The Emerging
Contemporary Jazz Horn Trumpeter And
Flugelhorn Player Is Rising On The Charts Again With His New
Single “Soul Strut” Featuring Jazz Greats
Kenny Barron and James Genus
Tapping once
again into the Timeless Grooves that drove three singles off his critically
acclaimed 2012 debut album up the contemporary jazz radio charts, Dennis Angel
is right On Track for another successful run with his latest full length
release.
The
versatile trumpet and flugelhorn player’s latest single, the acoustic jazz-funk
driven “Soul Strut”, is a fast rising sensation on various prominent smooth
jazz radio outlets, reaching the Top 35 on the Smoothjazz.com Radar chart,
debuting in the Top 50 on SmoothIndieStar.com and gaining spins on the Radio
Wave Internet Airplay chart.
“Soul Strut”
and the coolly swinging “Sunset Café” are driven by an organic quartet
arrangement, featuring Angel vibing with jazz greats Kenny Barron (piano) and
James Genus (acoustic bass); on the latter tune, Angel successfully experiments
for the first time with a more laid back, Chet Baker styled tone.
Timeless
Grooves included “Rio On My Mind”, which was #67 on the Groove Jazz Music Top
100 of 2012; “Forever Funk”, which reached the Top 25 on the Groove Jazz Music
Top 30; and “Vegas Vibe”, which also received significant airplay.
Both
Timeless Grooves and the new album were produced by Jason Miles, a keyboardist,
composer and artist in his own right, who is renowned for his work over the
past 30 years with Miles Davis, Luther Vandross, Michael Brecker, Whitney
Houston, Grover Washington, Jr., Sting, Ivan Lins, Chaka Khan, Diana Ross,
Aretha Franklin, David Sanborn and Michael Jackson. Miles arranged the tracks
of On Track with longtime Angel collaborator Gottfried Stoger (who also did
transcriptions and charts, and plays tenor sax, soprano sax and flute). Miles
performs on piano and adds a classic soul-jazz sensibility to the ten tracks
with synthesizer, strings and dynamic array of keyboards, including electric
piano, Wurlitzer electric piano and Hammond B-3 organ.
Five of the
tracks (“I Like It Like That”, “Take Me Away”, “Serenity”, “Jubiliation”, and
“Tea for Two”) are anchored by the rhythm section of Amanda Ruzza (bass) and
Brian Dunne (drums), with featured appearances by acoustic guitarist Romero
Lubambo and bassist Will Lee. Angel’s 18-year-old daughter Rebecca Angel, a
jazz vocal major at Ithaca College, showcases her charming vocals on a
seductive bossa nova twist on the Jazz Age classic “Tea for Two”.
The
high-energy soul-jazz jam track titled “This Song’s For You” features bassist
George Porter, Jr., who is well known for his work in the band The Meters and
the TV series Treme. The song also features Miles on Wurlitzer and B-3 as well
as a colorful flugelhorn-sax doubling by Angel and Stoger.
The funked
out, thumping groove infused “Dream Dancer” is a retro disco/Herb Alpert 70s
vibe tune with cross genre appeal. Veteran engineer Goh Hotoda from Japan mixed
the original track and did another mastered version that could be a dance
track. Two other tracks capture the overall emotional dynamics of the set, with
the silky and graceful “Serenity” (featuring Gottfried at his most deeply
expressive) giving way to the explosive whimsy of the bossa nova carnival
“Jubilation”, featuring powerhouse solos by Lubambo on acoustic guitar and
Stoger on flute.
After
switching off between trumpet and flugelhorn on the first album – which earned
Angel the distinction of December 2012’s Artist of the Month from the monthly
jazz webzine Sounds of Timeless Jazz – Angel features his fluid and melodic
work on the latter exclusively throughout the ten cuts of On Track. This is all
the more impressive considering that he only began playing the flugelhorn two
years ago.
“After so
many years of playing trumpet simply for my own pleasure,” Angel says, “it’s
been very exciting for me to write and record these original songs – especially
with Jason and so many world class musicians who bring them to life in ways
beyond anything I could have dreamed. I love the whole process of creating
music, from the initial spark of inspiration through the smallest details of
working in the studio to finally sharing it with the world and playing it live
for people. My wife Linda came up with the title of the new album and I thought
it fit perfectly with what I wanted to say. It has a lot of different meanings.
I really feel that I’m On Track, right where I want to be as an artist.”
Musicians include Gottfried
Stoger on tenor sax, soprano sax and flute; Jason Miles on piano, keyboards, synthesizers, strings, percussion
and string arrangements; special
guest Kenny Barron
piano; Will Lee (electric bass); James Genus (acoustic bass) George
Porter Jr. (electric bass); Amanda Ruzza (electric bass) Tom
"Bones" Malone (trombone); Romero
Lubambo (acoustic guitar); Nick Moroch (guitar); JT Lewis (drums); Brian Dunne (drums);
Adrian
Harpham (drums); Bashiri
Johnson (percussion) Cyro
Baptisata (percussion); Maya Azucena, James D
Train Williams, Pamela-Driggs; and Rebecca
Angel on vocals
Dennis Angel's On Trakc is produced by
Jason Miles, and all tracks are arranged by Jason Miles and
Gottfried Stoger.
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