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J Town Suite

Shawn Maxwell

Label: Cora Street Records
Released: 2023
Duration: 00:43:00
Views: 1,034

Tracks

Steelmen March; Fires or Rings in the Back; Herald's News; In the Shadow of Statesville; Jerry; Tap, Keg & Tavern; Hickory Street; Bridge Closed; Ghost Mall on Jefferson.

Personnel

Additional Personnel / Information

Shawn Maxwell: soprano saxophone, flute; Collin Clauson: Fender Rhodes.

Album Description

Joliet, Joliet – wherefore art thou? About 35 miles southwest of Chicago, if we’re speaking prosaically; from a more poetic standpoint, Joliet – Illinois’ third largest city – sits at the crossroads of 20th-century industry and 21st-century NASCAR. It’s where Shawn Maxwell was born and raised, where he went to school and then to Joliet Junior College (the nation’s first public community college). It’s the source of his origin story, and as with anyone’s hometown, it maintains an indelible hold on his memories: recollections of family and friends, first music lessons and high-school jobs.

Maxwell does have fond memories of his hometown, and he wanted to honor those. But he also had no desire to sling rainbows or slather bluebirds onto the unvarnished truth. He wanted to compose a gritty aural documentary of a place that has problems, but which also shaped his youth, gave him a direction, and led to his career. Joliet was and is working-class, unglamorous, and economically depressed (which makes it more the norm in American life than we might wish to acknowledge). But the fact that it can still command his grudging affection tells us something about the power of memory, and a great deal about Maxwell in particular.

“I wear the city’s problems on my sleeve as a badge of honor,” he concludes. “There’s a certain attitude of: Yeah, I'm from Joliet. Yeah, I went to that high school; yeah, I saw that massive gang fight and got out of there OK. It’s as if to say: Hey, this is what I've gone through, and maybe this is why I am the way I am – and hey, it's cool.” - Neil Tesser