Darrell Grant

I have been listening to a very interesting album: pianist Darrell Grant's Truth and Reconciliation. The theme of the album is the idea of civil rights, and it includes a lot of vocal readings from great civil rights speeches. I am going to have to do a post on jazz and the civil rights movement. But just now let me say that Grant's playing and arrangements are quite compelling. I am not quite sure whether the sparkling, and frankly happy tone of his piano is well suited to the theme. But I don't care. This album is worth exploring. Here is the All Music Review:

Working with guitarists Bill Frisell and Adam Rogers, saxophonist Steve Wilson, vibist Joe Locke, drummer Brian Blade, and bassist John Patitucci, Grant balances trio, quartet, and quintet settings with a handful of vocal pieces (Grant sounds a bit like a slightly cautious Keb' Mo' when he sings, which is actually kind of endearing) into a loosely constructed suite that rose out of Grant's close study of the cultural and political struggles in South Africa. Adding to the recurrent themes of hope and freedom that emerge here are several spoken word samples from the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, John Kennedy, and Franklin D. Roosevelt that are carefully woven into the sequence at key points.

Here is a sample:

Darrell Grant/This Resolution of Love/Truth and Reconciliation