Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Felipe Salles: Tiyo's Songs Of Life
Felipe Salles: Tiyo's Songs Of Life
BySalah-El, a trained musician and professional saxophonist, wrote the songs in 2005 in response to a request from prison abolitionist Lois Ahrens who tried four times without success to have them recorded before contacting Salles after Salah-El died in prison in 2018. Salles agreed to perform the music but it wasn't until three years later, in September 2021, that he and the quartet were able to come together and make it happen. In weighing the result of their enterprise, the phrase "better late than never" springs immediately to mind.
The quartet is splendid, but no more so than Salah-El's picturesque themes, which capture the sound and spirit of jazz in the swinging '60s when Salah-El was a free man moonlighting as a saxophonist in R&B clubs in his native Pennsylvania. The Brazilian-born Salles is a clever and charming soloist, as is pianist Zaccai Curtis, while bassist Avery Sharpe and drummer Jonathan Barber leave no rhythmic stone unturned. Beyond that, these sunlit Songs of Life summon their inner idealism, lending the session an extra measure of passion.
Salah-El's cheerfulness is on display from the outset, as the quartet dances through his light-hearted "Toe Tappin' Tasty Blues," the first of several buoyant anthems saluting the pleasures of life. Others include "Steppin' Up," "12 in 5," "Life Long Friends" and "I'm Reaching Out." There are two blues-based themes, each of which has been combined with a second blues by Salles (who arranged everything): "Blues to Change Your ViewsOn Stage in a Cage" and "Blues for PabloBlues for Professor Zinn." "Pablo" was written for Paul Alan Smith, "Zinn" for Howard Zinn, "Friends" for Monty and Shelley Neill, "Steppin' Up" for Mecke Nagel. The album's lone ballad, "My Love Is Deep Inside," is dedicated to Ahrens.
If there is a lesson to be learned from Tiyo's Songs of Life it is that good music respects no boundaries and can spring forth from the most unlikely sources. Tiyo's body was imprisoned, not his soul. With his life's journey circumscribed by prison walls, he chose to celebrate life, entrusting a legacy of music to his heirs. Hats off to Salles and his teammates for enabling that legacy to live on.
Track Listing
Toe Tappin' Tastey; Blues to Change Your ViewStage In A Cage; Steppin' Up; Live A Life of Love; My Love Is Deep Inside; 12 In 5; Life Long Friends; Blues For PabloBlues For Professor Zinn; I'm Reaching Out.
Personnel
Album information
Title: Tiyo's Songs Of Life | Year Released: 2022 | Record Label: Tapestry Records
Comments
About Felipe Salles
Instrument: Saxophone
Related Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar To