''Urbanus'' is the seventh album by
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
vibraphonist
The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...
Stefon Harris. It was released in August 2009 on
Concord Records
Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists have ...
, Harris's first release with the
label
A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed ...
, his previous six releases were on
Blue Note Records. The self-
produced album was Harris's second with his band Blackout, the first being 2004's ''Evolution''. It reached number 15 on the
''Billboard'' Top Traditional Jazz Albums chart and was nominated for the
2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album
The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for works (songs or albums) containing quality ...
.
Overview
''Urbanus'', Latin for urban,
features Harris's band Blackout,
drummer Terreon Gully
Terreon Deautri Gully (born December 28, 1972) is an American drummer from East St. Louis, Illinois.
Career
Gully has performed with various musicians and genres, including the Christian McBride Band, saxophonist Ron Blake, vibraphonist Stefo ...
,
keyboardist
A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical inst ...
Marc Cary
Marc Cary (born January 29, 1967) is a post bop jazz pianist based out of New York City. Cary has played and recorded with several well-known musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Betty Carter, Roy Hargrove, Arthur Taylor, Abbey Lincoln, Carl ...
, saxophonist
Casey Benjamin, and
bassist Ben Williams.
Harris has called this effort a continuation of the work the same band accomplished with its 2004 release, ''Evolution''.
The album incorporates jazz with element of
hip hop but is closer to pre-1970s jazz and
funk than the earlier work by this
quintet
A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...
.
The album was recorded in the days leading up to
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
's
inauguration, an event that Harris said filled the band with a sense of pride.
Promotion began in May 2009 with a show in
Kalamazoo, Michigan at the Dalton Center of
Western Michigan University
Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...
, where Harris completed his
residency
Residency may refer to:
* Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place
** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship
* Residency (medicine), a stage of postgra ...
.
The album was nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album
but lost to the
Joe Zawinul album ''
75''.
The other nominees were ''
Sounding Point
''Sounding Point'' is the debut studio album by the then 21-year-old jazz guitarist Julian Lage. It was released in March 2009 by EmArcy Records. It entered the ''Billboard'' Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart at number 13 and was nominated for ...
'' by
Julian Lage
Julian Lage ( ; born December 25, 1987) is an American guitarist and composer.
Career
A child prodigy, Lage was the subject of the 1996 short documentary film ''Jules at Eight''. At 12, he performed at the 2000 Grammy Awards. Three years later ...
, ''
At World's Edge'' by
Philippe Saisse
Philippe Saisse is a French jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and arranger.
Career
He was born in Marseille and raised in Paris. After studying at the Conservatoire de Paris he won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Mu ...
, and ''
Big Neighborhood
''Big Neighborhood'' is the fourteenth solo studio album by jazz guitarist Mike Stern. The 2009 release was produced by Jim Beard and released by Heads Up International. It debuted at number five on the ''Billboard'' Top Traditional Jazz Albums c ...
'' by
Mike Stern
Mike Stern (born January 10, 1953) is an American jazz guitarist. After playing with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he worked with drummer Billy Cobham, then with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1985. He then began a solo career, ...
.
Tracks
![Stefon Harris](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Stefon_Harris.jpg)
The opening track, "Gone", composed by
Gil Evans
Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian–American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role i ...
, is a modern version of "Gone, Gone, Gone" from the opera ''
Porgy and Bess
''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play '' Porgy'', it ...
''. It has a
go-go
Go-go is a subgenre of funk music with an emphasis on specific rhythmic patterns, and live audience call and response.
Go-go was originated by African-American musicians in the Washington, D.C. area during the mid-60s to late-70s. Go-go has l ...
feel that Harris attributes to keyboardist Marc Cary and bassist Ben Williams's
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
roots. D.C. is said to be the birthplace of the go-go style of funk.
Harris plays the
marimba
The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...
on his interpretation of the
Buster Williams standard Standard may refer to:
Symbols
* Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs
* Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification
Norms, conventions or requirements
* Standard (metrology), an object th ...
"Christina".
Drummer Terreon Gully contributed the track "Tanktified".
"Shake It for Me" features a Harris marimba solo and piano solo by Marc Cary.
The reworking of
Jackie McLean
John Lenwood "Jackie" McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator, and is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their deat ...
's "Minor March" is the collection's track most resembling modern
bop,
even being called
hard bop
Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...
in one review.
Casey Benjamin plays the
vocoder
A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation.
The vocoder was ...
on the
Stevie Wonder cover, "They Won't Go (When I Go)".
"The Afterthought" is a track written by Cary, originally for his 1995 release ''Cary On'', in honor of his grandparents.
Benjamin co-wrote "For You" with Sameer Gupta and is again featured on the vocoder.
The shortest track on the release, "Blues for Denial", features Cary on acoustic piano.
Lastly, "Langston's Lullaby" was named after Harris's son, who in turn was named after poet
Langston Hughes.
Critical reception
Opinions of this release were mixed. John Kelman in
All About Jazz
''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...
called ''Urbanus'' "an impressive group effort...with plenty of cross-over potential and all-ages appeal"
but Michael G. Nastos of
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
quipped that the "music bears mixed results".
He went on to decry Benjamin's vocoder as "one of the silliest devices ever conceived" but then did call Benjamin "one of the best young alto saxophonists in modern jazz". He conceded that there is a "majority of excellent music played on this album" but closes unfavorably writing that the band "wants to appeal to exactly what its title suggests, an urban crowd less interested in innovation or expansion as it is the beat."
Andrew Gilbert in his review in ''
The Seattle Times
''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington ...
'' wrote that "not every track...is a ringing success" and that it "sometimes feels overstuffed with ideas". He does however call the musicians "masters of their musical domain" that create "bustling electroacoustic textures".
Tracks
#"Gone" (
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...
,
Ira Gershwin,
DuBose Heyward,
Gil Evans
Ian Ernest Gilmore Evans (né Green; May 13, 1912 – March 20, 1988) was a Canadian–American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest orchestrators in jazz, playing an important role i ...
) 6:07
#"Christina" (
Charles A. "Buster" Williams) 6:39
#"Tanktified" (
Terreon Deautri Gully) 7:00
#"Shake It for Me" (Timothy Reginald Warfield Jr.) 3:00
#"Minor March" (
Jackie McLean
John Lenwood "Jackie" McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator, and is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their deat ...
) 3:35
#"
They Won't Go When I Go
"They Won't Go When I Go" is a song co-written and performed by Stevie Wonder from his 1974 album '' Fulfillingness' First Finale''.
This song is the only one on the album that Wonder did not write by himself. His co-writer was Yvonne Wright, ...
" (
Stevie Wonder,
Yvonne Lowrene Wright) 7:37
#"The Afterthought" (
Marc Cary
Marc Cary (born January 29, 1967) is a post bop jazz pianist based out of New York City. Cary has played and recorded with several well-known musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Betty Carter, Roy Hargrove, Arthur Taylor, Abbey Lincoln, Carl ...
) 4:59
#"For You" (
Casey Benjamin, Sameer Gupta) 6:06
#"Blues for Denial" (
Stefon Harris) 2:19
#"Langston's Lullaby" (Benjamin, Harris) 7:56
Personnel
*
Stefon Harris –
vibraphone
The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...
,
marimba
The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...
,
producer
Blackout
*
Terreon Gully
Terreon Deautri Gully (born December 28, 1972) is an American drummer from East St. Louis, Illinois.
Career
Gully has performed with various musicians and genres, including the Christian McBride Band, saxophonist Ron Blake, vibraphonist Stefo ...
–
drums
*
Marc Cary
Marc Cary (born January 29, 1967) is a post bop jazz pianist based out of New York City. Cary has played and recorded with several well-known musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Betty Carter, Roy Hargrove, Arthur Taylor, Abbey Lincoln, Carl ...
–
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
,
Fender Rhodes,
keyboards
*
Casey Benjamin –
alto saxophone,
vocoder
A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation.
The vocoder was ...
*Ben Williams –
bass
Additional musicians
*Y.C. Laws –
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...
on "Gone"
*
Anna Webber
Anna Webber (born August 28, 1986) is an American photographer best known for her musician portrait photography, in addition to being an official ambassador for The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSSA) Her work has appeared in ' ...
–
flute on "Gone", "They Won't Go (When I Go)", "For You" and "Langston's Lullaby"
*Anne Drummond –
alto flute on "Gone", "They Won't Go (When I Go)", "For You" and "Langston's Lullaby"
*
Mark Vinci –
clarinet on "Gone", "They Won't Go (When I Go)" and "Langston's Lullaby" and
bass clarinet on "For You"
*Sam Ryder – clarinet on "Gone", "They Won't Go (When I Go)" and "Langston's Lullaby"
*Jay Rattman – bass clarinet on "Gone", "They Won't Go (When I Go)", "For You" and "Langston's Lullaby"
*Rigdzin Collins –
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
on "For You"
Production
*Larissa Collins –
package design
Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a c ...
*Chris Dunn –
A&R
*Joe Ferla –
Audio engineer, recording assistant
*James Frazee – assistant engineer
*Mark Wilder –
mastering
Charts
References
{{Authority control
2009 albums
Stefon Harris albums
Concord Records albums