COMING AUGUST 31TH 2010 THE NEW ALBUM AND TRIBUTE TO DONNY HATHAWAY BY SAXOPHONIST KIRK WHALUM!
Kirk Whalum - Everything is Everything
The breadth and depth of Kirk Whalum’s Everything Is Everything: The Music Of Donny Hathaway on Rendezvous Music/Mack Avenue Records reflects everything he has been and is as an artist, and bumps it up a notch for a breathtaking, beautiful and breakthrough excursion. Kirk reveals, “It is the first time you’ll hear me with a chamber orchestra.” From soothing strings to screamin’ guitars, from streetwise city funk, blues and gospel charm to the romp and rest of country landscapes, right into the recesses of heart and soul, Whalum and company’s creativity never lets up.
Whalum recently released The Gospel According To Jazz, Chapter III — the third installment on his award winning series —prominently featuring Donny’s daughter Lalah. On the heels of one Hathaway collaboration, producer Matt Pierson proposed another. Kirk recounts, “Matt had a really tight concept. Also, Gil Goldstein and John Stoddart’s arrangements were axiomatic to this record.” Pierson, the visionary behind Whalum’s No. 1 album For You, knows that as celebrated as Whalum is for his original compositions, he is extraordinarily gifted at rendering graceful, incisive and soulful interpretations of other artists’ classic works.
The album’s ensemble of Jef Lee Johnson on electric guitar, John Stoddart on keyboards, Christian McBride on bass and Lil’ John Roberts on drums was foundational. “I was so thrilled,” says Kirk. “We got in the studio. We all realized that everyone in that room was from Philadelphia but me. There is something about that Philly/Memphis connection.” Guest appearances from Jeff Golub on guitar, Rick Braun on flugelhorn and the inimitable Robert Randolph on pedal (sacred) steel, as well as vocals from Hathaway’s daughter Lalah and R&B chart-topper Musiq Soulchild, augment the super-group along with an orchestra under the direction of Goldstein and Stoddart. Added to the mix are master organist Shedrick Mitchell (Maxwell, Whitney Houston), acoustic guitar virtuoso Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan, Levon Helm) and studio MVP percussionist Bashiri Johnson.
Go to Mack Avenue.com, to get more details about this fabulous new recording by the saxophonist Kirk Whalum!
..:: Source: Mack Avenue ::..
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