Description
GET UP! is a collection of nine tracks that are clearly R & B influenced, but then go to many other places along the way. The big band instrumentation lends itself to this rhythmically intense music very nicely while allowing for a myriad of color and texture possibilities in the process. Using these relatively simple tunes as a springboard for harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic exploration was a real adventure.
Get up! Get up and dance to these infectious grooves that come from Africa by way of African American culture in the U.S., sometimes referred to as R & B, intersecting with the blues, Jazz, Afro-Cuban music, and that distinctly American sound that permeated the airwaves in the 1960s and beyond. Artists like James Brown, Sam and Dave, The Isley Brothers, all the Motown artists, and ultimately bands like Sly and the Family Stone, Tower of Power and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters from the bay area (East Bay Grease!) are all part of the evolution of the sound.
Bob Mintzer grew up listening to this music. In New York City you could turn on WNEW FM in the evening and hear a Miles Davis cut followed by a Jimi Hendrix track, followed by John Coltrane, then Marvin Gaye, followed by something from Sly and the Family Stone. Training as a musician in NYC, one was exposed to Jazz, R & B music, Afro-Cuban music, ethnic music from all over the world, and just about every kind of music imaginable. So many possibilities in terms of combining elements to find new ways to play and write.
