Tito Carrillo loves the city - any city - but Chicago in particular. "The city is where people always run to in order to make dreams happen. It can be exhausting, often overwhelming, heavy traffic, high rents, car break-ins... For a musician, there is nothing like the big, beautiful city of Chicago, with people coming and going, and a music scene like none other."
Thus the scene was set for Carrillo, who was born in Austin, Texas, before moving to Illinois, where he made an impact that lead to stints with many top names.
Urbanessence consolodates the music and rhythms of the three Americas - North, Central and South with a collection of original compositions by Carrillo incorporating unusual time signatures (e.g. 11/4) and a merging of several genres drawn from his years in Chicago playing jazz, hip-hop, soul, gospel, blues, funk, Latin, salsa in fact, you name it he played it.
His blistering trumpet echoes many of the greats but perhaps the most poignant moment is his emotive flugelhorn tribute to Roy Hargrove beautifully summed up by the title, Sublime.
In Troy Roberts he has an ideal front line partner who, whether on tenor or soprano cuts the mustard and I use the expression intentionally - he sizzles!
Ben Lewis on piano is another one for the notebook whilst bass, drums and congas keep the groove going even on a cha-cha in 7 (Fire and Ice). Ì
The album actually came out in October 2022 but it got lost in the ever mounting pile of CDs. However, it's here now and is well worth checking out. Lance
Momentum; Fire & Ice; Bliss Point; Urbanessence; Crazy Stupid Fine; Poor to Rico; Up the Down Staircase; Justice & Mercy; Fly by Night; Sublime.
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