KNKX Studio Sessions

Hours before her first of two shows at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, singer-songwriter Dominique Fils-Aimé made her Seattle debut in the KNKX studios. She led her band through a magnetic set of modern American music and filtered through her unique, international perspective.

Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, by Haitian parents, Fils-Aimé found inspiration in the blues, jazz and soul music from the United States. She described the common thread as “powerful and vibrant sounds that are rooted in emotions. That really struck me from a very young age.”

Fils-Aimé took the time to learn about the context of Black American music, too.

“The music is that place where you get to understand the emotional impact that those historical moments had," she said, adding that the music became a tool for “different types of revolution or even survival, in a way, [through] how it unites people and how it can allow us to feel less alone.”

Fils-Aimé wasn't alone in the KNKX studios. Her wonderful band shared backing vocal duties and performed on their respective instruments: Etienne Miousse on guitar, David Osei on keyboards and bass, Danny Trudeau on bass and keyboards and Harvey Bien-Aimée on drums.

The singer’s four acclaimed studio albums feature complex arrangements and multiple vocal parts. Fils-Aimé explained that her live band takes her music “to another place that is more communal," as her band takes her vocal-filled songs and makes them their own to create "a whole new world."

During their KNKX appearance, the studio audience was immersed in that unique world through a passionate medley of four original tunes.

The slow blues of “My Mind at Ease” set Fils-Aimé’s vocals in a spare guitar and bass atmosphere. Her voice ranged from a whisper to a synthesizer-soaked roar before softening to a repeated phrase looking for “peace and quiet.”

Keeping the tempo down, Fils-Aimé segued into the bluesy, guitar-saturated song “Birds,” before finding a mid-tempo rhythm for the soulful psychedelia of “Love Take Over.”

That song’s abrupt ending inspired a deep sigh from Fils-Aimé, who introduced her final song, “Cheers to New Beginnings,” with a few spoken lines about creative freedom.

Then she dove into lyrics celebrating the “freedom of dreaming of a new world together.” Fils-Aimé sang in tandem with Trudeau’s bass and Osei’s dancing piano lines, before the band developed a driving soul groove.

Fils-Aimé just released her first live recording from the 2024 Montreal Jazz Festival. Her fourth studio album, Our Roots Run Deep, marks the first of a second album trilogy. Though this Canadian may be a discovery for American audiences, Fils-Aimé is quickly establishing herself as an important international voice in modern jazz, blues and soul.

Musicians:

• Dominique Fils-Aimé - vocals
• Etienne Miousse - guitar
• David Osei - keyboards, bass
• Danny Trudeau - bass, keyboards
• Harvey Bien-Aimée - drums

Songs:

1. "My Mind At Ease"
2. "Birds"
3. "Love Take Over"
4. "Cheers to New Beginnings"

Groove Lab, an 8-piece instrumental funk band from Olympia, Washington, has a motto: “We like to make people dance." During the group's recent visit to KNKX, they delivered on that with an upbeat, groovy set.

Stephanie Anne Johnson, host of KNKX's Grooveyard, interviewed Groove Lab's lead vocalist and trumpet player, Alex Rekow, about the Olympia music scene, the band's commitment to music education, and their forthcoming new record.

Interview lightly edited for clarity

Well, like most of the music community, COVID affected things a lot, and took away a lot of the bigger stages, so it became increasingly harder for large bands like us to find places to play in town. But since then, the community has bounced back, and there're quite a few new places to play. And there are jazz jams, there's all sorts of music, and instrumental music is making a bounce back too, especially with things like the [Oly] Funk Fest, where we're bringing talent from out of town, increasing people's likelihood to start bands like that.

Well, our guitarist here, Johnny is a music teacher, works for the public schools. [Percussionist] Tommy works for the public schools. He gets kids to and from the school. And I work with children with autism, and I try to sneak in music as much as I can, especially if it's reinforcing for the kid.

We do a lot of home recording where we can produce things like demos for our music and where we practice at [our saxophonist] Paul's house, we've set up quite the studio for ourselves.

Okay, well, initially, the band was started with Brice and Paul, and they have, over the years, gathered a troupe of musicians. We've almost done this like stumbling forward thing, where most bands don't have it quite together in the beginning, but as long as we're constantly moving forward, [that] has been the goal.

With writing generally, our process lately has been somebody brings an idea to the group, or maybe [we] flesh out a skeleton of a song, and we either add parts to it or we build on it and we make micro changes. It's a group effort.

Musicians:

• Alex Rekow (lead vocals, trumpet) 
• Michael Eakes (baritone and alto saxophones) 
• Kevin Hyche (baritone saxophone, flute) 
• Paul Hyde (tenor saxophone) 
• Brian Johnson (keyboards) 
• Nick Rawson (bass)
• Brice Bement (drums)
• Tommy Sandoval (percussion)

Songs:

1. "Man Like Me"
2. "That Bad Brew"
3. "Midnight Maze"

Just before his recent two-night stint at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, local guitarist Brian Nova brought his world-class quartet to the KNKX studios to perform music from his latest album, and to chat about the Seattle music scene's lasting influence on his career.

In particular, Nova said that without his musical mentors in Seattle, he may never have toured around the globe with jazz guitar heavyweights, Herb Ellis and Joe Pass.

From the late 1980s into the early 2000s, Nova established himself as one of the top jazz musicians in the Seattle area. His career eventually led him to California, where he toured and recorded with iconic jazz musicians for many years.

Still, with lots of family in the area, Nova never lost his ties to the Northwest. In recent years, he settled back in Seattle and quickly reclaimed his reputation as one of the master musicians in the city’s ever-evolving jazz scene.

Being back in Seattle has led Nova to revisit the lasting impact of the Emerald City on his music career. Jazz Alley, for one, is the venue where his passion for jazz guitar was born.

After spending his early years focused on playing rock and funk with friends in high school, a friend’s mother took a teenaged Nova to Jazz Alley to see the great Herb Ellis play. It was a surprising, formative moment.

“I still have a mark where my chin hit the table. I just didn't know the guitar could be played that way. I was 19. I didn't know, and I’ve been chasing after it ever since," Nova said.

As Nova embraced jazz, he found mentors eager to teach the young guitarist how to succeed in the music business in Seattle. One of the most important to Nova was pianist Primo Kim, who taught Nova "thousands of songs."

"It's all about the songs. I don't care how many chops you've got or where you studied, or any of that. If you don't know songs, you don't understand the vernacular," Nova said.

It was Nova’s mastery of that jazz vernacular that led him to befriend the great guitarist Joe Pass, and eventually perform with him throughout Europe, Canada, and the U.S. In their first meeting, he said they walked together for hours, challenging each other's knowledge of the Great American Songbook.

Ellis, who Nova saw at Jazz Alley, also become a formative guitar mentor. Nova compared learning from a rhythm master like Ellis with heavyweight boxing.

“You don't really know how much it hurts to get punched till you're in the ring with someone that actually knows how to punch. There's nowhere to hide. And that's kind of the way Herbie was. He was just a freight train,” Nova said with a smile.

In the KNKX studios with a backing trio of the nation’s first call players — pianist Shelly Berg, bassist Terry Miller and drummer Gary Novak — Nova conducted his own musical freight train through the Cole Porter classic “Love for Sale,” and the title song of his just-released album, They Say It’s Wonderful.

Nova also confessed his love of the progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, covering their hit ballad “From the Beginning.” While the tune choice acknowledged Nova's rock guitar origins, the performance spotlighted Nova, and pianist Berg’s, melodic approach.

After two nights with his quartet at Jazz Alley, Nova returns to his weekly solo performances at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Seattle Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Musicians:

• Brian Nova - guitar, vocals
• Shelly Berg - piano
• Terry Miller - bass
• Gary Novak - drums

Songs:

1. They Say It's Wonderful (Irving Berlin)
2. From the Beginning (Greg Lake)
3. Love for Sale (Cole Porter)

Over the last 15 years, Seattle’s Polyrhythmics have pursued new sounds in modern, groove-centered instrumental music. While their evolution is mainly driven by their own artistic passion, the Polyrhythmics also draw inspiration from their live audiences.

Founding member and guitarist Ben Bloom explained that when making a record, the band members ask themselves, “what do we want to come up with that’s cool?” The band prides itself on finding new musical paths, while still prioritizing the funk and grooves that compelled them to form in the first place.

As they drift from their Afrobeat origins, Polyrhythmics have recently adjusted their rhythm section. Drummer Grant Schroff, whom Bloom calls, "one of the baddest drummers in this town," holds down the beats without a full-time percussionist. This leaves room for the horn players to take up tambourine and vibraslap, as they did during this studio session performance.

Since their beginnings, Polyrhythmics have also found that their connection to live audiences is central to how they play and how their music evolves. After accomplishing their original goal of recording a single for a vinyl release, the band was inspired by the dancing crowds at their celebratory release show.

“At the time, there was a popular dance called the Space Needle," said Bloom, standing perfectly still in demonstration. "That was the main dance that was going on in Seattle at the time, and much to our delight, there was an enthusiastic dance floor of people with newer moves!”

Inspired by their grooving audiences, Polyrhythmics got to work developing their live performances. They realized their music comes to life through what Bloom describes as a "two-way street" between the energy of the band and of the audience.

“It’s a little bit of a game with us to try to connect with our audience. The type of music that we play has evolved into really feeding that," said Bloom.

If some Polyrhythmics concerts are up-tempo dance parties, others may drift into psychedelic atmospheres. On their new album Life from Below, the band pulls from their years-long experience diversifying their music.

“Our goal is to keep pushing the music forward,” Bloom said.

Pushing forward on Life From Below, Polyrhythmics get into a disco vibe on “Smoke & Mirrors” with a rare vocal guest, Adryon de León. The album’s title song is a dramatic, cinematic blend of chaos and cool, and their latest single “Cake Lady” nods to Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters funk-jazz fusion.

“When we make records we’re constantly thinking about what we haven’t done already," said Bloom. "What styles of music haven’t we touched on that still fit the vibe?”

Listen to the three songs from this wonderful Polyrhythmics studio session performance and you’ll hear that vibe – groovy, funky, passionate and deeply connected to their audience.

Musicians:

• Ben Bloom - guitar
• Nathan Spicer - keyboards
• Jason Gray - bass
• Grant Schroff - drums
• Elijah Clark - trombone, percussion
• R. Scott Morning - trumpet
• Art Brown - saxophone, flute, percussion

Songs:

1. Life From Below
2. Serpentine
3. Mayo Con Yayo

Powerful blues singer Sugaray Rayford brought over-the-top energy to the KNKX studios recently, despite being jet-lagged and sleep-deprived after concluding a European tour. He confessed to not knowing what time of day it was, or even what day it was, but his performance magic was on full display for our lucky studio audience. Many KNKX employees also crowded into the studio's recording booth to take in the show.

Rayford has been on our All Blues playlist for years. He has won several Blues Music Awards and released seven albums since 2010, including Somebody Save Me, which was nominated in 2019 for a Grammy Award in the Contemporary Blues category.

From his time as a child performing gospel to his current status as a soul and blues headliner, Rayford’s life has revolved around music. Starting at age 5, he traveled as a gospel drummer and singer.

“Gospel saved my life," Rayford said. "It gave me a great foundation...it gave me a work ethic, being around so many great professionals. I got to see a lot of the great artists: Shirley Caesar, The Mighty Clouds of Joy, the Jackson Southernaires. This was the Church of God in Christ, it’s holiness or hell they say. Holy rollers, baby. Speaking in tongues, the whole nine, playing till 3 o’clock in the morning."

He continued, “By the time I left the church at 18, musically I pretty much knew who I was, what I could do and what I wanted to do. I just felt when I went into the military there was no future at that time in music.”

So, he left his musical life behind and spent ten years in the Marine Corps. After his tours of duty, he returned to the States and began working as a security guard, later starting his own security company. At that point, he hadn’t played music for over 15 years.

One fateful night, while working as a bouncer at a rock club in Carlsbad, California, the lead singer of the performing band left the stage to work the crowd and handed Rayford the microphone during a cover of the Led Zeppelin song “Rock and Roll.” Rayford decided to start singing.

“I didn’t know the song," Rayford said. "That’s ‘devil music’! But a song is song, and a melody is a melody. So, I just made up something. And everybody in the club was looking at me!”

Rayford's then-girlfriend, now-wife, Pam, who watched the impromptu performance, noted how he lit up as he performed and she encouraged Rayford by signing him up to sing at other local jam sessions.

“I loved the way the blues sounded because it sounded a lot like gospel,” said Rayford, who always preferred to perform his own original songs.

He gradually built up his reputation and repertoire, and in 2010, Rayford was asked to sing with the well-known blues band The Mannish Boys. About the same time, he self-released his first solo album of original blues, Blind Alley. He’s steadily released new albums every two to three years since.

Over the years, Rayford has matured to the point where he feels that his role as a singer and writer is about uniting people and bringing them together.

“What I’m trying to do is open people’s eyes, so people realize that there’s just one people. There’s only one color in this country...and that’s green. I don’t care if you’re Black, white, Puerto Rican, Spanish, Jewish, whatnot. If you ain’t got it, you’re on the other side," Rayford said.

Rayford also feels that his position in the front of the band requires him to be not simply a singer, but also an entertainer.

“Even though I write something serious, it’s got to be funky, it’s got to make your booty move," he said. "It’s like cooking dinner - I can’t just give you all spinach, I got to throw some meat in there and maybe some sweet potato pie or something when you’re done.”

Surely, you'll be well-nourished after enjoying this studio session with Sugaray Rayford and his band in the KNKX studios.

Musicians:

• Sugaray Rayford (vocals)
• Julian "JuJu" Davis (trumpet)
• Daniel Avila (guitar)
• Drake "Munkihaid" Shining (keyboards)
• Allen Markel (bass)
• Sky Garcia (drums)

Songs:

1. Run for Cover
2. No Limit to My Love
3. Gonna Lift You Up
4. Invisible Soldier

Day Soul Exquisite visited the KNKX Seattle Studios for a session that can easily be described as, well, exquisite.

Calling their sound "genre anarchy," the queer, BIPOC sextet utilize a mix of many genres, including electronic, hints of afro-beat and jazz. Their 2024 debut, Sanguin & Cardamom, is a cosmic journey of sounds and emotions with crisp production and instrumentation, laced with vivid lyrics that center on being a queer person of color.

Formed in the spring of 2021, the Seattle-based group is relatively new in the Pacific Northwest music scene, and new to each other at the time of the band's formation. Day Soul Exquisite’s humble beginnings came when lead vocalist and guitarist, Francesca Eluhu, posted flyers around the Central District with hopes of creating a band and community.

Almost five years since their start, Day Soul Exquisite has developed a tight knit community of musicians, and as their music continues to evolve, so do they. Dressed in their summer best, the group performed one tune from their previous album, and new music from their upcoming project.

The sextet opened with the song “Disentangled” from their first recording. It's a yacht-rocking, melodic groove that served as a perfect introduction to the band and the array of styles and genres they use, sometimes, in just one song. This song is part-ballad and part-workout music, as the last few minutes turn from calm to sprint, then into a hazy/dreamlike ending.

From their upcoming album, “Olea” features introspective lyrics sung in both English and French. The song highlights meditative drums from Josh Pehrson and percussionist Thomas Arndt, and spiritual playing from saxophonist Xiomara Mills-Du-Pree and keys player Lilly Minke Tahar.

Their last song, “Carry it Forward” speaks to the levels of grief one can experience and the difficulties of moving forward while carrying past memories. Eluhu penned the song as a letter to someone she was close to who had unfortunately passed, and said she was grateful to have the space and support from her band to write the song.

Day Soul Exquisite continues to make waves in the local music scene. Check out this splash of a studio session and catch their upcoming free show on Aug. 14 at the Volunteer Park Amphitheater.

Musicians:

• Francesca Eluhu (lead vocals, guitar) 
• Zora Seboulisa (vocals/bass/guitar) 
• Josh Pehrson (drums) 
• Lillian Minke Tahar (keys) 
• Thomas Arndt (percussion) 
• Xiomara Mills-Du-Pree (saxophones)

Songs:

1. Disentangled
2. Olea
3. Carry it Forward

Saxophonist Peter Daniel spent years working on his newly released album Quartets, and now he’s celebrating with the musicians who helped him make it.

In the tradition of artists breaking their own rules, Daniel’s Quartets release isn’t exclusively four-person performances. Even his KNKX studio session celebrating the new album required a fifth musician.

Trombonist David Marriott joined Quartets participants Marina Albero, Marina Christopher and Heather Thomas at the piano, bass and drums respectively to fulfill the musical vision of the band leader.

“It started as an acoustic, rotating quartet,” Daniel said/ “There are four different rhythm sections in the sessions, so there’s a double meaning there.”

But overdubs and three brief duets with drummers Cliff Porter, Grant Schroff and Ehsan Karimi do retain the Peter Daniel sound throughout the album despite his admitted “rounding up and down” in ensemble sizes.

The point of the album’s title may not be the exact number of musicians, but rather the importance of Daniel’s collaborators and the variety of these collaborations.

Daniel shared his appreciation for so many talented Northwest musicians and explained he wanted their voices heard in his music.

“When you hire Marina Albero, let her sound like Marina Albero,” he said with a laudh.

Indeed, Daniel talked about how his song “Miles Around” was developed around a bass groove created by Marina Christopher and fleshed out by Heather Thomas’ funk-rock drumbeat. Each different trio on the album brings their own personalities to Daniel’s soulful style.

Improvising is the key to jazz, Daniel said.

“I also like to have it have a place in the song as well. I want to leave space for those magical moments to happen.”

You’ll hear many magical moments in this studio session, from the backing trio and the stellar trombone playing of David Marriott. A talented composer and band leader in his own right, Marriott filled out harmonies to Daniel’s saxophone as well as taking a few outstanding solos.

Look for another lineup from Daniel's album, including organist Joe Doria, for a release party at the Olympia Jazz Central at the Eagles Hall, July 7.

Peter Daniel’s new album Quartets and his quintet studio session may not always add up numerically, but the spirit of collaboration and his salute to his musician friends balances perfectly.

Musicians:

• Peter Daniel - saxophones
• David Marriott - trombone
• Marina Albero - keyboards
• Marina Christopher - bass
• Heather Thomas - drums

Songs:

1. Take a Little Chance
2. Desperate Waltz
3. Pedro Azul
   

Over the past five years, singer Jacqueline Tabor and pianist Marina Albero have become a dynamic musical duo around the Northwest. Their most recent collaboration honors their deep friendship and the music of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone.

Tabor and Albero became close during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, playing music together and also spending time in each other's daily lives. "We were definitely mental health buddies, and we've turned into family."

"We needed something to put all of our frustrations in," Tabor explained to KNKX Grooveyard host Stephanie Ann Johnson. They found it in the strength of two of American music's most resilient women.

In an exclusive KNKX studio session performance, Tabor and Albero spoke about the strength they've drawn from these jazz legends whose careers can be seen as a continuum of female empowerment through most of the 20th century.

From 1930 to 1959, Billie Holiday became the definitive voice of jazz, sharing the pain of her community through powerful songs like "Strange Fruit" and "God Bless the Child." Nina Simone's debut came in 1958 and her late 1960s songs "Mississippi Goddam" and "Young, Gifted and Black" established her legacy as an artist and activist. The two were undeniable forces for civil rights as songwriters and unapologetically powerful performers.

Tabor said that "this music has made me, personally, evolve as a human, definitely as a woman and damn sure as a Black woman. This music is still relevant today."

Joined by bassist Jonti Simon and drummer D'Vonne Lewis, Tabor and Albero opened with "Swing! Brother, Swing," a song about the power of music, transitioning into the Holiday-penned heartbreak ballad "Don't Explain." The session peaked with a medley of Gershwin classics favored by both singers that nearly brought the studio audience to tears.

Barcelona native Albero, now an American citizen, acknowledged that she wasn't born with an African American perspective. "I'm here in this country mainly to learn the 'Black music" that all of American music stems from," she shared.

Albero continued that her friendship with Tabor taught her not only about the struggle of Black women in America, but "also the family feeling that she taught me was something very close to the one I have in Spain."

In 2022, their Don't Explain Project won Earshot's Golden Ear award for NW Concert of the Year. In the last few months, Tabor and Albero have recorded songs from the Project for a crowd-funded release expected sometime in the near future.

Tabor and Albero also spoke with Johnson about the Project's evolution since its origins, how live and studio settings affect their performances, their connection to their fans and more.

Both of these musicians continue to grow and evolve. Tabor’s well-received All Shades of Blues album showed off a different side of the singer last winter, while Albero moved south to join the remarkable jazz community of New Orleans last year.

Back together for several concerts this summer, Tabor and Albero’s musical and personal connection remains strong. All the better for their many Puget Sound area fans, who can see the Don’t Explain Project June 25 at the North City Bistro.

Musicians:

• Jacqueline Tabor - vocals
• Marina Albero - piano
• Jonti Siman - bass
• D'Vonne Lewis - drums

Songs:

1. Swing! Brother, Swing!
2. Don't Explain
3. My Man's Gone Now
4. I Loves You Porgy

For nearly a decade, the Seattle jazz fusion trio Duende Libre has been a ubiquitous presence on the Northwest music scene. But in this, their fourth KNKX studio session performance, the trio was celebrating music from their first new album in five years.

Joined by bassist Farko Dosumov and drummer/percussionist Jeff Busch, Duende Libre’s pianist Alex Chadsey told the KNKX studio audience that the new album Invocation was born in the isolation of the pandemic.

“During that time,” Chadsey shared, “we tapped into some of the universality, the vulnerability, and the resilience of the human spirit.” Invocation is also an homage to some of the mentors who made these three the musicians they are today.

Duende Libre began their session with “Song for Seales,” written for Chadsey’s mentor and Seattle jazz icon, pianist Marc Seales. Chadsey pointed to Seales’ encouragement and emphasis on the musical combination of silence and dynamics. The song explores that contrast over a soulful groove from Dosumov and Busch.

The beautiful ballad “Eulogy” is dedicated to Charles “Charley” Johnston, Chadsey’s friend and teacher who passed suddenly in 2023. Chadsey said that composing and performing this piece continues to be “a critical part of learning to accept this huge loss.”

The first single from Invocation is the tribute to piano legend Ahmad Jamal. “Ahmadish” was inspired by Jamal’s 1970 album The Awakening, discovered by Chadsey as a college student in Michigan. Later realizing the many samples hip-hop artists had pulled from the album, Chadsey explained that the fresh perspective led him to explore Duende Libre’s interpretation of Jamal’s mid-career masterpiece.

“Ahmadish” is driven by Busch’s up-tempo high-hat rhythm and Dosumov’s thickly grooving bass lines, Chadsey’s electric keyboard lines dance over the beat before bringing the trio to a mid-tempo establishment of the song’s catchy theme. Fiery solos from each musician follow, a fine testament to Jamal’s legacy.

A fun accompaniment to the “Ahmadish” single is a video Duende Libre produced to reach a wider audience. The band, in white shirts and suspenders, are joined in the video by juggler Stephen O’Bent.

“He’s also a talented multi-instrumentalist,” Chadsey shared. “He told me that the tempo of the song lends itself really well to juggling!”

The influence of global musical elements from Cuba, Brazil, West Africa and Eastern Europe still inform the music of Duende Libre. Invocation, in acknowledging their own ancestors, actually solidifies their own sound as one of Seattle’s signature bands.

Duende Libre will welcome special guests, perhaps even a juggler, at the Invocation release party June 7 at the Triple Door in Seattle. Chadsey, Dosumov and Busch will also fill their schedule playing outside of Duende Libre, with their many musician friends around the Northwest and beyond.

With their many live performances in recent years, Duende Libre have made the five-year-wait for Invocation easier to bear. This studio session performance shows, it was clearly worth the wait.

Musicians:

• Alex Chadsey - piano/keyboards
• Farko Dosumov - bass
• Jeff Busch - drums/percussion

Songs:

1. Song for Seales
2. Eulogy
3. Ahmadish

The art of musical improvisation is most commonly a conversation between artists. During a series of concerts at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, pianist Joey Alexander and trumpeter Theo Croker made the most of their meeting on stage and also did some collaborating in the KNKX studios.

Both have three Grammy nominations for their recordings as bandleaders. Croker augmented Alexander’s trio on half of the pianist’s 2023 album Continuance, but this live engagement in Seattle was a special occasion.

The mix of these two bandleaders’ styles, Alexander in mostly acoustic settings and Croker in more modern electronic music, finds a common connection in the groove. From that rhythmic bond, expertly provided by bassist Kris Funn and drummer Jonathan Barber, the band creates something greater than the sum of its parts.

Alexander explained that collaboration is a learning opportunity, bringing something new to his own artistic perspective. He described Croker as bringing positive energy.

“Assuring but also challenging at the same time. It’s fun!”

Croker agreed, saying that from “history, politics, etcetera… somebody else’s perspective can teach you more than your own."

"To play with someone twenty years younger than me,” Croker laughed, “I can explore how his mind works musically. I’m still exploring it.”

Also exploring Alexander’s artistic perspective was bassist Funn, who spent a few minutes before the session performance next to the pianist on his bench playing a few chords and talking about how they think about improvisation.

“We play these songs so much, we get a little bored and we start (musically) ‘jumping off of bridges." Funn explained. "So, I was trying to figure out when he jumps, what perspective he’s jumping with, and now I have some new avenues to go down.”

Along with the sensitively propulsive drumming of Barber, these four artists further developed the musical communication that in-the-moment collaboration brings. More than that, the fun Croker has performing with Alexander’s trio was contagious and immediately felt by the studio audience.

Listen for yourself to a pair of Alexander’s bright, challenging compositions and an innovative performance of the standard “My Funny Valentine.” This fun is to be shared by all.

Musicians:

• Joey Alexander - piano
• Theo Croker - trumpet
• Kris Funn - bass
• Jonathan Barber - drums

Songs:

1. Blue (Joey Alexander)
2. My Funny Valentine (Rodgers/Hart)
3. Why Don't We (Joey Alexander)