Visitors Visitors

Pianist Christian Li and guitarist Mike Bono have worked together in various capacities for almost a decade, making the release of an album co-led by the NYC-based duo a natural next step. A set of originals split between them, Visitors is thus both a celebration of the past and a harbinger of a presumably shared future. Helping Li and Bono realize their vision are violinist Alex Hargreaves, tenor saxophonist Dayna Stephens, upright bassist Jared Henderson, and drummer Lee Fish (Jimmy Macbride subs on two tracks). It’s worth noting that Hargreaves and Stephens appear separately on two and three, respectively, of the nine tracks, a detail of some ultimate significance to the impression left by the release.

Does evidence show that Native Americas residing in Utah a thousand years ago lived among dinosaurs, depicting those creatures in their rock art? Did some of those same ancient Americans also encounter visitors from other planets, painting images of space-suited aliens on canyon walls? Have archaeologists discovered evidence that members of the Lost Tribes of Israel visited ancient America, leaving their mark by engraving the Ten Commandments in Hebrew on rocks in New Mexico? And Ohio?