For those unaware, Ryan Barry is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist whose music blends modern jazz language with a lyrical, contemporary voice. Drawn to improvisation from a early age, he discovered his passion for jazz while performing in his university big band, setting the course for a career centered on composition, collaboration, and artistic exploration.

Barry released his debut EP, Counterpoint in 2021 and his 2022 bossa nova interpretation of I Love How You Love Me was featured on Spotify’s official All New Jazz playlist and has since surpassed 110,000 streams across digital platforms.

After stepping away from the studio for three years to deepen his jazz studies and further develop his artistic voice, Barry returned in 2025 with A Very Barry Christmas, a holiday collection inspired by the Swing Era while incorporating hard bop and bebop influences associated with Sonny Stitt, Oscar Peterson, and Dexter Gordon.

And now here in 2026, Barry has returned to Grand Street Recording Studio with a new quintet to record If I Did Not Speak Out (G2 Records & Publishing). Exploring themes of love, loss, reflection and social conscience, the project marks a continued step forward in his development as a composer, improviser and bandleader.

1. I’ll Close My Eyes
2. Hold Me Close
3. Waltz for Miri
4. ’Till There Was You
5. If I Did Not Speak Out

This close-working quintet open their new recording on the charming resplendent I’ll Close My Eyes and then we are gifted the more amiably sculpted Hold Me Close, the playfully ambient Waltz for Miri, the new set rounding out on the languishing beauty of ’Till There Was You, coming to an all-too-soon close on the affectingly robust title cut If I Did Not Speak Out.

Musicians / Instruments:
Ryan Barry - tenor saxophone
Jacob Melsha - trombone
Charles Colizza - electric guitar
Chris Smith - upright bass
Matty Grattan - drums

www.ryanbarrymusic.com