Kris Bowers - Heroes + Misfits (2014) {Concord}

Kris Bowers - Heroes + Misfits (2014) {Concord}

Jazz / Experimental / Electronic / Alternative R&B / Modern Creative / Piano

24-year-old pianist Kris Bowers, winner of the 2011 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, is releasing his debut Concord Jazz recording. Inspiration for the songs are the highly accelerated technological advancements of today, and the resulting power for those that use them. The talented sextet reflects this with playing rooted in jazz, but also reflective of an eclectic musical age (think Robert Glasper and José James). Guest vocalists include Julia Easterlin, José James & Chris Turner. Pianist, composer, and arranger Kris Bowers' debut album, 2014's Heroes + Misfits, is an expansive and ambitious work that showcases the Juilliard-trained artist's genre-defying skills. Based in jazz but with an ear for contemporary R&B, film scores, and electronic music, Bowers is somewhat of an amiable iconoclast. Raised on his parent's old-school soul albums and '90s hip-hop and trained since high school in jazz and classical piano, Bowers is certainly a wunderkind of sorts, able to cross musical boundaries with ease. And crossing boundaries is exactly what Bowers does on Heroes + Misfits, delving into an elegiac, vocal-driven R&B ballad ("WonderLove") one minute and improvising over a fractured, post-punk dance beat ("Wake the Neighbors") the next. In many ways, he doesn't so much cross boundaries as mash them together, creating wholly original soundscapes. Songs like "Vices and Virtues" and "Drift" reveal a compositional ear grounded in harmonically sophisticated jazz that's as much influenced by the contemporary avant-garde Knitting Factory scene as it is by the classic works of artists like John Coltrane and Oscar Peterson. Elsewhere, on tracks like the opening "Forever Spring" and "Forever Wonder," Bowers mixes the hypnotic ambient style of classical composers like Steve Reich and Phillip Glass with a synth-based style that's reminiscent of '70s Stevie Wonder. Ultimately, with Heroes + Misfits, Bowers presents a world of musical eclecticism, where jazz is merely the jumping-off point to further explorations of sound. Personnel: Kris Bowers - piano, Fender Rhodes, synthesizer, composer Casey Benjamin - alto saxophone Kenneth Whalum III - tenor saxophone Adam Agati - guitar Burniss Earl Travis II - bass Jamire Williams - drums guests José James - vocals Julia Easterlin - vocals Chris Turner - vocals tracklist: 01 - Forever Spring 02 - Wake The Neighbors 03 - #TheProtester 04 - Forget-er (ft. Julia Easterlin) 05 - Vices and Virtues 06 - Wonderlove (ft. Chris Turner) 07 - Forever Wonder 08 - Drift 09 - First 10 - Ways of Light (ft. Jose James)