Engineers: Glenn Ferracone – The Music Center (tracks 5, 8) Glenn Barratt- Morning Star Studios (track 4) Vic Stevens – Giant Steps Studios (tracks 1,2,3,6,10,11) Jim Salamone, Todd Mecaughey, Drew Taurisano, Mike Parisi – Cambridge Sound Studios (Tracks 1, 12 + all percussion and instrument overdub recordings) Alex Allison – The Bridge Sound & Stage Studios (Tracks 7, 9)

Mixing Engineers: Phil Nicolo (Mix & Master track 4) Jim Salamone (track 12)

Mike Tarsia (Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4,5,6, 7, 8,9,10,11)

Mastering: Mike Tarsia: for Mike Tarsia Productions- Philadelphia PA http://miketarsiarecording.com/

CD cover design and graphics: Kurt Brugel

Produced by Jawanza Kobie

Album Review

I was privileged to review Jawanza Kobie’s 2013 album Feels Better Than It Sounds. I looked back on that review and saw that I had written, “Jawanza Kobie intends for you to hear his compositions and that is exactly what you hear. The balance between the musicians and the music is so well struck that the hearer is not left with the memory of a performance but, rather, of what was performed…. The point of the album was not to highlight Jawanza’s splendid skills on the keys; it was to offer a showcase for his incredible composing. The heart of Jawanza Kobie is laid bare on this album and it reveals a warmth and generosity and affection that is touching.”

As true as those words were in 2013, they are even truer on Jawanza Kobie Jazz Composer. He has brought back some of the great artists from that first album of seven years ago and has augmented that line-up with just the right players on just the right tracks.

Once again, Jawanza brings his incredible composing skills to bear on an array of styles and flavors that showcase his knowledge and his influences. It is well-known that he began studying piano at the age of six and was taken with the music of Beethoven, Gershwin and Copland. He had listened to the Jazz that his father showed him and was influenced by Oscar Peterson, Count Basie, and Ramsey Lewis. Later, his influences included Art Tatum, Quincy Jones, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock in Jazz plus the Beatles, James Brown, Motown, Sly & the Family Stone, Bob Dylan, and more.

All of those influences, and more besides, worked their way into his mind and heart and can be heard on Jawanza Kobie Jazz Composer. Jawanza writes not only straight-ahead Jazz—as heard on Mr. B.P and After the Show—but writes convincingly in so many subcategories of Jazz, as well.

Contagious exemplifies the precision of the best ideas of the Jazz Fusion era as seen in Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul. He offers an almost-Coltrane post-Bop feel for Sam Greenfield’s tenor sax on Caillou’s Buddy and Big Band construction on After the Show.

He embarks on international flavors with the Spanish lullaby/ballad, pairing soprano sax and acoustic guitar, on My Little Child and the Brazilian intonations highlighting the flute on My Enduring Love. Influenced by Jobim, we can hear that on Ice Cream Girl, which adapts one of the vocal lines from Aguas de Marco.

That song and the sweet Soul Jazz piece, You Wasted Your Love on Me, are the only two songs with vocals and they are extraordinary. Jawanza’s composing for voice has always been excellent and Tonya Lynette (track 4) and Charlene Holloway (track 9) just nail it for him. Touching and timeless.

Like he did on his first album, Jawanza writes for his friends, as in the Bluesy Fats, composed for Jackie “Fats” Beard, who is featured on alto sax on the song, and Mr. B.P., for tenor saxman Bill Pierce who solos on that track. That track is brilliantly arranged for three horns with cool piano chords.

If you want tight arrangements, look no further than Billy with its fierce guitar passages and the most precise sax/guitar/keyboards arranging you ever want to hear. Then Let Me Lead features Bruce Middle—who was prominent on the 2013 album—on lead guitar. Listen out for the bone-crushing Funk of Compliments and Shoes with those great Sly & the Family Stone-like bass lines, textured with the cool Fusion.

The entire album proves that Jawanza Kobie can write for so many instruments and voice and do it brilliantly. He has always wanted to be known as a composer more than a performer. This album does exactly that.

As always, Jawanza’s skills and talents give him to ability to express his heart and soul. He is an intelligent man, a king man, and a good man. Even if you don’t know him, you will after this album.

~Travis Rogers, Jr. is The Jazz Owl

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