Artist: Marcus Roberts
Album: Blues for the New Millennium
Genre: Post-Bop, Stride
Label: Columbia
Released: 1997
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- Cross Road Blues (Johnson) - 3:51
- Jungle Blues (Morton) - 4:21
- Anytime, Any Place (Roberts) - 5:17
- That Was Then, and This Is Now (Roberts) - 6:30
- Jade (Roberts) - 2:59
- When the Mornin' Comes (Roberts) - 3:59
- Heart of the Blues (Roberts) - 4:43
- Whales from the Orient (Roberts) - 8:16
- A Servant of the People (Roberts) - 4:57
- Late Rehearsal (Roberts) - 7:26
- Express Mail Delivery (Roberts) - 7:53
- Early Rehearsal (Roberts) - 4:49
- I'll See You at One (Roberts) - 5:46
- It's Maria's Dance (Roberts) - 5:44
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- Personnel:
- Marcus Roberts - piano
- Jason Marsalis, Ali Jackson - drums
- Thaddeus Expose, Roland Guerin - bass
- Marcus Printup, Randall Haywood - trumpet
- Ronald Westray, Vincent Gardner - trombone
- Isa Abdul-Hamid - tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
- Stephen Riley - tenor saxophone
- Ted Nash - clarinet, flute, baritone saxophone
- Sherman Irby - alto saxophone
This intriguing release features pianist Marcus Roberts and a dozen of his originals played by a variety of young musicians in groups as large as 11 pieces. The compositions (other than Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues" and Jelly Roll Morton's "Jungle Blues") are all by the pianist, as are the arrangements. In general, the original tunes themselves are not all that memorable (none of the melodies are destined to catch on), but the charts are quite colorful and often make the ensembles sound like a distortion of early-1930s Duke Ellington (with some McCoy Tyner-like piano here and there from Roberts). There are plenty of excellent solos from the band (which includes trumpeter Marcus Printup, trombonist Ronald Westley and altoist Sherman Irby) during the episodic music, and the CD rewards repeated listenings. An intriguing set.
Review by Scott Yanow