New Music Monday — Eric Reed, Billy Childs, Vince Ector

Debuting the music of Eric Reed, Billy Childs, and Vince Ector Trio + on New Music Monday. Join Arturo Gómez on Lunchtime! Monday, March 6, at noon.

Eric Reed  “Black, Brown, and Blue” — In addition to being an accomplished pianist, composer, and leader of a big band and smaller groups,  Philadelphian Eric Reed is a profound thinker and philosopher. The liner notes he scribed for his newest project reflect this. Joined by Luca Alemanno and Reggie Quinerly on bass and drums respectively plus invitees Calvin B. Rhone and David Daughtry on vocals, each singing one song. Each member of the trio contributes a composition while the other 10 are re-imagined versions of jazz classics plus 2 covers of RnB hits which are the 2 vocals. One of the highlights of the liner notes written by Mr. Reed is the following: “music can’t cure the world’s ills, but as an artist, I only hope that I am able to use what I have to make the world a little less wretched” So be it!

Billy Childs  “The Winds of Change” — Multiple Grammy® award-winning pianist Billy Childs is a native Angeleno and was a teenage prodigy.  One of his Grammy® awards was for conducting and arranging Denver’s own Dianne Reeves’ masterful recording: “The Calling: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan.” Childs has never been a cookie-cutting player, always imaginative and different, this new session follows along that same path, his own! He’s selected Scott Colley to be his bassist and Brian Blade to play drums, for the first time he collaborates with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, a fellow Californian. Billy pays homage to Chick Corea by playing his “Crystal Silene” composition and tips his hat to one of his mentors, Kenny Barron with an excellent rendition of his “The Black Angel”. Sadly,  this is perhaps the last Mack Avenue recording to be executive produced by its founder Gretchen Valade who recently passed away.

Vince Ector Organatomy Trio + “Live @ the Side Door” — When Vince and this group walked into the club in January 2020, no one knew how the world would change because of the pandemic. The band was on tour throughout the NE corridor in support of their then new release,” Theme for Miss P”, one of the best albums of 2019. Drummer Vince is a native son of Philadelphia where he began drumming playing alongside the many outstanding B3 organ players of the “City of Brotherly Love” including the master, Joey DeFranceco, RIP. Ector’s ensemble for the night was former long-time Denver resident, Pat Bianchi on the organ, Paul Bollenback-guitar and the new kid on the block, Justin Jones playing alto sax. Turns out that sizzling music night was recorded and it’s available for all to enjoy.

Now in its 20th Anniversary year of debuting the latest arrivals to the KUVO Jazz library, many of them are played ahead of their official release date. In addition to the music comments, I’ll provide a few tidbits about the artist in particular if it’s a new or an up-and-coming artist beginning at Noon every Monday.

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