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| Rising Sun |
| Najee |
| első megjelenés éve: 2007 |
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| (2007)
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CD |
| 5.097 Ft
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| 1. | Clarity
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| 2. | Brazilian Affair
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| 3. | Child At Heart
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| 4. | Can't Wait Another Minute
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| 5. | Come What May
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| 6. | Out Of A Dream
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| 7. | Moody's Mood For Love
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| 8. | Still In Love
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| 9. | Romance The Night
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| 10. | Smooth Sailing
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| 11. | Rising Sun
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Jazz
Saxophonist Najee, the two-time Grammy nominee and a pioneer of the "rhythm and jazz" movement of the late '80s and '90s, continues to shed new light on the contemporary jazz scene with Rising Sun, his new CD set for release on Heads Up International on August 14, 2007.
Always the innovator, Najee blends various shades of straight-ahead as well as contemporary jazz, classic R&B and even indie rock on this new ten-song set. The result is an album that's destined to appeal to established fans of his multi-layered groove as well as listeners who are meeting the artist for the first time.
"The idea was to try to do something a little different from before", says the New York native. "But the challenge in that is to always stay true to my own creative identity at the same time. People who are familiar with me and my music have certain expectations, but I'm always looking for something that's going to make people say, 'Hey, this is a little different. This is something fresh."
Contributing to this fresh perspective is a coterie of talented songwriters and session players. Producer Chris Davis, who first teamed up with Najee on his previous Heads Up release, My Point of View (HUCD 3104, released in 2005), returns to the production helm on Rising Sun, and offers numerous songwriting credits as well. Najee also co-authors two tracks with labelmate and Pieces of a Dream keyboardist and songwriter extraordinaire James Lloyd. In addition, the saxophonist borrows a couple songs from the old school as well as the new - one from veteran jazz flutist James Moody and another from reigning indie rock songwriter/guitarist John Mayer.
"I really am a fan of his music", says Najee, who offers up an intriguingly percussive yet mellow cover of Mayer's "Clarity" on Rising Sun. "Mayer is truly unique as a songwriter and as a performer", says Najee. "I've always liked that particular song, and I thought to myself, 'I should try something different. I haven't done a cover song in quite a few albums'. It may be a bit of a risk to cover a song by an artist who's enjoying so much current popularity, but risk is good. I think people are always looking for a different perspective on what's currently popular."
Najee swaps the saxophone for the flute on the laid back "Child At Heart", where he is joined by pianist Phil Davis, acoustic bassist Reginald Veal and drummer "Little John" Roberts. The resulting chemistry, says Najee, offers the best of two worlds: "I was careful to make sure that the song still had a contemporary jazz vibe to it, even though it was an acoustic jazz thing with straightahead elements."
The subtle but steamy "Romance the Nite, "featuring guest vocalist Phil Perry, was a surprise late entry to the final sequence, says Najee.
Najee's cover of James Moody's "Moody's Mood for Love" resulted from a chance encounter in a woodwind store in New York City. "I was inside the store just trying out some flutes. He heard me playing in the upper level of the store, and he came upstairs and said, 'Man, how do you get that sound?' He started asking me all kinds of questions. It was really kind of flattering. We had our picture taken together, the whole bit." Najee remembers hearing the song every night when he was a kid, when DJ Frankie Crocker played it as the regular closer to his evening jazz show on WBLS-FM in New York. After the encounter in the music shop, Najee figured it was time to pay tribute to the flutist who had inspired him.
"Out of a Dream" and "Come What May" are two lush offerings co-authored by Najee and James Lloyd, who contributes keyboards and drum programming on both tracks. "Out of a Dream" came to life almost by accident, Najee recalls. "I was at James' house, and we were working on some songs, but nothing was really coming together", he says. "I was about to leave, and he was going through a CD of stuff he'd recorded, just to see what was on it. I heard this fragment of a song that really hit me. He told me it was something that had come to him when he was sleeping one night. He got up in the middle of the night, recorded it, went back to bed and completely forgot about it." Through a collaborative effort, the fragment evolved into a complete song, with stirring horn arrangements provided by tenor saxophonist Jeff Antoniuk and trumpeter/flugelhornist Andy Kushner.
Whether his inspiration is a chance encounter or a nearly forgotten fragment of music, Najee sees the creative process as more than just a series of cosmic accidents. Like any true artist, he's guided by subconscious forces that compel him to make unprecedented connections and cast the musical landscape in a new light. |
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