Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band - Soul Conversations (2021)

  • 07 May, 16:04
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Artist:
Title: Soul Conversations
Year Of Release: 2021
Label: Outside in Music
Genre: Jazz
Quality: 320 kbps | FLAC (tracks)
Total Time: 01:12:44
Total Size: 167 mb | 404 mb
WebSite:

Tracklist:

01. Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band, Diego Rivera, Wyatt Forhan, Walter Cano, Michael Dease, Andrew Gutauskas - Two Bass Hit
02. Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band, Stefon Harris, Benny Benack III - London Towne
03. Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band, Diego Rivera, Yasushi Nakamura - Beardom X
04. Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band, Eric Miller, Takeshi Ohbayashi - Red Chair
05. Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band, Diego Rivera, Daniel Dickinson, Giveton Gelin - Giant Steps
06. Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band, Alexa Tarantino - Language of Flowers
07. Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band, Stefon Harris - Human Nature
08. Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band, Giveton Gelin - Girl Talk
09. Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band, Charles Turner III, Erena Terakubo, Michael Dease, Summer Carmago - Harlem Harlem Harlem
10. Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band, Alexa Tarantino, Giveton Gelin - Soul Conversations

Drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., a rising American jazz star from Florida, has already made a name for himself by recording and performing with Kurt Elling, Christian McBride, Winton Marsalis, Gregory Porter, Joey Alexander, as well as four of his own albums. In May 2021, Ulysses' big band's first album, Soul Conversations, is released.

This album was recorded in December 2019 at a concert of the UOJ Big Band (this is the abbreviated name for the composition) at the Dizzy's Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. The band itself first appeared in public two years earlier, when Owens enhanced his New Century Jazz Quintet to become a full-line band. Today UOJ Big Band can be called one of the youngest, most dynamic and interesting continuers of the mainstream jazz tradition of big orchestras. When you look at the composition of the musicians who participated in the recording of Soul Conversations, then, along with the musicians of the big band, you notice the extra-class star, vibraphone player Stephon Harris, who performed as a guest with the UOJ Big Band.

Among the ten tracks that made up the album's program, there are three pieces written by Owens himself, including the title piece Soul Conversations. The rest of the tracks are well-known pieces, and sometimes not jazz people at all. So, for example, next to a new interpretation of the classic composition of the great Coltrane Giant Steps, you can find a classic, as they say, "from another opera" by Michael Jackson: it is in his Human Nature that Harris's vibraphone sounds perfectly. I also liked two more tracks - the beautiful ballad Language Of Flowers and the blues-infused Harlem Harlem Harlem with Charles Turner's vocals. I think if you like big band jazz, you can easily identify your own favorites in this program: there is plenty to choose from.