Blending jazz and post-rock with rhythm and blues in a parcel that reflects creativity and ingenuity with a distinctly Midwestern metropolitan aesthetic, the ensemble Prairie Roots has crafted a deeply compelling and captivating collection of modern compositions.
Released Aug. 27 and recorded over the winter in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, In the Small Yard carries with it a deep reverence for some of the nation’s most impactful cultural treasures, expressed through a language that carries the same cultural weight.
In accordance with the visual implications of the group’s moniker, the musical undertaking evokes images of the American West and, most aptly, the Midwest, where American mythos has defined the vast open spaces, harsh weather and seemingly endless possibilities matched by an equal prospect of tragedy and inhumanity.
That imagery is clearly communicated during the album’s opening piece, “Happy Dead,” in which a wandering, bare jazz guitar melody carries a quality that reflects a deep appreciation for cultural Americana. The warm vintage twang of the guitar’s melody evokes this romanticized imagery and is further supported by an equally journeying bass line and ornamented percussion that — like the landscape — provide ample space to breathe.
This relationship between the trio rests at the core of the recording, serving as its central motif, repeated again and again throughout the 30-minute performance and providing ample space for the listener to absorb the work in its entirety. Like any outstanding jazz album, this balance between the individual and the collective enables the recording to stand as an exhibition of the virtuosity of each of the group’s musicians in addition to a showcase of the ensemble’s artistic cohesion.
Prairie Roots is percussionist Andrés Bautista, guitarist Jack Rosa and bassist Arlo Wohlgenant, and In the Small Yard marks the ensemble’s second release following their rock and roll- and blues-inspired self-titled debut in 2025.
“I love playing music with these guys and I am so grateful that we get to make it happen,” Rosa stated, announcing the new record.
Closing the album is “Painter’s Pants,” a piece that further builds upon the expressive characteristics introduced throughout the album, introducing a more current sound and melody that offers a vision of the same landscape in its current existence. In the work, a familiar itinerant melody carries the song, this time garnished with elements that reflect a more developed landscape and chord progressions that resonate with the modern downtown jazz clubs of today.
Despite the album’s title and the confined urban living so implied with that name, In the Small Yard marks a celebration and recognition of deeply entrenched elements of the nation’s cultural identity. By following in the jazz tradition and blending it with a contemplative post-rock energy, this group of tight-knit musicians offers a captivating portrait of life in the contemporary Midwest and beyond.
Tracing the steps of Jimmy Giuffre’s Western Suite and Sonny Rollins’ Way Out West, Prairie Roots has crafted a portrait of wide-open spaces using the contemplative and distinctly cosmopolitan medium of the jazz tradition, calling on musical elements that evoke the quintessentially American form.
