The premier acid jazz group Incognito and its founder Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick are essentially one and the same, but that inseparable identity doesn’t keep Bluey from making music under his own name. In fact, the second such Bluey album is poised for release on April 28,2015.
Life Between The Notes (Shanachie Entertainment) gives the veteran guitarist, composer and vocalist a chance to pursue different avenues in music, but fans of Incognito won’t feel left out because his commitment to soul-drenched jazz remains firm with his solo work.
For “Saints and Sinners,” an advance track from Life, Bluey worked with keyboardist JD73 (Dan Goldman), and JD73’s crisp Rhodes establishes the svelte groove that draws equally from the wells of neo-soul and 70s fusion jazz. Bluey himself sings the song, calling for a world with more ‘peace and love,’ and almost as if to counter critics who find such goals too idealistic and not realistic, Bluey quotes from the lyrics of everyone from Roy Ayers to D’Angelo, from Jill Scott to Bill Withers, and from Joni Mitchell to Pharaoh Sanders. In other words, he’s hardly alone in his hopes and aspirations for mankind.
And besides the heady message, “Saints and Sinners” is constructed from a righteous little riff. Like all successful message songs, the lyrics alone don’t get the point across: the music delivers, too.
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Very nice! I like Incognito, so I’ll have to check this out.