GRAMMY-winning composer/trumpet player/multi-instrumentalist Darren Barrett is in the midst of a surge of boundless creativity, announcing today the release of two albums simultaneously on July 12th: The Get Down 4 Real: Step Step Steppin’; and dB-ish: The Path To Our Truth, both via his own dB Studios.
Picking up where Bitches Brew and Weather Report’s self-titled debut left off, dB-ish: The Path To Our Truth forges a path with effects pedals on his trumpet and synthesizers, abstraction with liquid playing.
On The Get Down 4 Real: Step Step Steppin’, Barrett makes subtle but effective use of effects pedals on his trumpet, including delay and wah wah. The album’s first single “The Get Down 4 Real” would make the J.B.’s proud. “The Clav Is In Order” conjures Stevie Wonder. “Step Step Steppin’” would be at home projecting out across a large jazz festival. “DSYWJ” starts from Bill Withers territory and extrapolates from there. “We Out No Doubt” finds Barrett informed by hip-hop sounds. The album features an incredible support cast: keyboardist Santiago Bosch (Donald Harrison, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Esperanza Spalding); Warren Pettey, who has performed at Newport Jazz Festival, on keys; guitar master Jeffrey Lockhart (Beyoncé, Dido); Clara Moser, who has been featured by Bass Musician Magazine, along with Youngchae Jeong and Paul Reinhold on bass; drummer Julian Miltenberger; and Judy Soberanes on percussion on “Flow Against the Flow.”
Today, Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of the standout track “The Clav Is In Order.” The track finds Barrett’s band laying down some serious funkified sounds on the song’s namesake instrument. He complements this with his trumpet playing, which eases into the groove as the band propels the song into a steady march of keys, bass, and beats. Barrett describes this tune and others on the album as “music based on beats from the 1970s inspired by James Brown. It is music that is rooted in the blues. I call it ‘Get Down Music,’ music to make you dance and feel good.” Indeed, this is a jazz player cutting loose as he sprawls out and allows the music take him into fun terrain that includes some Miles Davis-esque psych-funk trumpet flourishes. Stretching to nearly ten minutes in length, this tune includes some impressive solo bust-outs that seemingly hit out of nowhere and lay strictly within the groove.
LISTEN:
