2007-03-23
Charlie Parkeresque saxophone player, Soweto’s second album is part one of a two part concept release. The album is creative mesh of jazz and hip hop with story narratives over base lines and broken melodies at the end of most numbers. Tracks like Mission, Adrian’s Ballad, Marcus’s Crisis and A Friendly Game of Basketball hold the listener in a lull of Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins style nostalgia. Opposing this are Hip Hop joints with beats lying somewhere in the vane of Aesop Rock such as Love Gamble, Ridez, So!, and Who Knows?. An interesting experiment and a tall order; a Jazz/Hip-Hop fusion concept album is a task I’m looking forward to Soweto completing this upcoming spring.
JUDY NIEMACK
Blue Nights
THE GODFATHERS OF GROOVE FEATURING REUBEN WILSON, BERNARD “PRETTY” PURDIE, AND GRANT GREEN JR.
The Godfathers of Groove
Ed Roth
Mad Beatnik
MICROSCOPIC SEPTET
Friday the 13th The Micros Play Monk
Julian Lage
Arclight
TED NASH QUARTET
The Creep
The opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.