Flux Music Essentials … [Fuller, Metheny, Mahogany, Green & Tebar]

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Jimmy Green, Kevin Mahogany, Pat Metheny Group, Tia Fuller, Ximo Tebar

Flux Music Essentials

Greeting’s everyone, I’m back this week with another serving of who’s who in the world of jazz from the shelves of “Flux Music Essentials.”

Tia Fuller - Decisive Steps

Tia Fuller -|- Decisive Steps – [Mack Avenue Records, 2010]

The astonishingly gifted, Colorado-born, alto / soprano saxophonist / flautist Tia Fuller is at home at all points of the musicverse – from her show-stopping solos as a member of superstar Beyoncé’s all-female band, to her scintillatingly swinging jazz dates and recordings. Her newest Mack Avenue release Decisive Steps, is the long-awaited follow-up to her 2007 label debut Healing Space. It features her Beyoncé bandmate, drummer Kim Thompson; bassist Miriam Sullivan; Fuller’s sister, Shamie Royston on piano and Fender Rhodes; with special guests, trumpeter Sean Jones and bassist Christian McBride (both Mack Avenue label mates); vibraphonist Warren Wolf; and tap dancer Maurice Chestnut.

Kevin Mahogany | Double Rainbow

Tags

African American, Jazz, Kevin Mahogany, Male Jazz Vocalist

Kevin Mahogany’s buoyant vocal style envelopes smooth, elegant, and plush nuances that rest firmly in the footprints in the giants of male jazz vocalists. No, his name is not a household one but without hesitation, Kevin commands his craft anchored with vibrant lyrical substance you rarely hear by male vocalists today. On “Double Rainbow,” Kevin Mahogany resilient musings are simply glorious!! ~ The Urban Flux

Kevin Mahogany | Double Rainbow – [Enja, 1993] – Jazz Vocals

Kevin Mahogany, Double Rainbow

As Jon Hendricks (the patron saint of modern jazz singing) says in the charming liner notes, Mahogany really comes directly from the rich musical tradition but, just like Jon, I also think Kevin Mahogany sounds the best when he is scatting on material such as Miles Davis’ “All Blues” and Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation“… Brilliant! Have you heard his brilliant album “Pussy Cat Dues” from the year 2000, dedicated to Mingus ( Pussy Cat Dues: The Music of Charles Mingus )? He works as a star-instrumentalist of a big band on that one and it suits him just fine.

However, his more romantic side (“Our love remains“) doesn’t sit as well with me (Kevin’s voice, although at first glance very rich, sounds actually a bit empty on slow ones, at least here, in the beginning of his great recording carreer)…

But, than again, I have a similar complaint for a great number of post-bop modernist, modal improvisers and smooth singers and players. So, maybe it’s just me.

“Three little words” (written by Kevin and Paul Hofmann) is (I believe) not very successful attempt at Jobimesque elegance so, all in all, in spite of some really impressive heights, I give only 4 stars to this very intriguing album. —Nickia Gillic

Source: Amazon.com