Eric Wyatt’s interview with BTRtoday recounts his life, and his process to create his new album.
Look To The Sky is currently #27 on JazzWeek radio chart. Wyatt talks about his life, family and how it has impacted him as an artist, as well as the origin of the album title. Songs featured in the interview include the heartfelt “A Psalm for Phennie” (dedicated to his mother) and “Jolley Charlie,” a song he feels represents his father’s sound.
Listen to Eric Wyatt explain his process~click the mp3 below to listen to the full interview, or the link below to go to BTRtoday’s website.
#27, Eric WyattLook to the Sky Brooklyn-born and bred Eric owns a solid berth along the saxophone continuum originally laid out by guys like Parker, Coltrane and Rollins. Throughout his career, his playing has been edgy and inventive, heartfelt and poignant. In fact, his father was good friends with Rollins and after Wyatt’s dad passed away, Sonny Rollins became involved in Eric’s music. “After my dad passed in 1989, Sonny became very present in my music and offered his help. I was given the opportunity to record my first CD, Godson, on the Japanese label King Records. Sonny suggested the title Godson because it explained his and my dad’s Hope. The Godson CD featured Al Foster, Rufus Reid and Mark Soskin, all members of Sonny’s bands. Look to the Sky, Wyatt’s debut for Whaling City Sound and his sixth recording overall, is magnificently realized, both instrumentally and emotionally. There are musical nods to his father (“Jolley Charlie”) and mother (“Psalm for Phennie”), to Coltrane (“My Favorite Things”) and a few other intimate touch-points, some original, a few written by his accompanist, Benito Gonzalez. Indeed, Wyatt is joined here by excellent progressive musicians, including the resounding pianist Gonzalez, drummers Shinnosuke Takahashi and Kyle Pool, Eric Wheeler on bass and Keyon Harrold on trumpet. Together, their music is filled with hope and dedication, reciprocity and passion. With every recording, Wyatt flourishes, in terms of artistry and intensity, power and finesse. Look to the Sky is the man’s—and his band’s— finest and fullest record yet.
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#45 Alma Micic That Old Feeling check out new video for “Estate” on YouTube Alma Micic Quartet serves up a delightful take on timeless standards, embellished by an original, and a version of the Romany anthem “Solnishko”, with visions of a dreamy night, both sentimental and hopeful. Songs inspired by dancing in the moonlight, till the sunrise comes, Alma’s new album That Old Feeling will leave you with a sweet feeling.
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Chartbound Dave Zinno UnisphereRiver of January. CLICK HERE to download a general radio station ID “Hello, this is Dave Zinno of Dave Zinno Unisphere & the new WCS release River of January, thanks for listening.” The songs are lavish jazz adventures, rich with texture, ripe with melodicism, and simply joyful audio journeys. The band is spectacular: Unisphere includes the talents of sax man Mike Tucker (Arturo Sandoval), drummer Rafael Barata (Milton Nascimento, Marc Johnson), Leo Genovese (Joe Lovano, Esperanza Spaulding), and Crescent City trumpeter Benny Bloom. Zinno leads them the way a hopeless romantic treats a first love: gently, understanding and worshipful. He glorifies his accompanists and allows them to go on at length, indulging their considerable talents and making River of January a wall of glorious of sound. This isn’t to say that it’s stodgy. Zinno infuses the work with progress. The band takes the vibe of traditional jazz and reverses the paradigm, so the songs, while familiar, certainly don’t remain the same. There are many highlights here, and while it wouldn’t be a waste of space to speak about them individually, it would be easier to say that these tunes all include rushes of adrenaline, sweetness of melody and serious elements of style. River of January is a work of forward thinking tradition and one that has much substance within it to discover.
The notes for this release state that this album is a reflection of Eric Wyatt’s life. His father, Charles Jolley Wyatt, was himself a tenor saxophonist and a friend of Sonny Rollins who, early in Eric’s career, dubbed him “The Godson of Sonny Rollins.” He introduced his son not only to Rollins’ playing but also that of Charlie Parker. A family friend, Arthur Rhames, introduced Eric to the music of John Coltrane, and ever since he has felt that he is “wearing two hats,” with one foot in Newk (Rollins) and one in Trane. Both his father and Rhames died in 1989.
The album starts out with E-Brother, one of two tunes by pianist Benito Gonzalez. This is a funky jazz piece with a bit of an Afro-Latin beat to it, and Wyatt’s first entrance is impressive. He seems to be channeling Trane here, but Trane in his earlier, more swinging days. Keyon Harrold takes a fine trumpet solo, then it’s Gonzalez’ turn, and he plays some very pretty fast figures before the whole band returns for the ride-out. On Look to the Sky-Sister Carol, which starts out as a 6/8 jazz waltz, Wyatt switches to alto, but politely defers to Harrold as the first soloist up. Harrold plays relatively sparsely, using the relaxation of his improv to rhythmically launch his trumpet. He does not have a big tone but is a very good and imaginative improviser. Then Wyatt enters, and he completely changes the sonic landscape, playing alto with the kind of “flat” tone associated with both Rollins and Coltrane (but not with Bird). Gonzales’ solo is right up there with Wyatt’s, exploring the changes with dazzling runs and fills in the first chorus, a bit sparser in the second. Then, surprise surprise, Wyatt returns but this time on soprano, and in the ride-out both he and Harrold are quite busy interacting with and complementing each other. This is wonderful jazz!
Grammy-winning jazz artist Samara Joy does a “star turn” on
Eric Wyatt’s A Song of Hope
Eric Wyatt’s 2021 record A Song for Hope on the Whaling City Sound label is an adventurous, colorful, unpredictable, and wide-ranging session, a tour de force of immense creativity and incredible vision. It’s also something of a departure from his last effort, The Golden Rule: For Sonny, also on WCS, which featured the saxophonist in a more straight-ahead jazz setting.
A Song for Hope is also, as it turns out, a star turn for one of Wyatt’s guest performers, none other than Samara Joy, the young jazz vocalist that, quite unexpectedly, happened to win not one but two Grammy Awards last week, one for Best New Artist, and another for Best Jazz Vocal for Linger Awhile. Samara Joy now records for Verve.
Wyatt invited Samara Joy to sing two songs on A Song for Hope, and both are marvelous, in a way, a foreshadowing of the singer’s incredible talent. The first track, “Say Her Name,” is a luminous tribute to Breonna Taylor. “I was looking for her to convey the pain of that event,” says Wyatt, and she did. “When I listen back to it, I remember the hope we all felt in making these songs, and Samara Joy was an excellent part of that.”
Samara Joy is also featured on Wyatt’s soulful take on Sting’s “Fragile.” The singer delivers an ethereal, magical performance, accompanied by Wyatt on soprano sax. Listening to these tracks, it’s no wonder that Samara Joy got the attention she did, both from Wyatt, who invited her to sing with him, and more recently, by the Academy, who awarded her such a distinguished prize.
That said, no one was more surprised by the win than the vocalist herself. “I can’t even believe—I’ve been watching y’all on TV for so long!” she said, in an attempt at an acceptance speech. “All of you inspire me because of who you are. You express exactly who you are authentically. So, to be here by just being myself, I’m just so thankful.”
As it turns out, Wyatt’s recording was a big step in Samara Joy’s career journey so far. In fact, she parlayed several important steps into a recording contract with Verve.
Wyatt sensed he wanted an impressive singer to guest on his recording and he knew that Samara Joy had won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition back in 2019 at the age of 21. She had been referred to the session by one of his musicians, bass player Mike Boone, a relative of Samara Joy.
Wyatt has always had an eye for talent. A Song of Hope features drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, bassist Eric Wheeler, and pianist Donald Vega along with an all-star horn section and a few additional guests.
“Samara became a blessing in disguise,” says Wyatt. He had originally thought he’d produce an instrumental version of “Fragile.” “When I heard her sing, I knew she could convey the feeling of both of those songs. And she did.”
O’s Notes: Tenor saxophonist Eric Wyatt leads the charge with an excellent band that sizzles and pops throughout the session. We enjoyed their cover of “Fragile” featuring vocalist Samara Joy, the funky “Fur Live”, “Contemplation” and Watts’ rousing drum solo on “Of Things To Come ime”, a duet with Wyatt. We also enjoyed “One For Hakim” featuring the entire band, a strong showing for trumpeter Theo Croker, Wyatt and the fierce rhythm section: Donald Vega (p), Eric Wheeler (b) and Jeff Watts (d).
On A Song of Hope, his second album for Whaling City Sound, saxophonist Eric Wyatt offers more than hope; he offers assurance that contemporary jazz is alive and well in and around his home base of Brooklyn, NY. Wyatt, the godson of another rather well-known saxophonist, Sonny Rollins, performs in groups of various sizes, from quartet to octet, with vocals by Samara Joy on two numbers, “Fragile” and Wyatt’s “Say Her Name.” The almost-constants are pianist Donald Vega, bassist Eric Wheeler and drummer Jeff Watts, who are on board for eight numbers but step aside for a pair of Wyatt-Watts duets and are replaced by bassist Mike Boone and his talented fourteen-year-old son, drummer Mekhi Boone, on John Coltrane‘s “Central Park West” and McCoy Tyner‘s “Contemplation.”
Watch Jeff “Tain” Watts and Delbert Felix meet after over 25 years!
Whaling City Sound, whalingcitysound.com Chris Lowery (tr.), Theo Croker (tr., flic.), Clifton Anderson (trne), EricWyatt (sop., ten., voc), Donald Vega (p.), Eric Wheeler, Mike Boone (cb.), Jeff Tain Watts, Mekhi Boone (batt., voc.), Kahlil Qwame Bell (perc.), Samara Joy (voc.).
New York, ottobre 2020.
This record is the bomb. We announced it last October on the occasion of an article who took stock of the situation of jazz musicians in New York during the full-blown period of the pandemic. In reality, its publication was scheduled for last May / June, while it came out in September. But it was worth the wait. Here we discover – and with pleasure – a greater versatility of the Brooklyn tenorist, with an attention to that spirituality which is now overwhelmingly current and present in certain tributes that he has decided to dedicate to some of the prominent personalities of modern music (Coltrane’s “Central Park West,” McCoy Tyner’s “Contemplation,” Sting’s “Fragile). But there is not only this: the Latin-tinged “Sunset Park Bonita”, the funkish gait of “Fur Live” (a composition by the young and emerging trumpeter Chris Lowery), the bop of “Blues For RH” (dedicated to Roy Hargrove), the metropolitan emotionality of the title-track, ultimately the whole album is pervaded by a contagious energy that accounts for an in-depth and visceral knowledge of the jazz language. With a phrasing poised between Rollins and Coltrane, EricWyatt has always loved to surround himself with solid (Jeff Watts, Clifton Anderson, Donal Vega) and new ones (Theo Croker, Chris Lowery, 15-year-old Mekhi Boone on drums) brilliant personalities of American jazz. Once again he hit the mark.
Gaeta
Publicity: Jazz Tokyo (Japanese), Musica Jazz Magazine (Italian), Jazz Journal, 91.5 KIOS, The Art Music Lounge, Arkiv Jazz exclusive interview, Jazz News, Music Web International, All About Jazz, Socrates Sculpture Park Performance, New York City Jazz Record, KL International Jazz, ALL MUSIC, JazzTimes, Audiophile Audition, OpenSkyJazz.com, DownBeat, Malay Mail E-Paper, Malay Mail, Amazon Business, O’s Place Issue 25.4
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