Lured Jocelyn Ambrose

Stanley Kubrick made his own musical choices for his films, many of them existing pieces that were forever redefined by their use. (Remember "Thus Spake Zarathustra" in 2001: A Space Odyssey?) For his final work, Eyes Wide Shut, he employed composer Jocelyn Pook to compose some evocative string-filled music (including one track, "Masked Ball," eerily featuring backwards vocals), but his score also included works by Liszt and Shostakovich, syrupy versions of "When I Fall in Love," "If I Had You," and "Strangers in the Night," a jazzy rendition of "Blame It on My Youth" by Brad Mehldau, Chris Isaak's cross between John Lee Hooker and Roy Orbison on his 1995 song "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing," and, opening and closing the disc, a simple but intense solo piano piece by Gyogy Ligeti, whose work also had been used in 2001 and another Kubrick film, The Shining. The result was an eclectic soundtrack album that primarily was of interest to fans of the film who were in need of an aural souvenir.

Jocelyn B. Smith was born in Queens, New York in 1960. Her parents recognized her passion for music early and Jocelyn started classical piano lessons at the age of five. Through her classical training she got more and more interested in 'Soul' music. So in the early 1980's Jocelyn started performing and touring with artists such as ELO, James Brown, Ellen Foley, Rick James and many others.

“Playing solo has just been something that’s been in the back of my head,” he says. The appeal, he adds, is the beauty that lives in sitting with oneself — and that being enough.” “I think when you have a lot of technique and you can play almost everything that’s in your head, it’s hard to commit to beauty. It’s hard to not do the flashy stuff,” says Akinmusire. “So I wanted to do a solo project that is just about sitting in the center of the beauty. The center of self, which is, for me, beauty.”

“Playing solo has just been something that’s been in the back of my head,” he says. The appeal, he adds, is the beauty that lives in sitting with oneself — and that being enough.” “I think when you have a lot of technique and you can play almost everything that’s in your head, it’s hard to commit to beauty. It’s hard to not do the flashy stuff,” says Akinmusire. “So I wanted to do a solo project that is just about sitting in the center of the beauty. The center of self, which is, for me, beauty.”

Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire has proven himself an artist of rare ability and wide-ranging aesthetic interests. Now with his bold new double-album A Rift in Decorum: Live at the Village Vanguard, Akinmusire reached a new pinnacle as he and his quartet - Sam Harris (piano), Harish Raghavan (bass) & Justin Brown (drums) - join a distinguished strata of jazz artists who've made live recordings in the hallowed New York City venue.

With 10 albums already under her own label BLONDELL PRODUCTIONS, Jocelyn felt the creative pause nearing. After a concert appearance as opener for Bobby McFerrin in 2004, Jocelyn woodshedded for 1 1/2 years. A creative quietness indeed was the engine that fueled her latest release in Nov 2006: EXPRESSIONZZ (live CD & DVD), an experience in the higher spritual quality of music, texted with poems from the "book of psalms" taken from the Bible. It is the much debated topic of tradion applied to the person and her/his life today.