Openness Trio

Josh Johnson, Carlos Niño, and Nate Mercereau have each had distinct and fascinating careers. Johnson, for instance, was the music director for singer Leon Bridges while also cultivating a career at the intersection of jazz and new music that led to striking solo work and groups like Jeff Parker ETA IVtet and SML. For three decades, Niño has been cultivating ever-expanding improvisational communities in Los Angeles, creating a wide realm of spiritual jazz where anything might happen. And after a wildly successful career writing or recording with some of the United States’ biggest stars, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Mercereau emerged as a fascinating new voice in instrumental music on a string of solo records, especially 2024’s Excellent Traveler.

As the aptly named Openness Trio, Johnson, Niño, and Mercereau arrive in new settings—a courtyard in Echo Park, the canopy of a pepper tree, an orange grove in Ojai—with their instruments but without expectations. They drift into a mood or theme and, maybe 10 minutes later, drift back out, searching for conversational moments in the sound. The five pieces on their debut 2025 LP are beautiful and sublime (see “Openness”), arcing and urgent (see “Hawk Dreams”), and pastoral and inquisitive (see “Chimes in the Garden”). At Big Ears, these longtime pals convene again, following the moment wherever it may lead.