Skip to main content

Maverick Ad

Home

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Cover Stories
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Cashbox Legacy Awards
  • Past Covers
  • Weekly Archive
Guitarist/Composer James Brown Releases Song Within The Story

Breadcrumb

  • Home
  • Guitarist/Composer James Brown Releases Song Within The Story
Guitarist/Composer James Brown Releases Song Within The Story
Fri Feb 25, 2022
Cashbox Canada

Guitarist-composer James Brown returns from a 13-year recording hiatus with the fetching Song Within the Story. Brown’s fourth album, and his first since 2009’s Sevendaze, finds him helming his Toronto-based working trio featuring bassist Clark Johnston and drummer Anthony Michelli.

Respected tenor saxophonist Mike Murley joins the band on three of the album’s 10 tracks—eight of which are original compositions that document Brown’s ongoing intermarriage of jazz and classical music, while two covers explore Canada’s rich folk-rock legacy.

“I’m so pleased with how the trio has developed,” the guitarist says. “We’ve been working regularly at clubs like the Rex Jazz Bar in Toronto for three or four years, and we’ve been playing a lot of the pieces on this CD.” Their hard work shows on unconventional pieces like the 7/4 groover “Alystair and I” and the harmonically daring “The Circle,” both of which they tackle with apparent ease and aplomb. They do no less, however, on the bluesy “Igor” or the (outwardly) delicate “All Rivers Lead.” The latter is one of the three showcases for guest player Murley, whose thoughtful but unyielding solo offers a glimpse of the intensity that lies beneath the tune’s surface.

Watch the Sizzler Reel here:

“Igor” is named for and inspired by the great composer Igor Stravinsky, a nod to Brown’s classical pursuits. The album’s title track contains echoes of Pat Metheny. But the influences on display throughout Song Within the Story are hardly a jazz-classical binary. “Mbira Kids,” as its title suggests, directly evokes the musical traditions of Southern Africa (specifically, that of Zimbabwe’s Shona people). Meanwhile, the trio passionately renders ballads by Neil Young (“The Needle and the Damage Done”) and Joni Mitchell (“A Case of You”), perhaps the two most revered Canadian singer-songwriters of the rock era.

James Brown was born in 1967 in Oakville, Ontario, and was raised in the city of Burlington. At age 13 when he began taking guitar lessons and a few years later moved to classical guitar studies at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music. While he continued his classical curriculum, Brown also began attending informal jam sessions, slowly recalibrating his creative trajectory.

By 1998, his immersion in jazz was deep enough to record his debut album, First Dance, with renowned Toronto musicians Ernie Tollar (saxophones), Andrew Downing (bass), and John Obercian (drums).  Brown recorded two additional albums in 2002 (The Home Fields) and 2009 (Sevendaze).

Performance dates:
Sat.3/26 
The Jazz Room, 59 King Street North , Waterloo, ON.
(8:00 & 9:30 p.m.); $20.00
Tickets

Thurs.4/21 
Paradise Theatre, 1006c Bloor St W, Toronto, ON.
(8:00 p.m.). $25.00 
Tickets

Fri. 3/18
The Emmet Ray, 924 College St, Toronto.
(8:00-10:00 p.m.)
$15 @ door.

www.jamesbrown.ca

Reviews
Album
James Brown
Month: Sep 2022
Laurie LeBlanc Getting Ready For The Good Times, Country Singer Laurie LeBlanc…
Slade Slade Asks You To "Call Me' Like Blondie Did All Those Years
A Short Walk To Pluto A SHORT WALK TO PLUTO Embraces The Right To Happiness In “You Are Not The Only One…
Olenka Pop Singer/Songwriter Olenka Relives Sweet Revenge And A Scorned…
Sammy Duke Folk Rocker Multi-Instrumentalist Sammy Duke Encourages Empathy on…
The Northwest The Northwest Are Looking To The “Shoreline’ For New Single Inspiration
Zenia Marshall Canadian TV/Film Star And Breakout Indie-Alt Pop Artist Zenia Marshall…
Multi-Honoured Hamilton, ON Blues Artist André Bisson is in a Total Funk with "Missing You" Multi-Honoured Hamilton, ON Blues Artist André Bisson is in a Total Funk…
Caribbean-Dutch Canadian Rapper Big Lou Empowers Listeners With Messages of Self-Acceptance In Hard-Hitting Single, “Tayrona” Caribbean-Dutch Canadian Rapper Big Lou Empowers Listeners With…
Indigenous Rocker Joey Nowyuk Looks Back To The Past With “Inuugama” Covers Album Indigenous Rocker Joey Nowyuk Looks Back To The Past With “Inuugama” Covers…
Julian Taylor Julian Taylor Releases New Album “Beyond the Reservoir”
Lady Charles Canadian Pop Artist Lady Charles Imagines A Healing, Gender-…
Lisa Richard Lisa Richard’s New Single Has “News You Can Use” With Live Off The Floor Video
Ollee Owens Ollee Owens Releases New Album “Cannot Be Unheard”
Propter Hawk Toronto’s Propter Hawk Gets Rowdy With First Single “Theatre Of The Whole World…

Pagination

  • First page « First
  • Previous page ‹ Previous
  • …
  • Page 77
  • Page 78
  • Page 79
  • Page 80
  • Current page 81
  • Page 82
  • Page 83
  • Page 84
  • Page 85
  • …
  • Next page Next ›
  • Last page Last »

CEO/PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF
SANDY GRAHAM

email:sandygrahamemg@gmail.com 

Canadian Journalists:

Contributing Journalist - Canada and Global
Don Graham
email: dongrahamwriter@gmail.com

Contributing Journalist - Canada and Global
Lisa Hartt
email: lisahartt87@hotmail.com

Contributing Journalist - Canada 
Michael Williams
email: greydread@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

International Journalists:

Contributing Journalist - Sweden
Malin Osth
email: malin@musicdays.se

Contributing Journalist - Sweden
Jonas Tancred
email: jonas@musicdays.se

Contributing Journalist - USA
Rob Durkee 
email: rockster2746@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Web Developer/Technical Support
Chris Wardman

email: info@chriswardman.com
website: chriswardman.com

Cashbox Cover Design and Graphic Artist
Jain McMillan

email: jainmcmillan@gmail.com

Contributing Photographer 
Tracey Savein - South Paw Productions
southpawproductions@rogers.com

 

 

 

Footer menu

  • Home
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Cashbox Archive
  • Issue Archive
  • Past Covers