Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band return to Blue Note Records for the release of their album Landmarks on April 29th. The group was recently in France for the St. Emilion Jazz Festival and luckily for us, so were cameras. I can’t say anything other than just watch and enjoy this one. You’ll be glad you did, and then on April 29th, purchase the album. You can pre-order it at the links below.
Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band will be releasing Landmarks, on April 29th, or April 15th if you rock with vinyl. This will be another in a string of excellent releases from Blue Note Records. This is Blade’s first release on Blue Note since 2000’s Perceptual. Coming off the incredible release Mama Rosa via Verve, the Shreveport, LA native has teamed back up with Chris Thomas, Jon Cowherd, Myron Walden, Marvin Sewell and Melvin Butler known collectively as The Fellowship Band. If “He Died Fighting” is any indication of the new album, I certainly can’t wait for April to get here.
My good friend Stro, hipped me to this album. I try to keep my ears to the pulse of the Nu Jazz scene, especially when it’s a Verve release. Brian Blade is a singer/song writer, who I first heard of on Lizz Wright’s Salt album. He produced quite a bit of it and wrote one of my favorite songs from it “Lead The Way”. I actually didn’t know he had anything out personally. When Stro asked me if I heard it, I was shocked and ran off to iTunes for a quick grab. “If I lived in the south I’d play this album every day at sunset”, is what I was informed of. Quite a complement, especially since our take on music is generally very similar. After listening to it several times I have to admit, he was spot on. It’s a beautifully constructed album, from front to back there isn’t a single moment of doubt on the entire thing. It often leaves me day dreaming about everything and nothing in particular. Putting me into the same space as Robert Glasper’s Canvas album, or Curtis Mayfield’s Roots. “Mercy Angel” is a perfect lead in to the album, but please do not stop there. Dig in and enjoy the entire project, listen, then listen again. Discover what it feels like to sit on the back porch looking out over God’s creation as the sun dips below the horizon and the last light of the day escapes out of sight.
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