Saxophonist-composer Benjamin Boone's The Poetry of Jazz, a visionary
collaboration with U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine, was praised in leading
musical and literary publications, featured on NPR's All Things Considered, and
voted the #3 Best Album of 2018 in DownBeat's 83rd annual Readers Poll. Boone
documents an equally compelling collaboration, this time from his year as a
U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Ghana, on his newest project Joy, set for a March
20th release on Origin Records.
This album, the fifth under his own name, places Boone
alongside an Accra-based cohort of Ghanaian jazz musicians known as the Ghana
Jazz Collective. Tenor saxophonist Bernard Ayisa, pianist Victor Dey Jr.,
bassist Bright Osei, and drummer Frank Kissi join Boone (with further
assistance on some tracks from vocalist Sandra Huson) on four of his originals,
a reimagining of the classic "Maiden Voyage," and intriguing covers
of two lesser-known jazz compositions.
Though created in a country some five thousand miles away,
Joy is not out of the realm of a traditional jazz album. The polyrhythms that
underpin the music are West African in origin, but nonetheless recognizable to
fans of funk, R&B, and postmodern jazz. Nobody was more surprised than
Boone, who had come to Ghana to study its musical traditions, when he was
invited to sit in with the band at Accra's +233 Jazz Bar & Grill. "I
was expecting to hear something like Ethiojazz or Hugh Masekela," he
recalls, "but these guys know American jazz inside and out, and play the
heck out of it -- but with a definite Ghanaian twist."
A school seen from the window of the Accra studio where
"Joy" was recorded.
More to the point, all of the musicians speak the
international language of groove. It's as potent on Boone's slithery
head-bobber "The 233 Jazz Bar" as it is on his aggressive,
shapeshifting "The Intricacies of Alice," or his Hiromi
Uehara-inspired "Slam," or his punchy arrangement (with Dey) of
Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage." Even the longing ballad
"Without You," a feature for Huson, offers the entrancing and
danceable beat of an R&B slow jam. "Music and dance are inseparable in
Ghana," says Boone. "In traditional music, if you don't know the
dance, it is almost impossible to play the music. The grooves are incredibly
tight."
Nevertheless, distinctly African influences do make
themselves known. For example, while the title track "Joy" was
written by the late American saxophonist/flutist Gerry Niewood, Boone and Dey's
arrangement addresses the melody with West African cadences and emphasizes the
interlocking rhythms within its basic waltz pulse. With "Curtain of Light,"
the band reaches across the continent toward the Ethiopian musical context of
composer Jonovan Cooper (who teaches jazz at Addis Ababa University, where
Boone was also in residence). Based on an ancient Ethiopian mode, "Curtain
of Light" reaches several almost religiously ecstatic climaxes.
Where the spirit of Ghana truly manifests, however, is in
the camaraderie of its musicians and the palpable joy that fulfills the promise
of the album's title. "In Ghana, music is participatory, egoless, and
woven into the very fabric of existence," says Boone. "People live
with joy and make music with joy."
Benjamin Boone Benjamin Boone has garnered 18
national/international awards and honors for his music, which appears on 28
albums and has been performed in 36 countries at venues such as Carnegie Hall
and the Kennedy Center. As a Professor at California State University Fresno,
he has won the campus's highest awards for teaching, service, and creative
activity. In addition to serving as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Ghana, Boone
served as a U.S. Fulbright Senior Specialist to the Republic of Moldova in
2005.
The U.S. Fulbright program seeks to build bridges to peoples
across the globe. Taking this role seriously, Boone instigated the "First
Annual Ghana National Jazz Workshop Tour," where he and the Ghana Jazz
Collective performed and led workshops on improvisation and how jazz is an
embodiment of the historic link between the peoples of the U.S. and Ghana.
"I saw firsthand the power of music as diplomacy," says Boone.
"I hope Joy shines a positive light on Ghana, its historic connection to
the U.S., and to the tremendous jazz musicians there. Ghanaians have a love of
life, a love of peace, and a culture of welcoming. What a joyous way to live
and to make music."
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