CITRUS SUN - PEOPLE OF TOMORROW
A really
sweet set from this Incognito side project – a group who are even jazzier than
usual work from Bluey and crew! The album's mostly instrumental – save for some
great guest vocals from Valerie Etienne – and the focus is on longer solos on
keyboards, guitar, and trumpet – all spun out over the kind of classic grooves
you'd expect from Incognito! Think of the record as a jazz fusion project from
the late 70s, with some R&B undercurrents – just the kind of set that only
a rare few like Bluey could do so well. Valerie sings on a great cover of Terry
Callier's "What Color Is Love", and the album also features an
instrumental take on "What's Going On", plus the tracks
"Yesterday Detroit", "Cooking With Walter", "Tonight
We Dance", "Mais Uma Vez", and "People Of
Tomorrow". ~ Dusty
Groove
KENNY GRAHAM - THE WORLD OF SAMMY LEE
A
wonderful jazz soundtrack from the legendary Kenny Graham – the important
postwar Brit bandleader who was known for his seminal Afro-Cubists group –
heard here in a much different context! Kenny's still got all that great sense
of tone and color he brought to some of his more powerful music – but he uses
it here with a sensitivity that's really breathtaking – careful use of woodwind
passages, percussion, and other light instrumentation – all used to illustrate
the seamier underbelly of London in the early 60s! The tapes were thought lost
for years, but have been marvelously reclaimed by the folks at Trunk Records –
and although there's no historical record of the musicians on the date, we're
guessing that they're the same top-shelf jazzmen who graced Kenny's other
groups. Titles include "Patsy Asleep In The Flat", "Salt
Beef", "Dash To Bellman's", "Four O'Clock Hop",
"Thoughts At Home", "Peepshow Bins", and "Soho At
Dawn". ~ Dusty Groove
NIELS VINCENTZ / CAMERON BROWN / BILLY HART / TOM HARRELL - IS THAT SO?
A
wonderful follow-up to the previous trio album that tenorist Niels Vincentz cut
with bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Billy Hart – and a record that also adds
in the wonderful voice of Tom Harrell on trumpet! The quartet have this cool,
compressed vibe that's right up there with Harrell's best work under his own
name – that impeccable trumpet style really shaping the top end of the tunes,
and balanced by some of the deeper, more soulful lines coming from Vincentz's
trumpet – as Brown does some amazing work on the bottom end, with these round,
warm tones that leave us breathless throughout. Hart's drum work is more than
able to shift and match all the right patterns needed throughout – and titles
include "Baby Suite", "Modal Dancer", "Haiku",
"Cecile", and "Raison D'Etre". ~ Dusty Groove
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