Year: 2007
Record Label: BDK Records
Style: Contemporary Jazz
Musicians: Lin Rountree (trumpet, flugelhorn, vocal arrangement), Tim Bowman (guitar), Al Turner (bass), Ron Otis (drums), Dana Davis (programming, keyboards, synthesizers), Darryl Dixon (guitar), LaFruance (guitar), D’Andre Thomas (bass), Bamm Davis (piano), Brandon Williams (keyboards, programming), Tony Gordon (keyboards), Leslie Nelson (vocals), Billy Meadows (vocal arrangement)
Review: Lin Rountree’s debut album Groovetree is an intoxicating mix of smooth jazz and romantic R&B/soul, delivering an easy listening scope with dreamy moonlit shadings that allow the listener to be swept away by its balmy tones, tender cascades, and supple whorls. The music exudes utopian sensations and aurally pleasing vistas. The harmonic landscapes establish fantasy-like euphonies with a Disney World imagination especially on the final track “Lullaby For Renarta.” Rountree’s interplay between the high pitched trumpet and medium registers of the flugelhorn give the melodic phrases conducive dynamics and acquiescence along their polytonal twittering. The placid rhythmic sails conjugate pastel tones with gliding jazz phrases and copious amounts of R&B smoothies. The music is romantically enshrined and made to inspire dreamers.
The curvaceous bends and supple grooves of “For Your Love” assemble an intuitive communication between the instrument comps and chord developments availing the melodic phrases to the ethereal touch and panegyric tints of the horns. The plush grooves of “Everyday” offer complementing transitions which facilitates the budding cells of horn expressions. The title track is extra special with a funky swag in the rhythmic bass struts while the swoop of twirling horn loops encompasses the melody in gentle tones and palatial riffs. The gorgeous breathy vocal elevations of Leslie Nelson on “The Message” are suffused with smooth soul and R&B piping. The lyrics are written by Michele Vandegrift and have a romantic lore as Nelson sings reverently, “I get the message/ Loud and clear/ I hear/ I feel your love/ Some say love has many disguises/ It comes in different shapes and sizes…It’s so much more than the eye can see/ Love is the Sun in your eyes…Love is wanting for nothing/ It’s you by my side.” The lyrical phrases are deliriously arousing and the music heightens the senses of the epistle.
The fluxing motions of the high and medium modulations of the horns on “Bio-Funk” project a seraphim waterfall of movements while the lithe funk grooves of “Villicious” have a libido impulse controlling the gear shifts. The harmonies in the horn sections have an exalting concentration while being tickled by the toggling piano notes. The upbeat phrases for “Akire” create sweet sensations up and down the melody’s spine, while the cascading chord progressions for “Candie” have a smooth jazz consonance as the bright rays from the whirling horns produce picturesque vistas and elegant configurations. The final track “Lullaby For Renarta” is a blissful musical sonnet dedicated to Rountree’s baby sister who passed away as an infant. The placid chimerical playground has dulcet tones that are caressive and angelic in speech. The track is the most beautiful song on the album and speaks from the heart of a dreamer.
Lin Rountree’s debut album Groovetree is produced by William Meadows, Dana Davis, Lin Rountree and executive producer Kenneth Hurt. Rountree grew up in Alexandria, Virginia where he began playing the trumpet at the age of 11. As soon as he could, he attended workshops at the Duke Ellington School of Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Florida A&M University and settled in Detroit’s music community. His musicality spans the spectrum of jazz from smooth and contemporary to soul and funk. His material is the work of a dreamer with his feet firmly planted in his home life by the side of his family and friends. His melodic phrases are lyrical and his songs have serene esthetics that draws the listener into its mellifluous wavelengths. Once in, you never want to leave like being at Disney World.
Tracks: For Your Love, Everyday, Into The Night, Groovetree, The Message, Bio-Funk, Villicious, Candie, Akire, Lullaby For Renarta
Record Label Website: http://www.bdkrecords.com
Artist's Website: http://www.linrountree.com
Reviewed by:
Susan Frances
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