Harrison, Joel - Mother Stump
SKU
Rune 390
"…drags American roots out of the campfire singalong into the solar system." – Village Voice
"Add Joel Harrison to Metheny and Frisell as guitarist/ composers who have created a new blueprint for jazz." -– New Orleans Times Picayune
"Joel Harrison may well be the best unknown guitarist in America...a unique and powerful voice for post modern guitar, a heavy improvisational influence embracing a myriad of styles.... Harrison is a master of pedals, effects and assorted other six string pyrotechnics but he utilizes this electronic aids to enhance the texture and stretch the harmonic base of each tune... The covers are inventive yet authentic while the originals are dynamic and cutting edge....Joel Harrison and Mother Stump may well be the surprise release for 2014. A genre crushing triumph!" – CriticalJazz
Guitarist/composer Joel Harrison in the past has melded influences from jazz, classical, country, rock, and world music into a individual compositional statement. On Mother Stump, Harrison explores his past growing up in 1960's and 1970's Washington D.C., with its hugely inclusive and wide-ranging music offerings.
Because D.C. is neither a purely Southern nor purely Northern city and, with its mix of long-time residents along with transients from everywhere, traditional and old-time music meets sounds from all over the rest of the country and all over the rest of the world.
"Washington D.C. was quite a segregated place in the 1960s and ’70s, and yet the musicians were inclusive and open in their tastes", Harrison recalls. A plethora of genres were represented around town. One could hear bluegrass, soul, jazz, and funk. Blues was a pervasive force there and there was a strong folk scene, left over from musicians like Jorma Kaukonen and John Fahey, who had moved away from DC not so long ago. Psychedelic rock was still a force, and its progeny, art rock and progressive rock was beginning to blossom.
"It was an amazing time in which to come of age musically. Minds were open, blueprints were being created, invention was everywhere, and yet strong tradition anchored the experimentation. You'd go way beyond the borders, but there was still that tangle of roots that stretched beneath and across the town.
Unlike a lot of my CDs, the focus here is on my playing and not so much on my writing and arranging. It’s a mixture of jazz, rock, Americana, and soul music, with tunes by Luther Vandross, Buddy Miller, Al Kooper, Leonard Cohen, George Russell, Paul Motian, a traditional spiritual and a couple of my pieces. It’s a nod to my formative years, my roots as a guitarist in Washington D.C., performed on six old guitars and two old amps. It’s a lot of history that I’m trying to make new." – Joel Harrison
This exciting album of blazing guitar Americana jazz features
Joel Harrison: guitar
Michael Bates: bass
Jeremy Clemons: drums
Glenn Patscha: Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3, Wurlitzer piano.
- LabelCuneiform
- UPC045775039022