Adam O’Farrill’s ELEPHANT

Adam O’Farrill is bona fide jazz royalty, the grandson of Afro-Cuban pioneer Chico and the son of two pianists, jazz titan Arturo and celebrated soloist Alison Deane. But he doesn’t play like one. In his essential collaborations with the likes of Tyshawn Sorey, Patricia Brennan, and (repeatedly) Mary Halvorson, O’Farrill plays both with a sense of ensemble-respecting restraint and a well of influences beyond jazz, including indie rock and musical minimalism. These traits cross into his own work as a bandleader, whether that means giving everyone plenty of room in the quartet Stranger Days or incorporating electronic drones and elliptical vocals in the great Bird Blown Out of Latitude. On 2025’s shadowy and harmonically elusive For These Streets, O’Farrill seemed to slip in and out of the background, giving Halvorson room to rummage through time or a fleet of extra horn players to wrap around his own lines, like strangling vines.

He has never had a more vital and punchy ensemble than Elephant, a quartet that made its self-titled debut in 2026 with a record NPR said “could be the start of a pivotal group in jazz.” The lineup is delightfully diverse. Longtime collaborator Walter Stinson, who barely has an internet presence, links with drummer Russell Holzman, whose unassuming virtuosity has made him an Instagram star. And from the Maine coast, young pianist Yvonne Rogers is a powerhouse, her playing on the 12-minute “The Return” falling like boxes of hammers and then drifting like clouds of dreams. During “Sea Triptych,” the quartet goes from mysterious and brooding to incandescent and kinetic, O’Farrill sometimes leading the charge only to dart back and let the rest of Elephant charge ahead. “Eleanor’s Dance” first nods to minimal techno’s raw pulse, then adds layers that feel like colorful clothes. One of the most exciting quartets to emerge in jazz in years, Elephant is deeply rooted in the past but pulsing ever ahead.