With Blues in Blueprint, bassist and composer Clovis Nicolas delivers his fifth album for Sunnyside Records and one of his most focused artistic statements to date. Framed by the subtitle “12 Variations on the Blues,” the album explores the blues not as a fixed form, but as a living blueprint-flexible, expansive, and deeply woven into the DNA of jazz.For this project, Nicolas set himself a clear challenge: to record an entire program of blues and blues-related repertoire while drawing from a wide range of jazz eras, grooves, and formal approaches. The result is a cohesive yet adventurous journey, revealing the blues as both a historical foundation and an endlessly renewable source of expression.To bring this vision to life, Nicolas assembled an exceptional trio featuring Larry Goldings, heard here in a rare and welcome appearance on acoustic piano, and the masterful Carl Allen on drums. Recorded in New York and engineered by the legendary James Farber