Author: ekkarn

This Day in Music – May 31, 1972 – Happy Birthday – Christian McBride!!

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Jazz Bassist Chrsitian McBride celebrates his 42nd birthday today.!Christian McBride was on May 31, 1972 in PHILADELPHIA, PA!….From Wikipedia…

….His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride’s early mentors. He is regarded as a virtuoso, and is one of the most recorded musicians of his generation, having appeared on over 300 recordings as a sideman. He is also a 3-time Grammy award winner.Full Biography

As is the case with many newer jazz artists, I only discovered the very talented Mr. McBride last year! Below you’ll find several posts that I’ve written since September about the fantastic Mr. McBride! Happy Birthday – Christian McBride!!

 Christian McBride
From the Archves
Sunday Morning Jazz from the Christian McBride Trio – Out Here      ChristianMcBrideTrio_OutHere So yesterday I was browsing around for new releases and came across bassist Christian McBride’s latest from his Christian McBride Trio, Out Here. I gave it a listen and I now have a new jazz artist’s music to explore, because the album is great. The trio consists of McBride on bass (duh), Christian Sands on piano, and Ulysses Owens, Jr. on drums. READ MORE People Music – from Christian McBride and Inside Straight

People MusicThis morning I was in jazz mode and listened to the Christian McBride & Inside Straights release People Music. The album was released in May of this year. Inside Straight has everything I enjoy in jazz, lively vibes from Warren Wolf, piano from Peter Martin and smooth saxophone from Steve Wilson, All supported by the solid bass lines of Christian’s bass and Carl Allen;s drums.on the majority of the songs. On a few of the songs the piano duties are manned by Christian Sands and Ulysses Owens, Jr. handles the drums. Both are considered members of the Inside Straight family.READ MORE
Late Night Jazz from Russell Malone, Christian McBride and Benny GreenChritian, Russell, BennyOk so after writing about Christian McBride tonight, I was looking around YouTube and I saw this video of a performance of one of my favorite Wes Montgomery tunes, “Jingles”! The trio performing it was composed of Christian McBride on bass, Benny Green on piano and Russell Malone on guitar. I have recently learned a little about Christian McBride but I don’t know much about Malone or Green. Anyway,I watched the video and I was floored! Malone is outstanding on guitar as is Green on piano, but the driving force behind the whole 14 minutes on the tune is the phenomenal bass playing of  McBride!1 He just doesn’t stop!!READ MORE
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Book No. 8 of 2014 – Wallace Stroby’s Cold Shot to the Heart (Crissa Stone #1)

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Cold Shot to the HeartOh Boy! I finally read a book quickly and increased this years book’s read total all the way to eight!! (He says with a sarcastic sneer on his face and tone in his voice). The book was Cold Shot to the Heart  and is book #1 in the Crissa Stone series from Long Branch, New Jersey native Wallace Stroby. They always say that you should write about what you know and what would a former writer for the Newark Star-Ledger know better mob related crime! (typed with Jon Stewart’s mob voice ringing in my ears!)

See Crissa is not a PI or a cop rather she is a career criminal. When the reader meets Crissa, she and her crew are robbing a store whose sign reads – CHECK CASHING MONEY TRANSFERS PAY DAY LOANS, a fine upstanding facility doubt!  The job went well but the take was not what her team expected. When she comes home to New York City, she learns that her lover and partner Wayne, who is three years into a seven-year sentence is coming up for parole He may gain his parole, if Crissa can get 250 grand in the hands of Texan, who may be able to grease the wheels enough, to make it happen.

So when Crissa is asked to join a three-man crew to boost an illegal poker game in Miami, that may have a million dollars on the table, it seems like a no-brainer. And up until Crissa money in hand, hears gunshots coming from the room that she just left  it was and then, all hell breaks loose in the form of Eddie the Saint, a hit-man recently released from prison, who is soon on the trail of the money. Bodies start to pile up and Crissa is in for the fight of her life!!

This was a quick read, with some well-developed characters, i.e. Crissa, and plenty of action to keep the pages turning. When I finished the book I was ready for book two Kings of Midnight. So check it out!

Links

Wallace Stroby at: Goodreads
Amazon

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This Day in Music – May 25, 1960 – In Philly – Jazz Trumpeter Wallace Roney was born! (video)

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Wallace Rooney 2Today is the great Miles Davis‘ birthday. He shares his birthday with the only trumpet player that he ever mentored Wallace Roney. Wallace was born in Philadelphia in 1960 So he is too young to have experienced 1960, which was the year that former Whiz Kids manager re Eddie Sawyer resigned as the hapless Phillies’ manager after a 9-4 opening day loss to the Reds and said.: “I’m 49 years old and I want to live to be 50.”  But I digress so it’s back to Wallace.

It was discovered when he was 4 years old that Wallace had perfect pitch (which the Phillies didin’t have as they choked in the clutch and lost the pennant to the Cards- sorry). After beginning his musical studies at Philadelphia School of Music, by the time he turned 7 he was studying with Sigmund Herring of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He studied with Herring until Herring’s death in 1980. Along the way Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie provided young Wallace instructions.

From 1985 until his passing in 1991 Miles Davis was Wallace’s music instructor, mentor and friend helping to challenge and shape Wallace’s creative approach to life. In 1979 and again in 1980, Wallace Roney won the Down Beat Award for Best Young Jazz Musician of the Year. In 1989, and again in 1990, Wallace won Down Beat Magazine’s Critic’s Poll for Best Trumpeter to Watch.

In his career as a leader, which started in 1987, Wallace has released 18 albums. He has also served as a sideman on 6 albums, recording with such greats as Art Blakey (replacing Terrence Blanchard), Dizzy Gillespie and Tony Williams. He has also been an important member of the following musician’s bands: Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Walter Davis Jr., Herbie Hancock, Jay McShann, David Murray, McCoy Tyner, and been a featured soloist with Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Curtis Fuller, Carole King, and Joni Mitchell

MisteriosAnd to think that I missed all that and only discovered Wallace’s music a few months ago! What a putz I am! So in an effort to start catching up, since his latest release Understanding is not on either Spotify or Mog. I went to AllMusic to see which of the albums Spotify did have were the best. It seemed that just about all the albums had a four-star rating, so I went with the oldest album available, Misterios released in 1994. I made that album the soundtrack on the drive down to babysit my grandson, Oliver, this afternoon and evening! Now it probably not the best road trip album, because it is mostly ballads. AllMusic labels the album’s moods as dreamy, yearning and sentimental. But while the album didn’t perk me up, it did make for a very relaxing drive!

The album contains a variety of ballads from the likes of Lennon & McCartney, Dolly Parton, Egberto Gismonti, Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny. The album is dominated by Wallace’s great sounding trumpet and arranger Geri Allen’s, (who does a great job by the way with the arrangements, in this no nothing’s opinion anyway) piano. Occasionally, some great drumming can be heard, provided by Eric Allen, and some tenor sax from Antoine Roney, along with a variety of strings on a few tracks. Overall, it was a great introduction to Wallace’s music, which I hope to explore in more depth, as I continue my jazz education!!

So turn the lights down low, oh before that let’s wish Wallace a happy 54th birthday!! and enjoy Pat Metheny;s “In Her Family” from the album Misterios….

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This Day in Music – May 24, 1941 – Jazz Organist Charles Earland was born in Philly!!

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Chalres EarlandI browse the daily listing of jazz birthdays each day not only for whose birthday it is that particular day, but also to discover new music. Many times I select who I read about by the instrument they play. Other times I select someone with a foreign sounding name, figuring that will lead me to explorations of jazz music beyond America’s shores. Tunisian born Wajdi Cherif is a perfect example of this type of choice. I read about, and spent time listening to Charles Earland’s music this morning, based on the instrument he plays – Hammond B3 organ!!

Charles Earland was born in Philadelphia on May 24, 1941. He began his jazz journey playing saxophone and played baritone sax, while in high school in a band that featured fellow Philadelphians Pat Martino on guitar, Lew Tabackinon tenor, and future teen idol, Frankie Avalon on trumpet!  After  playing in the Temple  University band Earland toured with Jimmy McGriff for three years. It was after he was let go by McGriff that Earland switched to playing the organ and formed an organ trio that featured Pat Martino on guitar and drummer Bobby Durham. He released his first Black Talkalbums for Choice in 1966. In 1968 and 69 Earland was a member of Lou Donaldson‘s band, after which he signed with Prestige as a solo artist. His first release for Prestige was Black Talk and that was the album that I listened to, and loved, this morning. The tracks on the album were effective jazz  covers of hits of the time. Scott Yanow at AllMusic writes this about the album….

This CD reissue of a Prestige date is one of the few successful examples of jazz musicians from the late ’60s taking a few rock and pop songs and turning them into creative jazz. Organist Charles Earland and his sextet, which includes trumpeter Virgil Jones, Houston Person, on tenor and guitarist Melvin Sparks, perform a variation of “Eleanor Rigby” titled “Black Talk,” two originals, a surprisingly effective rendition of “Aquarius,” and a classic rendition of “More Today Than Yesterday.” Fans of organ combos are advised to pick up this interesting set. AllMusic

After listening to the album, I heartily agree!! Earland went on to record eight more albums for Prestige, one of them featuring  young then unknown Grover Washington Jr.  He then  switched to Muse, followed by a switch Mercury and Columbia. By the mid-70s, as the audience for organ trio music was dwindling, Earland teamed  with  his wife singer/songwriter Sheryl Kendrick to produce a series of pop/disco albums.  His wife’s death from sickle-cell anemia in 1985, left him despondent and it was  several years before he shed his grief and brought himself and his Hammond B3 back to his roots, recording two soul-jazz albums on Millstone and then several on the Muse label before his untimely death from heart failure after a gig in Kansas City in 1999. He was only 58 years old!!.

Richard S. Ginell at All Music writes this about Earland’s organ styling….

….Earland came armed with his own swinging, technically agile, light-textured sound on the keyboard and one of the best walking-bass pedal techniques in the business. Though not an innovative player in his field, Earland burned with the best of them when he was on. Read More

So Happy Birthday to Charles Earland and let’s listen and watch Charles and George Duke perform “When Johnny comes Marching Home” ….while this song isn’t from Black Talk I thought it was great to hear Charles and watch him perform!!

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The Best Mystery Authors – Part One – The Ranker List – What Do You Think??

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Ok so I have visited the Ranker site before, but today and yesterday, I spent some time on the site looking at various list that would pertain to this blog. The following list is one of them. I am in total agreement that Agatha Christie is the greatest mystery writer of all time, but many of the writers that I have read over the years are not even on the list!! and if they are they are well below where they would be on my personal list of the best mystery writers of all time. So I will break this post down into two posts, this is the first, duh! and in it I am presenting the Ranker listing and would ask for your thoughts or comments! The second list will be the Me, Myself and Mysteries list. But you will have to wait until after my 6 and 1/2 hour break! So for now the question is What Do You Think??? No James Lee Burke??

[rnkrwp id=”1007481″ format=”grid” url=”http://www.ranker.com/list/best-mystery-authors/ranker-books?format=GRID&action=tab&type=embed” name=”The Best Mystery Authors”]

This Day in Music – May 20, 1975 – Tunisian Jazz Pianist Wajdi Cherif was born. Happy Belated Birthday, Wajdi!

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Wajdi cherifSo May 20th was a holiday in several nations including, Cambodia, East Timor and Cameroon. It was also the birthday of a Tunisian jazz piano player, Wajdi Cherif!! Knowing nothing about his music, other than that he played piano, I went to Spotify and listened to his 2009 release Fuzzy Colours and I didn’t have to listen long to become intrigued by and enjoy his music. Returning to All About Jazz, I discovered that at five years of age Wajdi was learning to play tunes he heard on the radio in his homeland of Tunisia on his little piano. Wajdi never lost his love for music and along his life’s journey, he earned his BA in English Literature, but more importantly he discovered jazz!! At the American cultural center in Tunis, he watched live performance videos of pianists Chick Corea, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans. He soon decided to make jazz music his career, and set out exploring it on his own. He made his professional debut in 1998. In 2003, he released his first album Phrygian Istikhbar in Paris. Accompanying Wajdi on the album were Diego Imbert on acoustic bass, Jeff Boudreau on drums and Habib Samandi on Arabic percussion. The album went on to become a finalist in the Indie Acoustic Awards in the USA in 2004!! From All About Jazz:

Three years later, Wajdi Cherif recorded his second album entitled Jasmine with some of the finest young French jazz musicians, released in 2006 in France. “Jasmine” shows the maturity and excellent artistic standard that pianist and composer Wajdi Cherif has accomplished so far (Honorable Mention in the International Songwriting Competition (Judges included Sonny Rollins ,John Scofield, Steve Vai…), Indie Acoustic Project winner Best CD of 2005, UNISONG songwriting Contest 1st place winner…).

Wajdi’s music has been described as…..

… a fusion of the modern jazz piano styles ranging from Thelonious MONK to Keith JARRET and Chick COREA, but at the same time with the influence of the colorful melodies of Arabic music that he was exposed to since his early childhood. All this resulted in the creation of a brand new jazz sound, a symbiosis of jazz and Arabic sounds. Read More

Not surprising, since it was watching performances of Monk and Corea that set him on the path to a career in jazz. I Fuzzy Coloursstarted this post saying that I listened to his 2009 release Fuzzy Colours, which I really enjoyed, From what I’ve read and from quick listens to his first two albums it seems that Middle Eastern influences are less prominent on this album than his earlier albums, particularly his first. From The Voice Magazine….

The Arabic influence and instrumentation is a little more salient on Jasmine than on Fuzzy Colours, with the oud and the percussion instruments granting a delicious texture to the improvisations, but in Fuzzy Colours (which also incorporates Latin sounds) Cherif has incorporated Arabic modes into his compositions and has revived, as is the wont of many Maghreb and Maghreb-influenced players, tunes penned eons ago by jazz greats like Gillespie (“A Night in Tunisia”), Juan Tizol (“Caravan”), and Miles Davis (“Nardis”), highlighting his awareness of the natural understanding that Arabic music shares with jazz. Fuzzy Colours has brought remarkably lively interpretations to these standards and Cherif’s own compositions have beautiful melody lines and an innovative élan while sitting squarely within the jazz tradition. Read More

So Happy Belated Birthday Wajdi!! And check out this fine pianist and composer and his latest album – Fuzzy Colours  Here is a performance by  the Wajdi  Cherif Electric Quartet  with  Manu Codjia sitting in on guitar…….

Links
All About Jazz
CDBaby
The Voice Magazine

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Where the Characters in My Favorite Mystery Series Live and Work!!

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Next Read?

Next Read?

This year so far has been a slow year for reading. I have spent much more time over the last several months listening to music than reading. I think that I will make it a goal to read at least two books, that are part of a series that I read, per month for the rest of the year. Maybe one can be new one from a series that I am current with, and the other an older book in a series that I am trying t catch up on!

One of the aspects of reading all the mystery series that I do are the places that I get to roam, if only through the pictures painted in my mind by the words of these great writers.  The major series that I read along with the main character, the main setting for the series and the author of the series are listed on the table below this post. I cover both coast, the central part of the US and five countries!! So which one should I start with… oh no! looks like I left out Kathleen Mallory of New York created by author Carol O’Connell maybe that means I should start, or should I say resume that series. Double oh, no …. Greg Isles’ Penn Cage novels set in Mississippi…. and Greg has a new one out…. and I need to read The Devil’s Punchbowl ... decisions, decisions!! Oh, well let’s go for a run and think about it!!

Character Location Author
Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn Arizona/New Mexico Tony Hillerman
Elvis Cole California Robert Crais
Nameless Detective California Bill Pronzini
Joe O’Laughlin England Michael Robotham
Jake Lassiter Florida Paul Levine
Will Trent Georgia Karin Slaughter
 Detective Erlendur Iceland Arnaldur Indriðason
Dave Robicheaux Louisiana James Lee Burke
Stoney Calhoun Maine William G Tapply
Tess Monaghan Maryland Laura Lippman
Brady Coyne Mass William Tapply
Kenzie &Gennaro Mass. Dennis Lahane
Jane Rizzoli Massachusetts Tess Gerritsen
Alex McKnight Michigan Steve Hamilton
Amos Walker Michigan Loren Estleman
Cork O’Connor Minnesota William Kent Krueger
Myron Bolitar New York-New Jersey Harlan Coben
Stephanie Plum NJ Janet Evanovich
Inspector Sejer Norway Karin Fossum
Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov Russia Stuart Kaminsky
Bill Brockton Tennessee Jefferson Bass
Hackberry Holland Texas James Lee Burke
Maggie O’Dell Washington DC Alex Kava
Joe Pickett Wyoming C.J. Box

 

 

 

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This Day in Music – May 3rd – Happy Birthday Jazz Flutist Andrea Brachfeld!! (Video)

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andreabrachfeldAG350On this day May 3rd in the year ??? (Hum, we don’t really need to know that) flutist Andrea Brachfeld was born! From All About Jazz….

Flutist Andrea Brachfeld, is a graduate of The High School of Music and Art and Manhattan School of Music. Over these past 20 years she has recorded more than a dozen CD’s with many artists including, Africando, Noel Pointer, and Timbalaye. Her breakthrough performance as the flutist for the popular Latin band Charanga ’76, catapulted her into Salsa history and fame as the first female flutist to play this music in the United States. While in high school she received the “Louis Armstrong Award for Outstanding Student” from Jazz Interactions. Study with Hubert Laws, Jimmy Heath, and Mike Longo helped her develop her own style. Downbeat magazine referred to Andrea as “one of the finest jazz flutists around.” She has twice been the recipient of the Latin New York Music Award as a flutist.

Andrea started her career in the 1970s while she was still a teenager and then from 1982 to 1999 she took a little what is that a 17 year break and then returned to her career with her album Remembered Dreams. She has released four more albums. The latest is her 2012 release Lady of the Island which is her first straight-ahead jazz album. I gave that album and Remembered Dreams a listen today and really enjoyed both. While both of them were good I liked Lady of the Island a little better. The piano and the trumpet playing on that album were great here’s a list of the personnel on the album. Both of the pianist and trumpet players were great and I’ll have to go back and listen to each track to decide which ones were the ones I liked best.

Bob Quaranta: piano (4, 9), Fender Rhodes (8)
Andy Eulau: bass (1, 2, 4-9)
Kim Plainfield: drums (1, 2, 4-9)
Todd Bashore: alto saxophone (2, 6)
Chembo Corniel: congas (2, 6, 8, 9), percussion (8)
Wycliffe Gordon: trombone (1, 2, 6)
Yasek Manzano: trumpet (2, 6, 9), flugelhorn (8)
Bill O’Connell: piano (1-3, 5-8)
Wallace Roney: trumpet (2, 5)

Now since Saturday is a brain-dead day and I have to leave for work in a few minutes I am not going to add links but you know where you can check out her music. So do yourself a favor and do it!!

Here’s is Andrea and her band performing Herbie Hancock’s “Eye of the Hurricane” And Happy Birthday Andrea!!

Book 7 of 2014 – Light of the World – James Lee Burke

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Light of the WorldI read the first of James Lee Burke’s twenty novels featuring Dave Robicheaux The Neon Rain in July of 1990. I loved it and I have read almost every books since. I actually finished reading the latest book Light of the World back on the 14th of April, but I am just getting around to writing about it now and for most of those 16 days I’ve asked myself why am I avoiding writing about the book. The truth of the matter is that I really don’t know why except that I just thought that there was just something amiss with the book. It certainly wasn’t the descriptive writing that Burke is so well-known for, because that was still there, although this time he was describing Montana and not the Louisiana  bayou. And it wasn’t that Dave and Clete Purcel were not battling some really bad villans because the main one serial killer Asa Surrette was a bad as they come and many of the other characters on both sides of the law were pretty evil, too. So what was it?? I know that at 502 pages this book is the longest of the series, and it took me a long time to get through it. Actually, it took much longer for me to get through the first half of the book than the second. Generally I think that Burke may have tried to force things a little too much, for me it seemed that there were too many bad guys, none on the level of Asa but a couple them, including one police officer came pretty close and the rich folks that Dave and Clete always run up against were no sweethearts either!

The story starts with Dave’s family wife Molly, and daughter Alafair on vacation with Clete in Montana. They are joined in this adventure by Clete’s newly discovered daughter Gretchen Horowitiz a former Mafia hitman turned movie maker who is on a busman’s holiday as she is visiting Montana to work on a documentary concerning the environmental damage wrought by the oil and gas industry. When they first arrive Alafair has an arrow fly past her and the question raised is who tried to kill her, She is convinced that it the shooter was Asa Surrette As Dave and Clete and the gang set out to discover who did fire they arrow/ They meet up with an ex-con and Rodeo rider Wyatt Dixon. Wyatt’s new talent is that he can talk in tongues. Both Dave Wyatt believe that the shooter was Asa Surrette who is out to even the score with Alafair for what she wrote about Asa that got him sentenced to prison. Dave and Wyatt  are also convinced that Asa is well beyond a normal being and is rather the true personification of evil. In addition to this the police are also investigating the murder of the adopted Indian daughter of Caspian Young son of oil baron Love Young(these are the rich people Dave and Clete are bumping heads with), a crime the Police think Wyatt committed. Are you lost yet, see why Burke needed 502 pages… because in addition to these story lines there is also one or two involving Gretchen!! And then Asa uses the name of a Roman Emperor, and the wife, of Caspian, becomes a gladiator ready to sacrifice her life….too much yet? I don’t think I understand all the undercurrents….

Ok so the bottom line did I enjoy the book, yes  Would I recommend it, yes, but I think you should read several of the other books first  Finally, before I wrote this post I read this book review in The Houston Chronicle Review: James Lee Burke faces dilemma in “Light of the World” in the review Mike Snyder writes:

…But Burke has a problem: His signature character, Robicheaux, is about played out.

It’s hard to provide new insights about a guy whose life Burke’s dedicated readers have been following so devotedly since the first book in the series, “The Neon Rain,” was published in 1987. Those who have read all or most of the Robicheaux books — surely a substantial portion of Burke’s readers — might be tempted to skip the pages with the familiar back story. They already know about the death of Robicheaux’s father in an offshore-oil-rig accident. They know about the years when Robicheaux bonded with sidekick Clete Purcel in the jungles of Vietnam and later on the streets of New Orleans, where the two police officers were known as “the Bobbsey Twins from Homicide.” They know about his alcoholism and recovery.

and summarizes …..

Burke’s writing gifts haven’t dimmed, but the character who defines his career has lost his luster. It’s quite a dilemma. Read Full Review

Sadly, I say, I really have to agree with him and maybe that’s the reason I didn’t love the book like the earlier ones. Throughout the book I kinda’ felt that Dave was really a fifth wheel to Clete and Gretchen… and I don’t know if that’s the way I like it!! But I know I will still be waiting for the next installment of the series!!

This Day in Music – May 1, 1982 – Jazz Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire was born (Video)

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the imagined savior is far easier to paintOn this day May 1st in 1982 Ambrose Akinmusire (ah-kin-MOO-sir-ee) was born in Oakland California.  His latest release The Imagined Savior is Far Easier to Paint  has been in my listening rotation and I have enjoyed it! This was not my first meeting with Mr. Akinmusire, winner of the 2007 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition, two of the most prestigious jazz competitions in the world. No, I first listened to his trumpet back in August of last year when  I  spent A Night of Exploration – Contemporary Jazz Trumpeters! Since then I have listened to his second album on Blue Note records,When the Heart Emerges Glistening  and I like it more and more with each listen. The New Yorker calls Ambrose:               “a thrilling young trumpeter and astute bandleader [with a] unique spark in his playing”  Ambrose’s musical journey started when Steve Coleman asked the then 19-year old Ankinmusire Manhattan School of Music student to join a European tour with his Coleman’s Five Elements. After the tour Akinmusire returned to the West Coast and received his Master’s Degree from the University of Southern California. In 2007 he attended the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, and studied with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Terence Blanchard. the imagined savior is far easier to paint  is Ambrose’s second release on Blue Note Records and the second with a title that is pretty long. On his website he says…..

: “I don’t think I’ve been able to make an album yet where one word can capture the whole vibe. Maybe eventually I will. Right now I’m drawing from so many different parts of myself, and things that are outside of myself, that it’s hard to just have one word that says, ‘This means this.’”…. “The last album was about me — about things that I was experiencing and trying to change or accept about myself. The inspiration for this album is things outside of myself: people that I know, documentaries that I’ve watched, characters that I’ve made up.”

Of the thirteen tracks on the album 12 of them are Akinmusrie compositions. Many of the song titles have a name attached in parenthesis indicating the name of the character upon which the song is based. Examples of the named tracks are

“Ceaseless Inexhaustible Child (cyntoia brown)” — dedicated to the imprisoned young woman at the heart of the documentary The 16-Year-Old Killer  and  “asiam (joan),” ….inspired by Joni Mitchell — specifically, Michelle Mercer’s portrait of “Joan” in her 2009 book Will You Take Me As I Am: Joni Mitchell’s Blue Period  Read More

.The core quintet on the album in addition to Ambrose features: tenor saxophonist Walter Smith III, pianist Sam Harris, bassist Harish Raghavan, and drummer Justin Brown. On this album, Ambrose increased the size of the band by adding guitarist Charles Altura, as well as, the OSSO String Quartet and flutist Elena Penderhughes! In addition, he brought in vocalists Becca Stevens, Theo Bleckmann, and Cold Specks. The cool thing about the album, is that Ambrose gave the above guest vocalist a sketch of an idea and allowed them to create their own lyrics based on that idea.The two songs “Ceaseless Inexhaustible Child (cyntoia brown)”  and “asiam (joan),”, mentioned above,  feature Cold Specks and Theo Bleckmann respectively. Summing it up, the imagined savior is far easier to paint is a great album, that’s sure to be near the top of many reviewers “Best of 2014” lists. So check it out!! Links Website Wikipedia Facebook Amazon Finally, let’s send a big “Happy Birthday” to Ambrose, while we watch and listen to Ambrose and his quintet live @ Belgrade Jazz Festival in 2012!

P.S. and my SECOND son, Andrew, was one month old!!