Rust Belt Roots: Randy Napoleon Plays Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, & Kenny Burrell
Do you like jazz guitar? Check. Do you like Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, & Kenny Burrell? Check, check, and check. Then Randy Napoleon's Rust Belt Roots: Randy Napoleon Plays Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, & Kenny Burrell should be right up your alley. I recently discovered this album streaming on my favorite Jazz station KCSM.org and on 91.1 FM. This album includes songs written by the aforementioned greats and a selection of original tunes, all of which are thoroughly enjoyable.
When not performing music, Guitarist Randy Napoleon is an Associate Professor at Michigan State University. Per Randy's bio...
Napoleon cut his teeth touring with pianist Benny Green, The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Michael Bublé, and a thirteen year tenure with Freddy Cole. He has also performed with artists across the jazz spectrum such as Bill Charlap, Natalie Cole, Monty Alexander, Rodney Whitaker and John Pizzarelli.
For this album, Randy brings together musicians from his engagements with his two previous quartets, Paul Keller and Rodney Whitaker on Bass, Quincy Davis and Sean Dobbins on drums, and Rick Roe and Xavier Davis on piano.
Rust Belt Roots starts right out of the gate with the uptempo Wes Montgomery tune "S.O.S"., followed by an original composition, "When They Go". I enjoyed the covers of "Grant's Tune" and later, the ever-popular "Jean De Fleur" by Grant Green. The tempo slows with "Listen to the Dawn" by Kenny Burrell, then picks up again with Kenny's familiar "Lyresto". "Wes Like", another original composed by Randy Napoleon, is well, very much Wes (Montgomery) like. The album ends with a short and relaxing original solo composition, "The Man Who Sells Flowers".
Rust Belt Roots: Randy Napoleon Plays Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, & Kenny Burrell by Randy Napoleon is an album I can listen to all day long.
Highly recommended.