Keyon Harrold - The Mugician

Styles: Trumpet Jazz, Post Bop
Year: 2017
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:40
Size: 115,0 MB
Art: Front

(4:41)  1. Voicemail
(6:12)  2. The Mugician
(5:04)  3. MB Lament
(1:38)  4. When Will It Stop?
(6:14)  5. Wayfaring Traveler
(5:15)  6. Stay This Way
(0:28)  7. Lullaby
(4:34)  8. Her Beauty Through My Eyes
(4:27)  9. Ethereal Souls
(0:53) 10. Broken News
(4:21) 11. Circus Show
(5:48) 12. Bubba Rides Again

The sophomore album from Keyon Harrold, 2017's ambitious, socially conscious The Mugician, finds the New York-based, Ferguson, Missouri-raised jazz trumpeter laying out an intensely felt, genre-bending vision of jazz in the 21st century. As the title somewhat cheekily implies, Harrold is not simply a musician, but also a magician, or "mugician"; a notion evoked by director Don Cheadle when trying to describe the trumpeter's spellbinding work on the 2016 Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead. Just as Davis broke down musical boundaries throughout his career, Harrold works to bridge genre gaps here, crafting expansive, often cinematic soundscapes that are equal parts improvisational jazz, psychedelic hip-hop, ruminative R&B balladry, and pointed social critique.

It's an approach one might expect from a musician who counts both post-bop trumpeter Charles Tolliver and rapper Common as major influences. Joining Harrold on The Mugician are several longtime associates like guitarist Nir Felder, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, bassist Burniss Travis, drummer Mark Colenburg, and others. There are also a handful of special guests, including acclaimed pianist Robert Glasper and vocalists Jermaine Holmes and Georgia Anne Muldrow, all of whom commune on the atmospheric, '70s soul-infused "Wayfaring Traveler." Similarly, idiosyncratic R&B singer Bilal helps the trumpeter evoke the woozy '90s trip-hop of Massive Attack on "Stay This Way," and rapper Pharoahe Monch applies his acute wordplay to the sultry, minor-key grooves of "Her Beauty Through My Eyes." Also making notable contributions are singers Gary Clark, Jr., actor/comedian Guy Torry, reggae vocalist Josh David Barrett, and more.

Harrold even makes room for a heartfelt, motivational voicemail from his mom that he frames with Darin Atwater's wide-screen orchestration. Along the way, he touches upon a bevy of timely, thoughtfully rendered topics from racism and bigotry to romantic fidelity and the environment. Throughout all of The Mugician, Harrold lives up to the album's title, conjuring rounded, clarion trumpet lines, spinning off his collaborators one second, and commanding the spotlight the next with an alchemical swagger. ~ Matt Collar https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-mugician-mw0003099629

The Mugician

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Gregory Porter - Take Me To The Alley

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2016
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 51:20
Size: 118,3 MB
Art: Front

(5:02)  1. Holding On
(3:18)  2. Don't Lose Your Steam
(5:16)  3. Take Me To The Alley
(3:52)  4. Day Dream
(3:20)  5. Consequence Of Love
(4:34)  6. In Fashion
(3:31)  7. More Than A Woman
(4:18)  8. In Heaven
(5:37)  9. Insanity
(4:31) 10. Don't Be A Fool
(4:12) 11. Fan The Flames
(3:44) 12. French African Queen

The ineffable charms of Gregory Porter can't help but woo and win over the ear. He's the epitome of soulful sophistication part tender poet, part cogent preacher, fully a man of the people and he has a voice that can make the angels weep. While we often bemoan the choices that fame's fickle index finger makes, it pointed in the correct direction this time. Gregory Porter is everything he's cracked up to be and more. Take Me To The Alley, Porter's follow-up to the Grammy-winning Liquid Spirit (Blue Note, 2013) and his fourth album in total, is a passion-fueled collection of music filled with inspired heart-on-sleeve meditations, from-the-mountain-top sermons, glimpses at what could've been, and musical testimonials. It's completely in keeping with his previous work full of emotional highs and lows, built on a blend of the earthy and cosmopolitan and just as addictive. It only takes one listen to get hooked. Each one of Porter's earlier albums produced a number of earworms and emotional wallops. Water (Motéma Music, 2010) gave us politically-charged fire and brimstone in the form of "1960 What?" and introspective gold in the shape of the title track; Be Good (Motéma Music, 2012) had more than its fair share of winners, from the enthusiastic, history-tracing "On My Way To Harlem" to the familial reassurances of "Real Good Hands"; and Liquid Spirit boasted a seemingly endless array of treasures the fragile-turned-resolute "No Love Dying," the exhilarating "Liquid Spirit," the love-stricken "Water Under Bridges," and so on and so on. Take Me To The Alley, likewise, traffics in the eminently lyrical and memorable.

Three of this album's choicest cuts come right at the top of the program. The opener "Holding On" finds Porter sorting out his feelings in an understated setting that's enriched by Keyon Harrold's muted trumpet. It's worlds away from the dance-friendly version of the song that he recorded with British electronic duo Disclosure. Second up is the swoon-inducing "Don't Lose Your Steam," a Stevie Wonder-worthy original with R&B, soul, funk, and rock in its DNA. Porter testifies and brings the thunder, the horns riff, the rhythm section locks in the groove, and organist Ondrej Pivec adds the glissandos and the grease. And then comes the title track, a sedate presentation that finds Porter harmonizing with Alicia Olatuja and exploring the topics of healing and spiritual renewal. Those three numbers, near-perfect as they are, make the album a bit top-heavy. But there are more gems to be found further on. "In Fashion," an irresistible number underscored by Chip Crawford's marcato quarter note chords and focused on a man's paranoia and obsession surrounding the dressings-up and goings-on of a woman, is one; the gospel-inflected, love-concerned "Don't Be A Fool" is another. Those looking for an explanation behind the meteoric rise and continually growing popularity of Gregory Porter need look no further. The explanation is right here in that voice and the songs it sings.~Dan Bilawsky http://www.allaboutjazz.com/take-me-to-the-alley-gregory-porter-blue-note-records-review-by-dan-bilawsky.php
 

Personnel: Gregory Porter: vocals; Alicia Olatuja: vocals; Chip Crawford: piano; Aaron James: bass; Emanuel Harrold: drums; Keyon Harrold: trumpet; Yosuke Sato: alto saxophone; Tivon Pennicott: tenor saxophone; Ondrej Pivec: organ.

Take Me To The Alley

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Keyon Harrold - Introducing Keyon Harrold

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 2009
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 58:52
Size: 135,1 MB
Art: Front

(7:27)  1. TMF Nuttz
(7:17)  2. Sudden Inspiration
(8:00)  3. Shirley's Blues
(6:34)  4. Keyon Beyond
(6:41)  5. Amazing Grace/ Lord My God
(7:57)  6. Peace
(7:38)  7. Hip Hop Joint
(7:14)  8. The Awakening

Keyon Harrold comes to jazz and pop from his home in St. Louis, and at age 28 presents his debut recording of straight-ahead modern mainstream music in the typical Criss Cross label tradition. He's not carved in the mold of hometown icon Miles Davis, but has some of the bold technique of Freddie Hubbard and fluidity of Lee Morgan, while stylistically within the neo-bop range of Wynton Marsalis or Tom Harrell. Harrold has played with the Count Basie and Roy Hargrove big bands and as a sideman with Billy Harper, and has worked with Jay-Z, Beyoncé Knowles, and Snoop Dogg, among others, so he knows the twentysomething audience as well as grown-up purist jazz listeners. Brothers Marcus Strickland (saxes) and E.J. Strickland (drums) support Harrold, along with the fabulous young pianist Danny Grissett and bassist Derzon Douglas. 

As you'd expect, Harrold is an accomplished player with both youth and experience on his side, but also uses different arenas of modern jazz as a composer. His opener, "TMF Nuttz," is a Marsalis-type angular bop-strewn swinger powered by Grissett's two-fisted chords and a ripe solo by the brassman, and features Harrold's mentor, fellow trumpeter Charles Tolliver. The chunkier melody of "The Awakening" takes into account a blues aspect that identifies Harrell's pure tuneful sound, while an atypical version of Horace Silver's "Peace" is stewed in a light Brazilian broth with guitarist Jeremy Most added on in an interpretation quite different from the pensive, balladic original. Grissett is fond of switching to the electric Fender Rhodes piano, adding more of a retro feel to the funky boogaloo strains of "Shirley's Blues" and the 4/4 bounce during "Hip Hop Joint," with Harrold's muted horn alongside Marcus Strickland's solid tenor sax. In reference to his deep St. Louis gospel roots, "Amazing Grace"/"Lord, My God" is fairly typical in the main, but Marcus Strickland's soprano sax adds brighter color to the combo piece. 

These are all very good and well for what one might expect, but "Sudden Inspiration" stands out in its easy swing stance offset by staggered phrasings that jump out, where "Keyon Beyond" more perfectly envisions the duality of clockwork beats with a hip-hop sway that made Ahmad Jamal's "Poinciana" a seminal reference point for current music in the urban collective. Certainly this is a credible first effort, as Harrold only scratches the surface of his potential, and though somewhat derivative of past predecessors, it bodes well for his bright future alongside Jeremy Pelt, Sean Jones, and Ambrose Akinmusire as the leading jazz trumpet players of a new generation.~Michael G.Nastos http://www.allmusic.com/album/introducing-keyon-harrold-mw0000833353

Personnel: Keyon Harrold (trumpet); Jeremy Most (guitar); Marcus Strickland (soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone); Charles Tolliver (trumpet); Danny Grissett (piano); E.J. Strickland (drums).

Introducing Keyon Harrold

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