Jimmy Greene - Beautiful Life (2014)

'Beautiful Life' by saxophonist Jimmy Greene is a celebration of the life of his six-year-old daughter, Ana Márquez-Greene, whose life was tragically taken, along with nineteen other children and six educators, on December 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
"I want the music to reflect the way that Ana lived," Greene says. He fulfills that mandate with an intense, cohesive, genre-spanning programme - juxtaposing hardcore instrumental jazz with traditional spirituals, contemporary Christian music, standard ballads and three original songs framing his own lyrics.

Animating the repertoire is a gold-standard rhythm section - pianist Renee Rosnes, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Lewis Nash, drums - augmented at various points by guitarists Pat Metheny and Jonathan DuBose, Jr., pianists Kenny Barron and Cyrus Chestnut, vocalists Kurt Elling, Javier Colon and Latanya Farrell, spoken word from Tony Award-winning actress Anika Noni Rose, a 13-piece string ensemble from the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, as well as an accomplished children's choir.