Mitchell, Nicole Sonic Projections – “Emerald Hills” – [Rogueart]

Thurston Hunger 9/7/2012 CD, Jazz

Love this label, but love this artist her flute and her

compositions even more. Super artfilled songs, instilled

with sense of thrill coming from a very charged up Chad??

Taylor (Chicago Underground XXXXX). Hear him ignite the

sputter step of “Visitations” which then goes drum free

before a powerhouse 60’s style sprawl. He bakes on

“Chocololate Chips” and is California cool on “Affirmations”

But Mitchell is the story here, so good at drawing you into

every song, like a writer who can entice in a paragraph, her

solo flute beckoning on the outset of “Peace” (a study in

shades of serenity) and especially “Wild Life” (where you

feel the call of Pan and the garden), are just fantastic.

“Wishes” has these music questions hung on Craig Taborn’s

piano. You want the poetic thought-strike jazz speak, dig

“Ritual and Rebellion” with overlapping voices. The music

revels in grace and energy, and you can hear it in Nicole’s

voice edging towards song early on in “Affirmations.” Echoes

of the soul jazz celebrations, but her compositions have

more open clarity than the elements of earth and funk.

For people who “don’t like jazz” spend time with this

and have your mind and ears changed. Her interplay with

Boykin is very simpatico, she knows when to bring him in

to help add ballast when the flute could leave things up

in the air too much. Like her “Hope, Future and Destiny”

this is a release that will get revived and revive every

year in the KFJC waves. -Thurston Hunger