Vortex

SSC1499 2018-01-26

Track List

Vortex - 5:00
Judgement - 2:06
Acceptance - 8:04
February - 8:29
The Devil's Den - 9:16
Tears for Carolyn - 8:17
To the Ends of the Earth - 7:13
In His Eyes - 5:53
Baku - 5:44

Musicians

Wayne Escoffery - tenor saxophone
David Kikoski - piano
Ugonna Okegwo - bass
Ralph Peterson Jr. - drums

Wayne Escoffery reaching his 40th birthday marked a period of big changes for the award-winning saxophonist both artistically and in his personal life. Escoffery had reached a crossroads. He had spent a happy and successful decade in the band of trumpeter/composer Tom Harrell but felt that it was time for him to step out more as a leader. At the end of 2016, Escoffery assembled a tremendous quartet of jazz’s most elite musicians that would record a live album, headline New York’s legendary Village Vanguard, and tour steadily for the next year. The current political and cultural landscape of the United States has caused many to take pause and Escoffery has had a lifetime to learn and deal with growing up black and as an immigrant (English born of Jamaican descent). But it was the recent US election and its effects on his young son that had a profound impact on him. Escoffery’s evocative new recording, Vortex, is about the current dizzying maelstrom of racism, bigotry and hate in the U.S. and the saxophonist’s renewed commitment to his responsibilities and artistic goals.