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I Feel So Glad

Eli Yamin

Label: Yamin Music LLC
Released: 2011
Duration: 00:54:01
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Tracks

Hound Dog I Feel So Glad I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free Fishin’ Blues A Healing Song After Hours Rwandan Child Night Time John Henry Trouble of the World Rabo De Nube Shake Sugaree

Personnel

Album Description

"This is no ordinary blues band,” former Living Blues magazine editor Scott Barretta declares in his liner notes to 'I Feel So Glad', the debut recording by the Eli Yamin Blues Band. “There’s no denying that this is a unique ensemble,” he rightly says of the group led by pianist/vocalist-composer/arranger Eli Yamin, which features Grammy© nominated lead singer Kate McGarry, the master tuba player Bob Stewart and multitalented drummer LaFrae Sci. Yamin, well known for his work as a jazz pianist, having played in such prestigious venues as Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall and the Obama White House, has toured the globe with the band as a cultural ambassadors with the Rhythm Road joint venture of Jazz at Lincoln Center (where he heads the organization’s Middle School Jazz Academy) and the U.S. State Department, playing in some of the world’s most remote corners, spreading the gospel of jazz and blues in places where the music had been previously “unforeheard.”

Yamin, blues pedigree includes academic studies with 'Blues People' author Amiri Baraka, a fertile period as pianist with Walter Perkins (former drummer with Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf) in New York’s Skylark club and a two year tenure with Illinois Jacquet, the Texas tenor whose every note was steeped in the blues. Kate McGarry possesses a formidable voice with a genuine feel for the music that was developed under the tutelage of Gospel Music scholar Dr. Horace Boyer and bluesman saxophonist Archie Shepp.

The versatile Bob Stewart, famed for his work with a vast array of jazz artists, from Arthur Blythe to Carla Bley, spent the early part of his career in the band of modern blues pioneer Taj Mahal. Filling out the group, LaFrae Sci, Yamin’s educator colleague at Jazz at Lincoln Center, has played with blues veterans Pinetop Perkins and Robert Lockwood, Jr., is a member of the Black Rock Coalition and the group the Daughters of Nina Simone. The four come together to create a distinctive idiosyncratic sound that grows out of the shared philosophy that the blues has the power to heal.

The uniqueness of the Eli Yamin Blues Band’s sound is clearly evident from the first notes of the opening track, the classic Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller blues that launched the career of Elvis Presley and the onset of rock and roll. Long familiar with the work from his youth — when Presley was an early gateway to the blues – and Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton’s original recording of the song, Yamin decided to pay tribute to the piece by doing something completely different with it. Slowing the tempo down to a “midnight creeper” crawl, his arrangement opens with Stewart’s ominous sounding solo tuba played over a slowly snapping fingers before McGarry’s sultry intonation of the lyric in a style reminiscent of Peggy Lee’s “Fever,” before piano and drums join in with a heaping helping of the blues.

LaFrae Sci introduced Texas bluesman Hop Wilson’s “I Feel So Glad,” to the band. The song’s festive message fits perfectly into Yamin’s philosophy that the blues “is about diving into the sadness or the frustration or the loss to get back to a place of joy,” earning its place as the date’s title track The band has an appropriately rockin’ good time on this one, with Yamin pounding out some rollicking hony tonk piano, while McGarry wails over Stewart and Sci’s infectious rhythms with an genuinely soulful sound that recalls a young Aretha Franklin.

Billy Taylor’s powerful “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free,” popularized by Nina Simone as one of the most positive anthems of the AfroAmerican civil rights movement, is given a fresh treatment in this Yamin arrangement that combines elements of New Orleans and gospel music. Stewart sets the mood with a briskly marching processional line, McGarry singing solitarily over the tuba and Sci’s deliberate two beat rhythm for the emotional introductory reading of the lyric, before Yamin comes in playing a churchy New Orleans styled piano as the drummer launches into a swinging shuffle, that culminates in a “signifying melody section” with the band’s voices coming together in as a gospel choir, hands clapping and feet stomping in the black church tradition. Telephoned during the session, shortly before his death, Dr. Taylor conveyed his approval for the rendition of his immortal song and it is with both joy and sadness that Yamin dedicates the CD to his friend and mentor’s memory.

The traditional “Fishin’ Blues” has long been a favorite of Yamin’s, since first hearing the song performed by the great Taj Mahal. His arrangement here maintains the country feel of Mahal’s classic version, but is given a New Orleanean twist, with Stewart’s tubas (overdubbed several times for a full parade sound) played over Sci’s big bass drum. Eli sings the sexually suggestive lyric with a convincing seductive charm.

“A Healing Song” (from Yamin’s theatrical jazz work A Message From Saturn), is updated here. McGarry sings Eli’s and collaborator Clifford Carlson’s words – “ It’s not just a song for me/Take a breath and you will see/Why the blues has the power to be/A healing song, a healing song” -- with touching emotion. More jazz than blues, the song nevertheless pointedly describes the band’s philosophy of the genre while giving each member the opportunity to stretch out musically.

Avery Parrish’s “After Hours” is arguably the bluesiest song in the whole jazz repertory. A staple of his sets with Walter Perkins at the Skylark, Yamin plays the chestnut with the slow burn of a seasoned veteran, on top of Stewart and Sci’s deep groove.

“Rwandan Child,” with moving words and music by Yamin, was inspired by a poignant photo of a world weary young girl accompanying a New York Times article on the genocide in Rwanda. McGarry sings stirringly the powerful lyric that is an emotional call for action to end the terrible injustices of the world.

Stewart opens “Night Time” unaccompanied, quoting Louis Armstrong’s “West End Blues” setting things up for Yamin who joins in playing the Roosevelt Sykes-Leroy Carr piano blues with Sci laying down an easy galloping beat before McGarry comes in singing the Ray Charles popularized words in a powerfully rooted tone that once again recalls the young Aretha.

Yamin recalls being put to bed by his parents as a child listening to Josh White’s version” John Henry.” Eli sings the introductory verse over Sci’s spare sock cymbal, with Stewart’s vocal grunts marking the “chain gang” time, before being joined by McGarry, whose harmony fills the sound out boldly, as Stewart’s pulsing tuba and Sci’s ringing tambourine push the tempo gallantly, working up to a dramatic close.

The touching “Trouble of the World”, the stirring spiritual long associated with Mahalia Jackson is transformed into a minor blues in Yamin’s most original arrangement. The pianist reveals his affection for McCoy Tyner here, as Sci opens up, showing that she has as much power as taste, with Tyner alumnus Stewart lays down a wide beat, while McGarry sings with a wide vocal and emotional range that marks her as one of the best jazz vocalists of her generation.

“Rabo de Nube,” a favorite of Yamin’s since he first heard it performed by Charlie Haden on the bassist’s Liberation Music Orchestra Dream Keeper date, it features Eli’s sensitive piano with McGarry singing the moving Silvio Rodriguez Spanish language lyric that speaks of the desire for a great hurricane to visit the land and sweep away all of the world’s ugliness, leaving it people with hope and beauty. Sung on tour for earthquake victims in Chile to great response it is another one of the band’s healing songs.

The closing “Shake Sugaree” by Elizabeth Cotton is another song from Yamin’s youth. The singer/pianist takes this tale of woe by himself for the most part, with McGarry joining in with some touching harmonies on this version that includes some clever additional lyrics by Eli (pawned my records/pawned my cd’s/pawned everything/even my dog who has fleas) updating this enduring folk song.

Yamin calls the blues “this ancient and modern music ... created in the darkest hour of human suffering and now embraced all over the world.” He goes on, “The blues makes us realize our common humanity. May we heed its message ...” It’s the message that the Eli Yamin Blues Band courageously delivers to a planet that needs it urgently.

credits

released April 1, 2011

Producer: Eli Yamin
Associate Producers: Jim Anderson, Lorraine Yamin
Recording and Mixing Engineer: Jim Anderson
Assistant Engineer: Fernando Lodeiro
Mastered by Alan Silverman at Arf! Productions
Recorded at Avatar Studios in NYC on June 20 & 21, 2010
Mixed July 2, 2010
Cover Illustration: Norn Custon
Liner notes: Scott Barretta

Thanks to:
Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education. Peg Schuler-Armstrong, Howard Johnson, Becca Pulliam, Dorthaan Kirk, WBGO and Sirius XM, The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad team at Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York-Monak Chhhun, Shana Bromberg, Alexis Ortiz, Susan John, The U.S. Department of State in Washington-Bob Keefe, Columbia Barrosse, and around the globe, Chile-Angela Emerson, Sandra Perroni, Romanie-Ruxandra Todiras, Greece-Markella Karagiorga, Chris Mokou,, Brazil-Edvaldo Amorim, Conrado Blasi, Albania-Bix Aliu, Mirela Cupi, Matilda Vangjeli, Montenegro-Slavica Rosic, Maja Popovic, Kirk Immamura, Ken Druker, Todd Barkan, Chanell Crichlow and Curtis Stewart.

Thanks in loving memory to Bross Townsend, Walter Perkins, and Gwen Cleveland

Special Thanks to: LaFrae, Bob, Kate, Jim, Cliff, Jayme, Lorraine, Manika and everyone in the audience who stomps, sings, and claps their hands with us.

(p)&(c) 2011 by Yamin Music LLC, New York City, U.S.A. All rights reserved.