Los Angeles based pianist Julius Rodriguez here with originals and a cover of Dijon's 'Many Times' joined by guests such as Keyon Harrold, Nate Mercereau and avantist Georgia Anne Muldrow whose appealingly moody vocal features on 'Champion's Call' streaming along with 'Mission Statement' ahead of the album's full release tomorrow. Crossover sounding - meaning it's far from purist jazz but certainly has lots of strong content particularly built from the ground up via bass lines from Philip Norris - the now 25-year-old New Yorker's Let Sound Tell All stood out in 2022 as this latest in its even more accessible way also does among the large array and spread of quality jazz about at the moment. What we mean by accessible is that Evergreen - nothing to do with the Paul Williams/Barbra Streisand song of the same name covered winningly by Alma Micic recently or indeed the Jun Iida original either by the way - has plenty of radio friendly R&B stylings to it. And there's plenty of groove. There is a school of thought that claims that current jazz either runs on a groove/riff alchemy or it operates instead on freer structures. Certainly if you subscribe to that view then Evergreen is the former. Silky licks say on 'Around the World' sit up and practically grin at you. Trumpeter Alonzo Demetrius is great on this track and you get a persuasive sense of flow the more up tempo the band sound ventures forth.
Julius Rodriguez, photo: Atiba Jefferson
Playing jazz since he was a pre-teen encouraged by his Monk loving dad, this latest album of the artist sometimes known as Orange Julius was produced by Tim Anderson. Rodriguez dropped out of Julliard to tour with rapper A$AP Rocky and the African-American of Haitian descent's undoctrinaire approach to genre revels in its hookily sunny dimension, a feeling shared stylistically a bit with Jon Batiste. Evergreen doesn't grab us as much as Let Sound Tell All did because the material on that earlier work had more impact. But put it this way if suddenly you saw the name Julius Rodriguez on a poster online somewhere advertising a gig down the street at some local spot you'd be there like a shot to run along to hear this new generation keys kingpin in the making show what he can do on the stand straight away. Final word - fine saxist Nicole McCabe figures winningly on a couple of tracks including Rodriguez tune 'Mission Statement'. McCabe's Mosaic we got a kick out of and chilled to recently. Synth wiz Nate Mercereau also makes his presence felt on the same track.
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