Alison Crockett to Release “Echoes Of An Era Redux” (Europe)

ALISON CROCKETT
PRESENTS:
MY FATHER’S RECORD COLLECTION VOL. 1
ECHOES OF AN ERA REDUX

EUROPEAN RELEASE DATE: 20th October 2023

Washington D.C. area vocalist, bandleader and educator Alison Crockett performs The Jazz Side of Chaka Khan On Echoes of an Era Redux

Following critical acclaim and chart success in the USA, singer Alison Crockett will launch the full European distribution release of her much-celebrated album Echoes Of An Era Redux. Recorded live at Blues Alley in Washington D.C., Crockett revisits and revitalizes the music of the classic 1982 Echoes of an Era LP, which featured Chaka Khan, Chick Corea, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Clarke, Joe Henderson and Lenny White, playing the music of Billy Strayhorn, Thelonious Monk and several American popular song composers in a classic, straight-ahead style.

Alison Crockett has lent her unique talent to a plethora of successful projects. Her inimitable vocal ability has been heard on recordings by King Britt, Blue Six, Us3, Landslide, John Wicks, Sylk 130 Mathematics to name a few. Now Alison is back with this compelling new body of work that portrays her artistry in a very different light, as well as retaining all of the special elements that make Alison a stand out performer and exceptional musician.

Echoes Of An Era Redux is part of a wider project that celebrates the creativity and imagination of Alison Crockett’s Father. It was the large and eclectic record collection of Dr. Edward David Crockett, III, a physician and pianist who performed at D.C.’s Bohemian Caverns nightclub and died when Crockett was 14, which inspired her to record this tribute. “I thought: what if I just picked a record from my father’s collection, and sang songs that I grew up hearing?” Crockett asks. “So the first record that I thought about was the one that really kind of, believe it or not, turned me on to jazz singing, which was Echoes of an Era. I heard a lot of the stuff that Chick Corea was doing…I was listening to Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard just blow. I can hear Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson’s solos in my head.

What drew Crockett to Khan was her incredible voice. “I used to call her a mutant. Because she could do things that nobody else could do,” Crockett recalls. “She sings really, really high and really, really loud. It took me 30 years to figure out how to do that. She’s a percussive singer because she’s a drummer. She’s straightforward and stays in the pocket! She doesn’t sound like a standard jazz singer. But she doesn’t sound like a funk singer either. She sounds like herself. That’s what I tried to do.”

Crockett is joined on the album by an impressive assemblage of D.C. area musicians: Trumpeter/arranger Thad Wilson; tenor saxophonist Paul Carr; pianist Todd Williams, bassist Elliot Seppa and drummer Dana Hawkins. Simply put, Crockett’s cool and comprehensive contralto and her quicksilver combo, deliver some no-nonsense, straight-ahead jazz, with Crockett’s interlude reflections about the music in her father’s record collection. “Them There Eyes,” is rendered at a breathtaking pace. “I Hear Music” is a moving, mid-tempo meter, laced with Crockett’s in-the-pocket scat. “All of Me,” is played with a slow and sensuous, 4/4 meter. “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most,” is rendered as an intimate and intriguing piano/vocal ballad. Echoes Of An Era Redux is a seminal recording delivered impeccably with much sentiment, which captures a moment in time for eternity – an important release that can now be enjoyed across a new continent and around the world for years to come.

Personnel:

Alison Crockett Vocals
Thad Wilson Trumpet
Paul Carr Tenor Sax
Todd Williams Piano
Elliot Seppa Bass
Dana Hawkins Drums

Dynamic Agency