Pianist Melvin Johnson to Release New Project “Little Red Wagon” on Feb. 17th, 2023 | LISTEN!
Music Educator/Pianist Explores Family Love on Debut Little Red Wagon
Melvin Johnson’s 13-Song CD Gloriously Produced to Massage Souls
(Houston, TX) On February 17, 2023, Houston, TX pianist/composer Melvin Johnson will be offering a gift to the world of his debut album, Little Red Wagon, overflowing with musical parables on the family love and the life lessons they can provide. Johnson, who once thought of himself as only a live performer, found a unique hunger for recording and production during the COVID lockdown.
Johnson, whose life calling has been as a minister, also holds degrees in Music Education and Classical Piano, always intending to use them one day. life calling has been as a minister, also holds degrees in Music Education and Classical Piano, always intending to use them one day. That day has come. Years in the making yet fully realized during COVID lockdown, the music of Little Red Wagon leapfrogs across genres but sits most comfortably in Jazz. Melvin’s family history and musical fine-tuning led to his startlingly strong recording debut, resulting in solo, duo, trio, quartet, and quintet performances, overflowing with origins profound and far-reaching.
Little Red Wagon opens with “To Pop: The Explanation,” an homage to his adopted father Robert Lloyd Parker. “I wanted to open verbalizing something to bring the listener into my story. One year I went to an all-state competition, played with phenomenal musicians, and made first chair. I called to tell ‘Pop’ but, unusually, he did not answer. He’d died in the hospital… This track is me having a final conversation with him.” Recorded with several hand-picked musicians from Houston, including members of his band The Electro-Akoustic Trio, Little Red Wagon is filled top to bottom with autobiographically inspired life gems.
The welcoming shifting tempos of “Perspective” are Melvin’s reflection on the Bible scripture 1 Corinthians 13:11 that begins, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child…” There’s a sizzling danceable number titled “Black Bacon Funk.” The hypnotic waltz “Beyond the Glass” was inspired by a summer excursion Melvin and his wife Tamara took their son Gavin on to the downtown aquarium. Most powerful of all is “Extension,” inspired by when young Melvin was caught stealing from a department store and received a punishment oh-so-familiar to those that grew up in Black households.
Reflecting on all he has created here, Melvin Johnson concludes, “These first fully arranged instrumentals do not belong in any genre box, be it Jazz, Classical, Choral, Gospel, etc. If anything, what I hear in my heart and spirit is music for film – for mature musical audiences. Little Red Wagon is a road map to the next six collections of original music I’m recording in the future.”
Little Red Wagon available on all digital platforms February 17, 2023.
For more information on Melvin Johnson please visit: www.MelvinJohnsonMusic.com
