Monday, June 05, 2017

NEW RELEASES: MARVIN PARKS; OLLIE HOWELL – SELF-IDENTITY; AL SUNNY – TIME TO DECIDE

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


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