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Lewis Jordan :: More Travels of a Zen Baptist by Ron Sagye La Rue The title "More travels of a Zen Baptist" would lead one to thinking that something came before... and you would be right. In 1986,Lewis Jordan's journey--The Travels of A Zen Baptist begun--accomplished bassist, Mark Izu was his only musical companion. On that long unavailable album they actually did travel physically to record in different European locations and America. Since that time Jordan has done a lot of playing--and not much recording. So,its good that a new CD is on the market. This self- produced and issued is as much about poetry as music. Seven of the fourteen tracks have Jordan's poetry and he's accompanied by six other artists, on various numbers. Jen Shyu on voice and violin(an interesting artist--with her own CD); John-Carlos Perea,electric bass; Jimmy Biala, percussion; Charles Alston,recitation, Joe Mailhot, slide guitar and Akinyele Sadiq, percussion. Besides Jordan's own compositions and poetry there is a John Colrane classic "Lonnie's Lament" 6:22 minutes worth. For this writer its always interesting when a musician tackles, a well-know composition by the original composer who made it famous. Furthermore playing it on an instrument in the same (Coltrane played it on tenor) family. Jordan also performs works by the nineteenth century Afro-American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar and avant- garde saxophonist Albert Ayler"Ghosts". There is some nice music on this CD and it is Jordan's personal journey--I hope his next CD will have more of his Alto sax playing on it. I've seen him live focusing on his alto and he can smoke! published 16.04.2005© 2005 jazz news :: home page

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