Weldon Irvine - Live at Dean Street - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Keyboardist, Composer and Arranger Weldon Irvine was perhaps InchtheInch unsung pioneer who brought jazz and funk/soul music together as one, which led to an American musical style later known as InchFusionInch. After moving to New York City, from Hampton, VA, he became musical director for, and co-writer with singer Nina Simone. After his stint with Simone, he returned to New York to become the leader of his own Jazz Big Band at Slugs, a band which featured every big name in the NYC Jazz scene at the time. Drawing from these experiences, he was able to combine Soul and Jazz musics in a funky new way and was able to document much of this experimental work by recording his own albums, which were then picked up by major labels. Much of this music influenced other musicians who went on to spread his musical message further, and with far more notoriety. Notable protégés included celebrated jazz-funk pioneers such as Larry Blackmon, Marcus Miller, Bernard Wright, Tom Brown, and Lenny White, among countless others. Irvine's recorded music also later became a wealthy resource for sampling material in Hip-Hop, and Irvine, rather than go against the grain of the Hip-Hop generation, celebrated and collaborated with it. This recording features Irvine in 1992, with a later version of his small combo, Weldon and The Kats. Here we can find Irvine not only playing keyboard and his small group arrangements of some of his favorite tunes by other writers, but some of his own recorded compositions, as well as a rare recording of his own rap vocals. Lead horn on this outing is InchMaster's Last StudentInch, (who also showcases here as a rap emcee)Joey InchG-ClefInch Cavaseno, who was at the time pioneering his own fusion of sorts, with his group Ghetto Philharmonic, at the time, bringing Jazz and Hip-Hop together for the first time. This mutuality formed a strong bond between Cavaseno an