Great entrance: 'Porgy' by Labyrinth Lounge a Stunning Debut
Album reviewed by:
SongBlog
Labyrinth Lounge is a high energy and quite a lot closer to jazz with a terrific funk and hyper-Gershwin Broadway vibe laced throughout it. Vocalist Valerie Troutt’s delivery here is stunning, with so many ups and downs taking the listener on a rollercoaster of aural delight. It is one band who is not letting a few thousand miles stand in the way of making and performing great music. They have woven a fine web fusing jazz with soul, pop and RnB. I love it when I chance on a new band that is genuinely doing things that you coudn't even imagine existing until you hear them. The merger of genres found in the debut album by Oakland-Brooklyn jazz soul project Labyrinth Lounge is a case in point.
Their singles and 'Trouble Won't Last' teased ahead of the album's release, earning them comparisons to such celebrated artists as The Internet, Mali Music, Outkast, Brand New Heavies, and Betty Carter. I recall Neneh Cherry's work with Youssou N'dour.
What’s in a name? Sometimes a lot more than you might at first realize. The band’s name suggests a perfect combination of complexity and a chilled vibe, which is exactly the dynamic dichotomy making up both their sound and attitude. Originally conceived and launched in New York in the late nineties, the collective re-assembled in 2016 to grow anew in the San Francisco Bay Area and are again built from a wonderful blend of soul, pop jazz and the spirit of social activism."It's Just Water' is about several things, as water plays many different roles daily to each one of us. The song talks about creating a clearer understanding of what is troubling you.
Acknowledge the water, it's just water. It will eventually pass by, but can't you feel it deep within? Basically acknowledge that which is moving you to become a better human and stand against your doubt and fear. It's time to 'tell The people that it's time to stand up and be strong'," says Valerie Troutt.
The original band grew from the bass-drums pairing of John Ormondand Jaz Sawyer, best known as the rhythm section for the late great Abbey Lincoln, probably the most outspoken of the jazz divas, who brought a sense of black consciousness and social activism to the jazz world a long time before it became a trend. Taking everything they had soaked up while working with that great lady, the linked up with vocalist Valerie Troutt, keyboardist Emanuel Ruffler and rapper Ambessa ‘the Articulate’ Cantave, resulting in a unique mix of hip hop, rock, neo-soul and spoken word, sampling, beat making and improvisational approaches honed while performing in clubs and lounges in lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey.
In 2016, the opportunity arose to revisit the project with the original lineup and new direction.After a recent performance at Oakland's Studio Grand, the band locked themselves away in the Bird and Egg Studio, resulting in six brand new tracks for their ‘Porgy’ LP, The lead track ‘Trouble Won’t Last’ is a fantastic balance of classic and exploratory, iconic past sounds and forward moving modernity, a subtle and meaningful fusion of free jazz, pop and urban minimalism. But Labyrinth Lounge is certainly a team effort and it is the varied and diverse journeys – musical, physical and spiritual – the players have been on that bring the various elements and textures together.
Valerie Troutt is a music collagist, borrowing from ancestral centuries of sound, channeling spirits, and delivering the stories of our love, loss, and lives, a musical shaman and hungry to communicate with people. Jaz Sawyer, also originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, has toured with everyone from George Benson and Wynton Marsalis to Santana to The Grateful Dead before working with Abbey Lincoln on this particular path. German born Emanuel Ruffler visited New York in 1992 and was immediately struck by the breath-taking artistic level and creative environment, so moved there to study with legendary pianists such as Jaki Byard, John Hicks and Mulgrew Miller a few years later. After taking grand prize in the Thelonious Monk Competition, he has achieved songwriting credit on Me’shell Ndegocello’s 'Aquarium' and also collaborated with world-famous designer Emanuel Ungaro, which ultimately led to Ruffler soundtracking an ad for an Ungaro-produced perfume.
‘Porgy’ will be released on September 8 through Rufftone Records, a fast growing label located in New York City with a focus on producing genre-defying music, who also recently released the piano-drum duo “Painting”, as well as jazz-core group “A Tree Grows” featuring two-time Grammy award winner Tivon Pennicott.Labyrinth Lounge is preparing a string of live performances in LA and the San Francisco Bay Area in the fall of 2017.
