Sarah Willis/The Sarahbanda -"Cuban Christmas" [LP] Sarah Willis, horn-player of the Berliner Philharmoniker, teams up with the Sarahbanda for a a celebration of the vibrant Cuban Christmas rhythms. The album injects the colorful, contagious energy of Cuban music into a selection of timeless holiday classics - some featuring vocals from Carlos Calunga, of Buena Vista Social Club fame. Verve Label Group; Deutsche Grammophon; Holiday
Sarah Willis/The Sarahbanda - "Cuban Christmas". Sarah Willis, horn-player of the Berliner Philharmoniker, teams up with the Sarahbanda for a a celebration of the vibrant Cuban Christmas rhythms. The album injects the colorful, contagious energy of Cuban music into a selection of timeless holiday classics - some featuring vocals from Carlos Calunga, of Buena Vista Social Club fame.
2020 release. It may be somewhat ironic, yet ultimately fitting that this, the final recording by Larry Willis, brought the veteran pianist/composer right back to the place where he first began his impressive career as recording artist that spanned over a period of six decades. The Harlem, New York born Willis first entered the hallowed halls of Rudy Van Gelder's legendary Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey studio as a twenty-two year old graduate of the Manhattan School of Music on January 29, 1965 to record with Jackie McLean for Blue Note Records. Willis's expansive resume includes entries with the likes of Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Stan Getz, Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band, Clifford Jordan, Carmen McRae, David "Fathead" Newman, Woody Shaw, and many more. He appeared on hundreds of albums as a sideman and dozens more as a leader of his own impressive bands. The music played here with long-time friends Victor Lewis and Joe Ford, and his relatively new colleague Jeremy Pelt shows Larry Willis displaying the intense creativity and impeccable taste which made him once of the most respected keyboard artists in jazz.
Larry Willis sits down in the famed Fazioli piano showroom in Italy for this 2012 HighNote solo piano recording which highlights his inexhaustible imagination, the stunning sound of the Fazioli piano and songwriting abilities of the composers represented here. Whether it be Kurt Weill's hauntingly beautiful "My Ship," the pop-tinged "True Love," by Cole Porter or his own compositions, Larry Willis displays the intense creativity and impeccable taste which made him the preferred pianist of greats such as Jackie McLean, Nat Adderley, Carmen McRae, Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw and others.
Pianist Larry Willis has had an important and distinguished 40 year career in jazz. Since making his recording debut of Jackie McLean's landmark 1965 album RIGHT NOW!, the New York-born Willis has played everything from free jazz to fusion to rock (he was a member of Blood, Sweat and Tears in the 70's), while performing as a valued sideman with such jazz titans as Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey and Woody Shaw. That versatility is highlighted on Larry's latest HighNote recording which finds him once again in the company of bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Billy Drummond. Also in attendance that day in the Rudy Van Gelder studio was, Eric Alexander, one of the busiest tenor men in jazz, lending his talents to the proceedings. Willis leads the group through a series of standards, originals, jazz classics and offers a new, jazz take on Gene Roddenberry's "Theme from Star Trek".
