings additional logistical challenges beyond being a sideperson. But from a purely performance-based perspective, do you feel you perform differently as a leader than as a side person, as in Vijay’s trio?

LMHO: It’s almost the same thing because I feel like in both groups I’m given an ample amount of freedom. But I would say that in terms of direction, in Vijay’s group, we never have set lists. Vijay will play, and he always instigates what the song will be. That is our constant. And from there, we listen for where things will go. But with my music, especially for Strange Heavens, things are generally more composed, though only a few sections are more literal.

I would say that Strange Heavens has a lot more freedom compositionally than some of my other projects. For The Glass Hours, for example, I am working with more people, which means we need the music to be more arranged. The intent behind that group is to sound larger than five pieces. Strange Heavens is more about having the musicians shine. I don’t believe a lot of direction needs to come from me for the trio in terms of steering the composition. My role is more like a producer who is in the recording studio, doesn’t need to say much, and mostly aims to not get in the way.

PG: Changing directions a little, you also have a new duo recording with Melissa Aldana, Beneath Lifted Skies (Biophilia, 2026), that will be released soon. How did that album come together?

LMHO: Melissa and I have been talking about doing something together for a while. The stars aligned when we were in New York this past February. We wanted to create an intimate duo album. We wanted to play tunes that we both grew up with along with some free improvisations and a couple of solo bass tunes. Neither of us had done any albums that have primarily been standards, so this is my first time actually navigating those on a record as well. It was a lot of fun to play them. We recorded the album up in Massachusetts at Wellspring Studios, and I had just gotten a new bass with a C extension. I’ve never had a C extension before, though I always wanted one. It was nice to really open up with the duo and have room to really use those low notes.

PG: You said you have not recorded standards much. Is that because you enjoy composing so much?

LMHO: I guess so. I love composing. I love seeing what I can do when writing music. It’s funny because I spent so much time in New York playing standards every day. I did that so much in my day-to-day life that when it came to recording, I wanted to put out more original pieces. Now, I’m harking back to some of those standards that I really deeply love and it is a nice step away from what I do most of the time.

PG: As far as your own compositions, at one point you studied the influence classical Indian rhythms had on Dave Holland’s solos. Do you feel they shape your own compositions at all?

LMHO: Absolutely. I’ve studied rhythm in many different aspects. My focus on the Indian elements of Dave’s work came when I was in Perth and finishing off my bachelor’s degree, doing an extra year of honours. I’ve also explored a lot of Cuban music with Fabian, along with the music of some other Latin cultures, including that of Brazil. All those things come into play in my music. There’s a lot of West African music that I love. Moroccan music. And some of my favorite electric bassists are West African, people like Richard Bona and Étienne Mbappé. Those are there too.

Especially now, as a rhythm section player, there’s so many different directions that the music can go. It’s almost essential to dive deep into some other musical disciplines. Jazz is essentially born from Africa, and the study of rhythms from there is very important. And I don’t think AI can quite duplicate the human sensibility of what that is. Not yet anyway.

PG: Do you think it ever will?

LMHO: I’m sure it’ll come close in the sense of algorithms, but not with that human sensibility of being in front of a human, playing with them or listening to them, and feeling those vibrations. I don’t think computers can ever recreate that. And that’s the perk of being a live musician.

PG: It’s interesting because often with AI music, even if you cannot exactly identify what it is, something often feels off. It doesn’t feel quite right compared to what you hear from real human musicians. Of course, who knows where things might be twenty years from now.

LMHO: Absolutely. I went on a kindergarten tour for my son, and the art teacher was playing AI jazz. The school had heard that Fabian and I are jazz musicians. They said to us, “Oh yeah, we’re playing jazz.” Fabian and I just looked at each other. What we heard was awful.

PG: And it would seem, as you mentioned, that the rise of AI makes live performances even more critical. Going back to Newport, what do you hope that, at the end of your set, listeners will take away most from the performance in terms of Strange Heavens’ themes and what it could actually mean for their lives?

LMHO: I think the overall message behind the title generally seems to evoke a realization for a lot of people. I hope people think of the bigger picture if they’re stuck in a narrow space. I hope they can take away some beauty, awe, and hope from some of these songs. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to find what makes the seemingly small, insignificant, and mundane special. I hope they can connect with some of the beautiful moments and be in the moment with us.  I think that’s necessary right now. Everybody’s tethered to their devices. I think it’s necessary to have community and be in a communal space together, breathing and listening to one another.

Live music, in particular, is so essential to pull people out of this virtual space which can, in many cases, be unhealthy. So many people just look at TikTok and reels – where everything is less than five seconds in length – instead of fully living life. How is that good for us? If we’re living in this world that needs a positive change, we need to lose our tether to devices. We need more concerts and more communal gatherings. And that includes congregating in Newport. I can’t wait.

Join Linda May Han Oh’s communal gathering at Newport on Saturday, August 1, 2026. You can read more about the Festival here. Stay tuned as we continue our extensive pre-coverage of the event. We will also be providing live coverage from Fort Adams. More information about Linda May Han Oh is available on her website. ‘Strange Heavens’ is out now and can be purchased on Bandcamp.

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez