nurturing rising jazz stars Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y – A NEW BEAT: Sakes alive, it feels like “old home week” here… we were fortunate enough to have reviewed Ulysses “Unanimous” album way back in the early days, and he’s nurturing rising jazz stars on this upcoming (19 January, 2024) release… check them out in live performance mode first…
Not sure if Ulysses has his own channel, but you can find several of the U.O. and Generation Y live performances on the Stephan Diethelm YouTube channel… well worth subscribing to.
One of the absolute BEST performances I’ve ever heard from Ulysses in on the 8:33 “Bird Lives“… his drumming is amazing, and all the other players shine with the brilliance that only true talent allows for; this is my personal favorite of the eight exciting jazz excursions offered up (you’ll find the full player list there, too)!
Another excellent example of Ulysses’ exceptional mentoring skills can be heard on the 7:36 opener, “Sticks“; the recording is flawless, as are the performances of each of the players on this stunning tune.
I give Ulysses and all his players a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating, with a perfect “EQ” (energy quotient) score of 5.00, meaning that the album also gets a “PICK” for “best new album of 2024”. Get more information on Ulysses’ Project page, or pre-order the digital album on the Bandcamp page for the album.
