Music Review: Darren English - "Imagine Nation"

This article was first published at Blogcritics.

Darren English, a young trumpeter from Cape Town, South Africa now living in Atlanta, makes his recording debut with the March release of Imagine Nation. Fronting a rhythm section featuring Kenny Banks, Jr. on piano, Billy Thornton on bass and Chris Burroughs on drums along with guest shots on selected tracks by vocalist Carmen Bradford, tenor sax player Greg Tardy and trumpeters Russell Gunn and Joe Gransden, he runs through a 10-piece set highlighted by an original three-part suite celebrating the life of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid.

The three tunes in the suite are the album’s opening title piece, the punning “Imagine Nation” and “Pledge for Peace” (which includes spoken word sections from Mandela) and “The Birth” which follow later in the set. Since he calls this a suite, I would normally expect the three elements to follow each other. Why, English chose to separate them, I have no idea. Indeed, they seem to play just as reasonably as separate pieces. There is one other original composition, a tribute to Russell Gunn leader of the Krunk Jazz Orkestra which English calls “Bullet in the Gunn.” English is a member of the Gunn orchestra and plays on their recent release The Sirius Mystery.

The rest of the album is made up of well-known standards giving the trumpeter the opportunity to showcase his own original steps down well-worn paths. So for example when he plays the opening melody of the venerable “Body and Soul” without his mouthpiece, he seems to be serving notice of something new in contrast to the lovely tones that follow with the reintroduction of the mouthpiece. Whether it works or not is open to question.

He does a super job on the other hand working with Gunn and Gransden on an exciting version of the old Charlie Barnet showpiece “Cherokee” and his take on the Dizzy Gillespie classic “Bebop” is a winner as well. Bradford does a fetching vocal on “What a Little Moonlight Can Do (To You)” and they work elegantly together on “Skylark.”

If his debut is any indication, both as composer and performer, Darren English is a force to be reckoned with. 

Graphic Bios in Time for Black History Month

This article was first published at Technorati.

With Black History Month set to begin in February, parents interested in educational material for their children may want to take a look at two new publications in the Campfire Graphic Biography series.  Nelson Mandela: The Unconquerable Soul and Muhammad Ali: The King of the Ring, both written by Lewis Helfand, are aimed at the older child.  They focus on the biographical narrative to illustrate the importance of the men as dynamic leaders in the struggles of their people for equality and dignity as well as their contributions to the world community.  Both men are seen as inspirational figures. 

Nelson Mandela, illustrated by Sankha Banerjee, begins in 1985 with the future South African President in Pollsmoor Prison.  It then goes back to his birth in 1918 where he was given a name we are told is translated as "troublemaker."  It goes on to highlight his early life, his political involvement with the ANC, his years in prison, and his role in shaping the new society after his release and the end of apartheid. Unlike most Campfire editions, ninety percent of this book is in black and white.  It is only at the end when apartheid has been defeated that the story bursts out in color.

The Muhammad Ali biography, illustrated by Lalit Kumar Sharma, also begins in medias res, with the young Cassius Clay set to fight Cory Baker in 1958, before taking readers back to the boxer's childhood in Louisville, Kentucky.  It talks about his early career and explains how he was encouraged to adopt a gimmick—predicting the round he would knock out his opponent—to capture public attention.  It describes his embrace of the Nation of Islam, his championship fights, his refusal to be inducted into the army, and the stripping of his title.  It details his comeback and his public service throughout the world after retiring from the ring, ending with his award of the Presidential Medal of Honor.

Both editions include posters which can be detached from the book.  The Ali biography has an interesting feature on making graphic novels, and an appendix discussing the records some of the other boxers Ali fought and well as his daughter.  The Mandela biography's appendix is a glossary and a reprint of William Ernest Henley's "Invictus," a poem that Mandela looked to for strength during his darkest periods.