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Akua Dixon
With her sublime new album, Akua’s Dance, cellist Akua Dixon brings her sumptuous sound to the foreground on an array of material encompassing exquisite balladry, the music’s deepest roots in African and African-American culture, and instrumental pieces gleaned from Dixon’s opera-in-progress. Her label Akua’s Music will release the new CD on February 10.
“The music moves forward from where I was to where I’m going,” says Dixon, who notes that her last release, 2015’s critically hailed album Akua Dixon, was a string- centric recording that featured her “in a sectional way,” Dixon says. “On this one I’m out front with the rhythm section.”
Two rhythm sections, to be precise. Seven of the 10 tracks feature her stellar working quartet with guitarist Freddie Bryant, bassist Kenny Davis, and drummer Victor Lewis, with Dixon performing on the baritone violin. Built by the late luthier Carleen Hutchins, “it’s an instrument with the same tuning as my cello but a larger, deeper sound,” Dixon says. “I wanted some more power.”
On three pieces Lewis and Dixon (on cello) are joined by guitar ace Russell Malone and bass legend Ron Carter, with whom she first performed some four decades ago on Archie Shepp’s The Cry of My People (1972, Impulse!). But Akua had never had a chance to work with Carter playing her music, “so I reached out to him. If you don’t ask you don’t receive.” The album opens with Dixon’s “I Dream a Dream,” a piece she repurposed from her opera based on the life of 19th-century New Orleans voodoo queen Marie Laveau. “This dance rhythm has roots in many parts of Africa and wherever Africans were taken,” says Dixon. “Akua’s Dance” is another tune drawn from the opera, and its terpsichorean groove was inspired by Dixon’s gigs performing for dancers at African- American socials. “Dance was at the foundation of this music,” she says.
If the album has an emotional centerpiece it’s Abbey Lincoln’s “Throw It Away,” a song that’s become a bona fide standard in recent years. It’s the only piece featuring Dixon’s soulful vocals.
Closing the album are several pieces that embody the sacred and secular sides of African-American culture. Following a slinky version of Sade’s “The Sweetest Taboo,” Saturday night revelry gives way to Sunday morning revelation with a reverent rendition of the Negro spiritual “I’m Gonna Tell God All of My Troubles” that basks in the baritone violin’s voluptuous lower range. “I always like to include a spiritual,” Dixon says. “It’s an important part of my legacy.”
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Akua Dixon: Akua's Dance
by Chris M. Slawecki
My ears are not accustomed to hearing cello as the lead instrument in an ensemble, and so Akua's Dance by cellist and baritone violinist Akua Dixon took some getting used to. Dixon took quite a circuitous route to her third release: After graduating from New York's Fame High School of the Performing Arts, then studying at the Manhattan School of Music, one of her first jobs was in the pit band at the world-famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, ...
read moreAkua Dixon: Akua's Dance
by Hrayr Attarian
Lyricism and elegance are two words that come to mind while describing cellist Akua Dixon's third release under her own leadership, Akua's Dance. Two sessions comprise this engaging album on one of which Dixon plays, the rarely heard, baritone violin. The joyous ambience and the instrumentation, Dixon accompanied by guitar, bass and drums, are reminiscent of gypsy jazz. This is most apparent on the undulating If My Heart Could Speak To You" with guitarist Russell Malone engaging Dixon's ...
read moreAkua Dixon: Akua's Dance
by Dan Bilawsky
A visage of joyousness fills this album cover. Cellist Akua Dixon, with back arched and eyes closed, can't contain herself. A knowing smile washes over her face as she bathes in the light with cello in hand. It's a picture that perfectly illustrates the artist's place in the moment: Dixon has reached a point of supreme confidence, where percipience permeates her every move and guides her every turn. She doesn't miss a step on Akua's Dance. This ...
read moreAkua Dixon: Akua Dixon
by Hrayr Attarian
Virtuoso cellist Akua Dixon is one of the few exclusive practitioners of the instrument in jazz. Whether in a supportive role or leading her Quartette Indigo she deftly fuses intimate chamber decorum and spontaneous ingenuity for an elegant and vibrant style that is hard to pigeonhole. She spices her eponymous release with Latin passion and an understated, earthy groove making it uniformly fresh and delightful. The album opens on a high note with bassist Charles Mingus' fiery Haitian ...
read moreAkua Dixon: Akua Dixon
by Dan Bilawsky
Cellist Akua Dixon has been at it for decades: She's performed with jazz royalty like Duke Ellington, penned arrangements for non-jazz giants like Lauryn Hill and Aretha Franklin, and recorded with everybody from trumpet titan Dizzy Gillespie to trombonist Steve Turre to David Byrne, the beyond-category former frontman of the Talking Heads. Unfortunately, all of that support work has given Dixon little time to focus on putting music out under her own name. Akua Dixon, believe it or not, is ...
read more"Akua's Dance," Third CD By Cellist / Composer / Arranger Akua Dixon, To Be Released February 10
Source:
Terri Hinte Publicity
With her sublime new album, Akua’s Dance, cellist Akua Dixon brings her sumptuous sound to the foreground on an array of material encompassing exquisite balladry, the music’s deepest roots in African and African-American culture, and instrumental pieces gleaned from Dixon’s opera-in-progress. Her label Akua’s Music will release the new CD on February 10. “The music moves forward from where I was to where I’m going,” says Dixon, who notes that her last release, 2015’s critically hailed album Akua Dixon, was ...
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Cellist Akua Dixon To Release Her Second CD As A Leader, "Akua Dixon," January 13, 2015
Source:
Terri Hinte Publicity
Jazz string pioneer Akua Dixon entered a new creative phase with the sleek 2011 quartet session Moving On, her first album under her own name. Her new album, Akua Dixon, is a dazzling string conclave that surveys the cellist/composer/arranger’s expansive stylistic reach. Dixon’s label, Akua’s Music, will release the disc on January 13, 2015. The project showcases Dixon as a powerfully emotive improviser and dauntingly creative arranger exploring sumptuous American Songbook ballads, a suave Afro-Cuban standard, erotically charged nuevo tango, ...
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Jazz Greats David “Fathead” Newman, Christian McBride, Akua Dixon and Steve Turre to Appear at Bloomfield College’s Westminster Arts Center
Source:
All About Jazz
Bloomfield College Westminster Arts Center David S. Rosenak, Artistic Director a commitment to artists, a celebration of spirit! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Regina Orsogna 973 748-9000, x780 Regina_Orsogna @bloomfield.edu Jazz Greats David “Fathead” Newman, Christian McBride, Akua Dixon and Steve Turre to Appear at Bloomfield College’s Westminster Arts Center The Westminster Arts Center at Bloomfield College, Bloomfield New Jersey, announces the premiere season of its new series, JazzTalks, intimate evenings of conversation and performance with contemporary jazz artists on their ...
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Eternal Dance
From: Eternal DanceBy Akua Dixon