Blue Note Records
2006
Artist In Residence
About This Album
The adventurous pianist, composer, and bandleader Jason Moran added guitarist Marvin Sewell to his band on 2005's Same Mother. Sewell is back and melding further with his own funky blues-based playing on Artist in Residence, which is a far-reaching jazz record combining elements of post-bop, New Orleans jazz, funk, blues and even post-20th century classical music to Moran's array of shades and colors to play with. The repetitive sampled spoken word loop by Adrian Piper which acts as the ground for both the opener "Break Down" and "Artists Ought To Be Writing" is a bit h jarring when the band lights up under her. As she chants "Break down the barriers/Break down, misunderstanding/Break down, the artworld/Break down, the artist/Break down, the general public . .," the band uses it (looped continually through the piece, even in the solos) to ground everything in a circular rhythmic principle. Just as unsettling is Alicia Hall Moran's soprano vocal in near Webern-like lieder as the introduction to "Milestone" atop Moran's lilting piano before the band kicks it in prosaically at the one-minute mark. She frames her wordless vocal just as Moran's left hand begins to spin out a melodic figure for everyone else to play around, though the entire piece sounds like an intro.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,4,5,6,7 and 8)

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