Face The Music
(2002)
This is the first CD on my BPM label and was definitely a turning point in my career. I really like this album, it has a lot of great playing by everyone and marks a departure from most of the albums I've recorded up to this point. Conceptually the idea was to use the same group of players for the entire album so there would be spiritual continuity, and I wanted to do a lot of piano playing.
I pulled together Christian McBride-bass, Little John Roberts-drums, and Jef Lee Johnson -guitar as the nucleus of the album. All the other instruments are very important, but basically used as ear candy.
"The Black Messiah (part 2)" is my dedication to my mentor Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. Blue Note records was kind enough to allow use of Cannons voice at the end - Bruce Lundvall, I owe you.
"Chillin'" is a kind of gentle smooth groove. Little John lays the law down.
"My Piano" is another musical journey from Africa to the America's displaying the connections between various styles. I love to play this one live because I've really stretched the boundaries to include the full plethora of black music.
"Guess You're Not The One" became the instrumental counterpoint to "No Rhyme No Reason". Even though they are not thematically related, they have a similar vibe and has become one of my more requested songs. In fact in Los Angeles it became a number one record at KJLH, now that's saying something for an instrumental song.
"Let's Roll" is a throwback to the music I used to play with Flora Purim, Airto, Stanley Clarke and other fusioniers. Listen to Christian on this one - whew!
"Ain't It Funky Now" came about as an accident. We were fooling around talking about James Brown between takes and Jef started playing this lick. We all joined in and started playing. As I listened back, I knew this had to go on the album so I just added an intro, horns and vocals - there it is!
"Close To You" is another situational song that is conversationally presented. It is the only complete vocal song on the album. It features my buddy Kirk Whalum on tenor sax, how perfect can it get?
"Another Way To Look At It" almost became the album title. There are several different vibes in this tune - fusion, funk, jazz - simply put, it's another way to look at it.
"Creepin'" is just fonky! Some fans have told me that it reminds them of Frank Zappa, but that's not what I had in mind. The beginning is totally off the cuff, I just started talking to Christian about a fantasy situation. Rickey Lawson let Little John use his Roland Electronic drum set for the vibe. All of us laughed so much during the vocal overdubs that we barely got through the recording process, and I think you can tell the tune is meant to be stupid and funny but with some good playing.
"Ten Mile Jog" came about as a jam session that I later orchestrated with synths and horns. This turned out to be the last tune we recorded. I said to everyone "let's play something off the cuff"- I looked at Jef and told him to start. We played about 45 minutes which I cut down to eleven minutes or so and there you have it. Airto and Shiela E move this rascal along like an out of control train. This is the only tune that Christian played electric bass - whew, check him out!
"Guess You're Not The One - vocal version" was added to the CD later. I received a lot of calls and emails from radio stations saying they would play this tune if I put a lead vocal on it. So I went back into the studio, recorded a lead vocal and added the track to further releases of the album.
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George Duke