I have expended a fair amount of energy over the last decade or so railing against the sad state of affairs in urban music. I’m pretty much done with that. I hope that some of you reading this will consider joining me in a concerted effort to discover, support and promote great music and just leave the other stuff to do whatever it does. It has been a gradual process for me over the last few months to slowly descend from my self-imposed ivory tower of longing for and clinging to what music was, not realizing (or maybe too stubborn) that if I really love music like I profess I need to concern myself a lot more with what music is and will be. All I really need to do to jumpstart my road to recovery is a change of musical zip codes as it were. I finally gave into the notion that I can’t change what Caesar is rendering anyhow. But I digress…
The good news is…[no Geico taglines, please] is that great music is being produced all the time.
To borrow from the great Louis Armstrong “There are only two kinds of music: good and bad….we play the good kind.” Well, add Saunders Sermons latest Classic Delight to your “good kind” purchases immediately. On Saunders’ website, a few clips from the record are available for a full preview. When I was first directed to his site: www.saunderssermons.com and I saw a cover of one of my favorite Ellington tunes (and Cosby Show moments) In A Sentimental Mood you know my conscious was saying “I gotta hear this!”. Well, you have to hear that cut [fantastic arrangement] and the other six tracks on the record as well. Sermons is currently on the road with Maxwell, holding down the trombone chair. I am definitely looking forward to keeping tabs on the career of this wonderful singer, songwriter, producer and the aforementioned trombonist. Please give this artist your support!
Ivan Orr is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and writer. A native of Charlottesville, Virginia Ivan was involved with the forming and nascent days of The Music Resource Center as its first Program Director. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Music, Ivan currently resides in Richmond, VA where he maintains an active performance and production schedule while serving as the Music Editor for Grown Folks Music, a position he has held since 2010.
thank you for this review of my artist. i have been working diligently to let the world know of the “black” Sinatra. We definitely appreciate the love and support.
The project is also now available on CDBaby