Tom Harrell - Colors Of A Dream CD (2013) (CD)

After a full career which has spanned decades without a lull Tom Harrell is as busy as ever: His current band has released five excellent albums since 2007 alone. He's so prolific that he's been writing and arranging music for other ensembles such as Carlos Santana, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and others all the while. Here he introduces a new, two-bass project, Colors of a Dream, which supplements most of his working quintet with two new additions saxophonist Jaleel Shaw and bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding. Esperanza can be heard lending her voice to a number of Tom s impressive compositions, sometimes using it in a such way that it takes on the role of a instrument and also delivering a wonderfully unique version of his popular 'Sail Away' in Portuguese ('Velejar'). Colors of a Dream is perhaps Harrell s most imaginative recording to-date, with the scoring for the piano-less, two-bass ensemble sui generis among his work.