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 |  |  | | | | Track Listings | | | The Beauty and the Blues | 7:02 | | Swing Free | 6:21 | | Prince is a Prince | 8:37 | | Should I? | 4:42 | | Nicholas | 6:50 | | Scungili | 8:46 | | Yearning | 8:30 | | Total time: | 51:30 |
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| | | | | | Beauty and the Blues - Michael J. Rossi | | | Our Price: $9.95  | | | | Item Number: MMC2045J | | Audio Format: DDD | | Genre: Quartet | | | | Description | | Excerpt from the Liner Notes (by Darius Brubeck)
If you’re among those lucky few who have heard Mike Rossi, you already know why you have this CD. I have a slightly better reason: I’ve played with him. In fact, the first track, Beauty and the Blues dates from the very beginning of our association. Mike flew to Durban on a USIS grant to join me at the University of Natal in teaching what was then the only Jazz Studies course in South Africa. It so happened that the day after he arrived I had to attend an African funeral, and thinking this would be an effective though abrupt introduction to local people, culture, and customs, I invited him to come with me and, “by the way, bring your horn.”
Township funerals last all day and into the night, and if the deceased was a jazz-lover, as indeed was the case, it is expected that musicians will attend and that the protracted solemnities will eventually mutate into a jam session. This is roughly what did happen, and characteristically, Michael gamely took part even though he barely knew me, never mind anyone (living or dead) at the funeral. A day or so later he knocked on the door of my university office with Beauty and the Blues in hand for us to play through….
I had the pleasure of playing all of these tunes before they were recorded here with this sterling rhythm section of Rufus Reid (bass) and Billy Hart (drums) with Tom McKinley on piano, so I know the challenges and the fun they were having. Mike writes with the old-fashioned conviction that jazz is (still) a performer’s art, putting simple frameworks on paper allowing space for individual interpretation.
This is one of Mike Rossi’s first recordings, made in 1992, and while I must assume he has continued to grow and change musically, believe he will remain direct, creative, emotional, and brave. These are good qualities and this is a great beginning, but he must get better and badder, so start your collection with this number. |
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