Liquid Liquid

Adam Nitti has emerged as one of the cutting edge bassists and composers in the world of instrumental jazz and rock. Based out of Nashville, Tennessee, Adam currently has 4 CD’s released on his own Renaissance Man Records label.

Paul Ellis' Into The Liquid Unknown is as close to classic Berlin-school electronic music (i.e., Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze) as one can get without actually being from the Berlin school. The mechanical sounds of classic analog synthesizers and sequences pulsates on this recording from the beginning until the end. Fans of Steve Roach's early rhythmic- and sequencer-based work, such as Empetus and Now/Traveler, will verily enjoy Ellis' Into The Liquid Unknown. Ellis has crafted this recording into a long-running and cohesive work that drips of electronic music nostalgia, while at the same time creating a work that is truly representative of his own voice. This is a fine recording, and certainly a time-worthy disc for those who have a thirst for German electronic music that longs to be quenched.

After two solid albums on Motema, both of which earned Grammy nominations, singer and songwriter Gregory Porter makes his Blue Note debut with Liquid Spirit. A singer whose quicksilver vocal style refuses to be caged by either jazz, gospel, or R&B, his warm, inviting baritone utilizes them all when he wishes to. Using the musicians who appeared with him on 2012's Be Good – Yosuke Sato and Tivon Pennicott, saxophones; Chip Crawford, piano; Aaron James, bass, Emanuel Harrold, drums – Porter wrote or co-wrote 11 of these 14 songs. There is a dynamite reading of Billy Page's hard-grooving "The In Crowd" that highlights Porter's rhythmic phrasing. Though it's a soul tune at heart, he swings hard.