Hermon Mehari was Plastic Sax's Person of the Year in 2009. The young trumpeter’s work ethic, optimistic demeanor and expansive taste made him one of the brightest artistic lights in Kansas City 17 years ago. When I wrote a cover story profiling Mehari for Ink magazine two years later, it had become even clearer that he was going places.
Performing for 15 people in the basement of a pool hall in Portland, Oregon, on Tuesday, October 27, might not seem like an impressive achievement, but the mere fact that Mehari’s Paris-based quartet NO(w) Beauty is touring North America is a remarkable feat. I paid $25 to hear the ensemble’s eighty-minute outing.
Consisting of co-leaders Mehari, pianist Enzo Carniel, bassist Damien Varaillon and drummer Stéphane Adsuar, NO(w) Beauty focused on selections from its self-titled 2023 album and this year’s (Un)Seen. Always pretty but never cloying, the quartet’s approach is equal parts contemporary Euro-jazz and conventional American post-bop.
A performance by the Joshua Redman Quartet aside, NO(w) Beauty is the most cohesive jazz group I’ve encountered in 2026. Carniel’s magnificent playing often evokes the compositions of Frédéric Chopin. The muscularity of Varaillon and Adsuar check the florid inclinations of their bandmates.
Mehari’s fragile tone has evolved into a refined, emotionally evocative trademark. The strength of NO(w) Beauty’s Portland appearance and the excellence of (Un)Seen make the resolute Mehari a leading candidate for a second nod as the Plastic Sax Person of the Year.