Seems like there is a campaign going on to take CD titles made famous by Boney James and re-use them for other projects, First we had ‘Shine’ from that excellent sax-player Marcin Nowakowski and now, hot on its heels, come ‘Pure’ from Michael Lington. It will be released February 14th on the Trippin N' Rhythm label and has been described elsewhere as an “organic soul jazz album” which was recorded live with Rickey Minor and the Tonight band. Guests include heavy hitters such as Michael Bolton, Lee Ritenour, Jonathan Butler, Brian Culbertson, Ray Parker Jr, Jeff Golub and Paul Jackson Jr. The first single, ‘Road Trip’, will be serviced to radio on January 9 and features Ritenour on guitar. It’s full of the gutsy ‘in your face’ playing for which Lington is best known and comes highly recommended.
Of course saxophonist Michael Lington has been a force in contemporary jazz since the 1997 release of his eponymous debut on NuGroove Records. Since then his stature has continued to rise, first with the 2002 project (and his only recording on Marcus Johnson’s Three Keys label) ‘Everything Must Change’ and again during his tenure at Rendezvous with ‘Stay With Me’ and ‘A Song For You’ in 2004 and 2006 respectively. Along the way the debut album has been re-released twice, in 2001 on Samson and then again in 2003 on the Copenhagen label. In 2008 Lington came full circle by reconnecting with David Chackler and the then resurgent NuGroove Records. The result was the CD ‘Heat’ which at the time I described as being right up there with his best work and now with ‘Pure’ he seems set to take it to a whole new level.
Check back here soon for a complete review of ‘Pure’.
