Drummer Kenneth Brown mixes modern soul with vintage post bop on this album with Russell/Gunn/tp, Greg Tardy/ts-cl, Will Boyd/ss, Jamel Mitchel/ts, Darryl Hall/b, Taber Gable/p-key and Candace Ivory/voc, Kenny Springs/voc, Rhea Sunshine/spoken word, and Keith Brown/vocoder-key. The result is a gumbo of classic and 21th Century sounds that feel good to heart and feet.
Springs has a classic soulful baritone not unlike Gregory Porter as he glides over Hall’s electric bass on the hip hoppy take of “Save Your Love For Me” while his read on Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You” is a soul fest as Brown lays down an irresistible groove. Ivory has a sweet tone to her cheery voice, gliding with Boyd’s soprano on the R&B ish “Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and joining with Rhea Sunshine’s upbeat message and rich horns on “Pieces of My Heart”. Tardy’s tenor wails over Brown’s relaxed pace of “Blues Interlude” and joins with Mitchell on the Jazz Messengers-inspired bopper A Place for Togetherness”. Gable mixes stride with Monk as the leader swings out the hip hop of “If You Can’t Hold On” while giving a rich intro to Mitchell and Boyd on the glowing “Full Circle”. Impressive impressions.