Orrin Evans, photo: Rob Davidson/Yamaha
Out on Friday we'll be adding Walk a Mile in My Shoe to our next best-of-the-year update. It would be ludicrous not to given the sheer calibre of performance here. Not only that there's beautifully voiced and arranged horns, soulfully gospel tinged bluesy licks tumbling out all over. And, given the flavouring of organ and vivid roles of superlative vocalists guesting, Lisa Fischer and Bilal contribute such a lot in their contrasting ways.
The instrumentalists you could contend, led by US pianist and bandleader Orrin Evans, achieve the most difficult feat in jazz - outclassing even the singers who nearly always steal the show on just about any given record. Not that the singers underperform. Also figuring, Paul Jost and Joanna Pascale are also involved among the vocalist firepower. But the Big Band is pretty amazing in itself as previous records have also indicated.
With a horn section containing trumpet heavy hitters Sean Jones and Josh Lawrence there's power. And yet there are velvety contrasts aplenty. And you encounter a woozy at ease togetherness in several places. Best of all that aspect is found on the delicately conveyed 'Hymn.'
A big band album ''to launch a thousand ships'' - to transplant the words of David Gates from Bread 1970s soft rock classic 'If,' a piece included on the pure Manna of Walk a Mile in my Shoe.
New Orleans great Nicholas Payton figures memorably on the Stevie Wonder cover 'Overjoyed'. And not to be outdone Jesse Fischer on organ is fabulous on 'Dislocation Blues,' a song on which Jost also excels. Both titles plus 'All That I Am' are streaming ahead of this week's full album release.
The album title itself is a reference to Evans' left foot disability. “I walk with a cane because I was born with neurofibromatosis,” he has commented. Highlights - there are lots - include a romping Lisa Fischer take on 'Blues in the Night' built up from a quiet storm into something of a burning cauldron. You don't often hear a cover of Bread's 'If'. Last time we came across the song in a jazz version was by English vocalist Jo Harrop in a guitar setting. A strong Mark Murphy-esque vocal by Jost is part of the spell by contrast.
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