Gregory Groover Jr. Sextet - Lovabye - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Old Knew is Gregory Groover, Jr's follow-up to his 2024 Criss Cross debut, Lovabye, on which - in the exalted company of Joel Ross, Aaron Parks, Vicente Archer and Marcus Gilmore - he projected his soulful, reflective tenor saxophone voice throughout an 11-track recital of, as Groover puts it, original Inchlove songs and songs of people I love.Inch On Old Knew, Groover, 32, addresses similarly inspired repertoire from a different angle, eliciting collective kineticism and creative spirit from a pan-generational A-list quintet, comprising Ross, the nonpareil 30-year-old vibraphonist; Paul Cornish, the 20-something pianist; and the glorious drummer Kendrick Scott and bass provocateur Harish Raghavan, both 40-something. Total CD time 53 49 min

Barce / Eulalia Sole - Spanish Composers of Today [COMPACT DISCS] date 05/01/2014

Gregory Groover's Criss Cross debut, recorded on the Boston born-and-bred tenor saxophonist's thirtieth birthday, is a tour de force. Joined by a bespoke sextet of his favorite players, all New York-based, Groover presents a recital of 11 original tone-parallels to family and friends, his intentions anticipated, illuminated and fulfilled by his gifted bandmates. Lovabye follows Groover's formidable first full-length album, Negro Spiritual Songbook, Vol. 2 (The Message), performed by his excellent Boston band in quartet or quintet configurations, contains Groover's arrangements of, as he then wrote, InchBlack America's praise music through jazz's evolving language to produce a radical theology that connects you to a higher power, Inch. Recorded in August 2019, it was released two years later, as society unwound from the Covid-19 pandemic. During the lockdown, Groover had generated a group of Inchlove songs and songs of people I love.Inch In spring 2023, he brought this music to Walter Smith III, who Groover had idolized as a teenager, and is now his friend and colleague at Berklee School of Music, their mutual alma mater, where Groover serves as Assistant Chair of the Ensemble Department. InchI told Walter I'd like to play with some of my other heroes and peers, Inch Groover recalls. InchHe said, 'What's stopping you? The music is there.' Luckily for me, everyone who I wanted to record with was available and happy to do it.Inch The Album was recorded August 16, 2023 at the GSI Studios, NYC. Producer Walter Smith III. Recording engineer Chris Allen. Sound engineer Mike Marciano did the mixing and mastering at Systems Two in NYC. Photography by Saito Ogata. 180 gram in gatefold jacket.