George Burton’s sophomore release entitled Reciprocity was released on February 21st, 2020 and almost a month later is showing no signs of slowing down as it continues to blaze a trail through the jazz world. The music itself is an experience that any listener should not deny to his or herself, but to top it off an equally unique and mesmerizing video accompanies the second track Finding, allowing the listener to have their visual pallet pleased as well.
The music video has even been featured in the New York times playlist as well as NPR, raising the bar for musicians down the road to surely have to step up their game and become artists outside of just the musical realm. But audiences would be doing themselves a serious disservice to just listen to this one track, although one can understand why it would be hard to break out of its hypnotic trance.
There are ten other tracks on the album and each of them in themselves could be a single that would make any top 10 chart. The album flows from start to finish and to pause or be interrupted anywhere in the middle would seem to just ruin the experience as it demands the listener’s full attention. The title Reciprocity speaks for itself as it is a theme that is intertwined into the music through narration, and this narration is really just the icing on the cake.
One can hear the reciprocal relationship Burton has with his bandmates as everyone is given many opportunities to shine by the generous bandleader. He has assembled a supporting cast featuring Tim Warfield on soprano saxophone, Chris Hemingway on alto saxophone, Alexa Barchini on vocals, Andy Bianco on guitar, Pablo Menares on bass, Wayne Smith Jr. on drums as well as James (Biscuit) Rouse, and Jeremy (Bean) Clemons. Burton’s debut album The Truth of What I am received rave reviews and brought many successes such as playing at the Kennedy Center, the legendary Newport Jazz Festival, and some very successful tours including one in Europe. All this happened with just the first album, and the bar has been raised even higher with Reciprocity… It is going to be exciting to see what heights Burton will reach going forward.
Credits: Lauren Desberg (featured photo) Kate Plows (album design) and Sigmund Washington (Cover Art/Video)
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