Ray Blue - Work (2019)

The tenor-saxophonist Ray Blue breathes energy and optimism on the cover of his new album, entitled Work. The most curious thing is that his music leaves the same impression. The secret here, apparently, is what sense Ray puts into the concept of work, which, judging by the special detailed explanation in the booklet, is conceptual in nature. So, for Ray Blue, “work is not hard work, work brings satisfaction, work meets our goals and aspirations of life, there is always room for humor in work, work is a combination of God's gift with our responsibility, work encourages our self-esteem and dedication, work “This is our spiritual connection with life, work accustoms to order and planning, work heals wounds, massages the soul and frees the child within you.” Presumably, such a credo for Ray applies not only to this project, but also to his creative activity as a whole.

And it lasts, on a professional level, for more than twenty years. A native of New York, Blue began playing the clarinet at the age of eight, and after another six years turned to the tenor saxophone. His main teachers in jazz were Arthur Blitt and Ornett Coleman. Ray played with many, performed at festivals in America, Europe and Africa (here he had especially warm ties with South African musicians), toured in various countries, including Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (in 2018). He released his debut album back in 2001.

In the new work, Blue presents a collection of three compositions of his own composition, including the title one, and ten covers. A large group of musicians helped to create her Ray, some of whom played in different tracks. The main format for recording was a quintet with a guitar and a standard rhythm group (piano-double bass, drums), and in three plays the quintet was transformed into a sextet or septet with the addition of another perfume - trombonist Ron Wilkins and (or) percussionist Neil Clark. With this whole friendly team, the musicians demonstrate, as mentioned above, a very major sound with the juicy sound of the leader's saxophone. This major mood even manifests itself in the ballad-like plays, such as, say, Everything Happens To Me or Blue’s own play My Friend And I Took A Walk. I also note how Ray Blue's very successful interpretations of Nat Odderley’s music in Sweet Emma and George Coleman’s in Amsterdam After Dark. In general - a modern straightforward jazz sample oriented to the general public.