MARVIN PARKS – MARVIN PARKS
A dream of a record from Marvin Parks – a hell of a jazz
singer, and one that we'd place in an elite legacy that runs from Oscar Brown
up through Jose James! The work here is wonderful – as Nicola Conte produced the
record, and gives it the same sort of jazzy sparkle as his own sublime records
of the past decade – a groove that's never too overstated, but is also a
reworking of an older 60s soul jazz mode – but refitted with all the right sort
of sophistication to match Marvin's wonderful voice! There's no programmed
rhythms at all – all the instrumentation is live jazz – and titles include a
great new take on the Conte tunes "Sea & Sand" and
"Awakening" – plus the original "African Other Blues", and
versions of "Charade", "How Insensitive", "The Very
Thought Of You", "Brother Where Are You", "Nature
Boy", "If I Should Lose You", and "Swingin Shepherd
Blues". ~ Dusty Groove
OLLIE HOWELL – SELF-IDENTITY
A beautiful voyage of self-discovery from drummer Ollie
Howell – but a set that also clearly gets its strength his collaboration with
the other members of the session too! Ollie adds in a bit of electronics with
his drums, but the core energy here mostly comes from the acoustic exchange
between the tenor of Duncan Eagles, trumpet of Henry Spencer, piano of Matt
Robinson, and bass of Max Luthert – players who often create these building
blocks of sound that soar to the sky with sort of an understated spiritual vibe
– very contemporary in approach, yet also with much deeper roots of
inspiration. The group also features Ant Law on guitar, and Robinson plays a
bit of Fender Rhodes – but the most haunting elements, to us, come from that
acoustic core that really drives the sound. Titles include "Almost
Tomorrow", "Rise & Fall", "Shadows", "Knew",
"Balancing Stones", "In Truth", and "The Unknown".
~ Dusty Groove
AL SUNNY – TIME TO DECIDE
Guest what? They DO make 'em like they used to – at least in
terms of 70s AOR – which seems to be having a wonderful comeback in the hands
of singers like Al Sunny! The record's contemporary, but could have easily been
crafted in the LA studios of the mid 70s – as Al's got a wonderful ear for
easygoing grooves, top-shelf instrumentation, and just the right sort of
production polish to put the whole thing together without ever making things
sound too slick! The great Florian Pellissier is on board to help out on all
the tracks – playing some excellent Fender Rhodes, clavinet, and other
keyboards – and showing us yet another side of his surprisingly wide talents.
Titles include a great remake of the Ned Doheny track "Get It Up For
Love" – plus "Open Up Your Eyes", "Supervision",
"Time To Decide", "Beautiful Lady", and "Since I've
Been Loving You". ~ Dusty Groove
No comments:
Post a Comment