Felipe Salles: Tiyo's Songs Of Life

Talk about remarkable origins; the music on Tiyo's Songs of Life, performed by tenor saxophonist Felipe Salles' quartet, was written by Tiyo Attallah Salah-El while he was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in a Pennsylvania prison. In spite of his circumstances, Salah-El never lost his love for life, an upbeat frame of mind that is ever-present in these nine sparkling originals. While imprisoned, he earned bachelor's and master's degrees and founded the Coalition for the Abolition of Prisons.

Salah-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 Views—On Stage in a Cage" and "Blues for Pablo—Blues 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.