Jozef Van Wissem owns a sonic arsenal of eight string instruments, each bespoke and featuring remarkable characteristics, contributing to his extensive body of work with nearly 50 titles.
Walter Smith III, the formidably resourceful 45-year-old Houston-born saxophonist, is a sublime example of the jazz tradition's enduring contemporaneity. His sound and incisively rugged phrasing bring many sax icons to mind, but his storytelling focus makes new music of it all.
Sextet, hailing from 1985, features two keyboardists playing piano and synthesisers alongside four percussionists on marimbas, vibraphones, bass drums, crotales, sticks and tam-tams.
I started writing this album because I was seeing so much of the world and watching what was happening. I felt like I had something important to say. I was writing this almost for necessity because there were so many people not saying what needed to be said. I feel like I'm a student of Nina Simone, and she said, 'the purpose of an artist is to reflect the times they live in.'
