BILL CARTER AND WARREN COOPER: Welcome Home

Bill Carter and Warren Cooper

Welcome Home

© 2006 Presbybop Music (837101185318)

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Swinging jazz, warm vocals, a delicate balance

notes

"It's about time!" - jazz fan from Ohio

At long last, here's a musical collaboration between two bright lights in the jazz world! Bill Carter took his Presbybop Quartet into the studio to meet Warren Cooper, the dynamic vocalist from Philadelphia. The results are documented here, on an album that is deeply swinging and spiritually rich.

"We wanted to update some of the music that has shaped our lives," Bill notes. "Most of the songs are gifts to us from the church, and we wanted to pass them along as to gifts to all the people who enjoy good modern jazz."

The duo's jazz sensibilities are obvious from the very first cut, a fiercely swinging presentation of the old spiritual "Go Down Moses." The freedom song is done in the style of the Blue Note recording sessions of the '60's.

Or there's the title cut, a stirring ballad that Bill wrote a few years ago. "Warren and I performed the piece at a large gathering of Presbyterian ministers," the composer remembers. "Walter Brueggemann, the great Old Testament scholar, came up afterwards and asked if we had recorded it. So we thought that maybe we should."

The music is a bebop re-thinking of church music, always keeping its spiritual character, yet infusing it with the passion of jazz. Some of the music comes from Swing a New Song to the Lord, a jazz hymnal that Carter edited as part of a Lilly Foundation Grant.

The result is an amazing collection of eleven jazz performances, uncompromising and enjoyable to the last note.

The CD features Carter's Presbybop Quartet, a nationally touring band that presents concerts and jazz worship services. Featured musicians are saxophonist Al Hamme, virtuoso bassist Tony Marino, and drummer Tom Whaley. The group is enhanced on a few cuts by Jeff Stockham, an outstanding trumpeter from New York, and drummer Joe Roma.

For more information, check out the Presbybop Music website, at www.presbybop.com.

reviews

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  • Welcome Home
    author: Dorothy McDonald

    I thought the album was wonderful! I've played it many, many times. The group played a concert at Community Pres. Ch. in Pinehurst, NC and I was very fortunate to be there. Everyone loved it!! Keep that great music coming.

  • author: James Green

    This is a stunningly wonderful, swinging CD! Thanks for putting the pieces together. I laughed with joy over the Good News Blues... and much else on this recording. I was lifted..!

  • The song, "Welcom Home" - a very moving message!
    author: Mary Ev Bedenbaugh

    A variety of Christian songs sung and played with great passion!

  • Great CD!
    author: Jane Johnson

    A wonderful combination of Jass and the Gospel message. Warren's voice is beautiful and the instrumentation is really wonderful. I'm really glad that I made this purchase. It's uplifting and enjoyable!

  • Old Hymns with a new flavor. I love warren's voice.
    author: Peggy Kendall

    Bill has come up with a winner as usual. Old Hymns with a new flavor and I love Warren;s voice. It blends in so well with the jazz group.

  • Old songs with a new, wonderful arrangment.
    author: Harriet Johnson

    This is beautiful music; familiar hymns tastefully done and very appealing. Warren's voice has a smooth, velvet sound and does credit to the songs he sings. More importantly, Bill gives a new life to familiar songs. Impressive. Soothing.

  • ...vibrant intimacy and radiant joy...
    author: Stephen Martorella

    I can't pull this album off my player...vibrant intimacy and radiant joy...thanks for the gift of your music.

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