****RINGER OF THE WEEK****Micah Graves: Pawns

Guys like keyboardist/composer Micah Graves drive me crazy. Here’s a great album, full of energy and excitement, yet there’s no web site in which to tell you where to get it, if they go on  tour. Who’s this guy’s  manager?

Anyway, if you can find it, check this album out. Graves plays keys, Rhodes and synth with a core team of Zach Guise/b, Zach Fischer/g, Julian Miltenberger/dr, Jesseh Furha-Ali/ts and a mix/match team of Dick Oatts/as, Robby Cruz/tp, Zoe Lynch/v, Danielle Dougherty-Shafiz Hicks/voc. The vocals are used together  in a fascinating way, lovely on the kinetic “Spirit” with the tenor saxist, and pepper over Guise’s lines on “Lost In Time In Central Square”. Furha-Ali gives a warm intro leading into Dougherty on the driving “Inner Beast” while the vocalist is   thoughtful on “When We Fall”. As a unit, the band is amazingly intricate and propulsive, riding the hairpin turn like a Formula 1 unit on “Pawns” with Graves directing traffic like a Neopolitan policeman. This band reminds me of what Weather Report used to sound like when it still had vision and youth-check this band out and look for them if they find a manager that can get them on the road.

https://micahgraves.bandcamp.com/album/not-for-the-ordinary-pawns

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