Etienne's Gumbo; BWB's Return - Bob Stewart

Etienne Charles has been hailed as "a daring improviser" by JazzTimes magazine while Ben Ratlilff of the New York Times called him "one of the more ambitious soloists and composers" and "an auteur." The Trinidad-born trumpet phenom serves up a delicious bowl of musical gumbo with "Creole Soul", an exciting exploration of his music roots featuring sounds from the French, Spanish and English speaking Caribbean as well as North America. The disc highlights the myriad inspirations from Haitian Creole chants and blues to bebop and R&B while drawing on an array of rhythms including rocksteady, reggae, bel air, kongo and calypso.

Individually, they are three titans of contemporary jazz: Rick Braun, the gifted trumpeter/flugelhornist; Grammy Award-winning tenor saxophonist Kirk Whalum, the Memphis-born wunderkind who mixes Beale Street, gospel, the blues and bop; and Norman Brown, the Grammy-winning guitarist who brings a Louisiana lilt to his Wes Montgomery/George Benson-influenced six-string soulful strut. They came together eleven years ago as the supergroup known as BWB, recording a disc that made them one of the most sought-after groups at that time. This terrific triad has reassembled for a new CD-- "Human Nature" -- which puts their own spin on eleven selections made famous by Michael Jackson.