Jazz-influenced acoustic world music. Easy to listen to, but definitely not easy-listening. A little bit of a lounge feel; acoustic, international groove music.

12 MP3 Songs
WORLD: World Fusion, JAZZ: Contemporary Jazz

Details:
"Locally acclaimed, globally appreciated guitarist/singer/songwriter Robert Everest knows no boundaries when it comes to music, which is readily reflected on his aptly titled new release, the Robert Everest Expedition. With tracks that span ten years of composition and three continents of exploration, the CD features Everest on guitar and lead vocals, Marco Sambrotta (piano and vocals), Tony Axtell and Jocko MacNelly (bass), Michael Bissonnette and Chico Chávez (percussion), Andy Artz (drums), and Gary Schulte (violin). Everest has compiled the diversity of American culture as surely as he has integrated the traditions of Latin America and southern Europe."

- Jazz Police


The Robert Everest Expedition is a recording from which the progress of a long career will be measured. It moves naturally through transoceanic pop modes, yet is very much at home at home. It is the work of a newly mature artist, full of ambition and emotional generosity, a love of language and a devotion to complex rhythms and simple melodies.

The Minneapolis St. Paul area is fertile musical ground nourished by the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi. Robert Everest was born here into a large and ambitious musical family and is widely admired by area musicians, though he spends much of his time in Central and South America, Europe and the Mediterranean, studying the sounds that fascinate him and developing an international network of peers and fans. When home Robert can often be found playing a weekend brunch solo set at Mariaâs Café near the American Indian Center in Minneapolisâ Phillips neighborhood, where brunchers often double-take at the youthful blond-haired Angloâs confidence with Tropicalia, Bolero, Cumbia, Tango, and all the languages of the Latin world.

This album follows abandoned paths and wanders among the locals. It longs for home and the heart, departing again upon an urbane bassline for Rio De Janeiro, Zürich, or forbidden Havana at three, four, five, or six beats per measure. Everestâs compositions have a casual but sophisticated ease that Michael Franks, or even Pat Metheny on a good hair day, might envy. Fusion as a pop genre has been liberated from its 70âs excesses. Downtempo DJs sample Airto Moreira, create tracks by e-mail, and sit next to Robert Everest on non-stop transcontinental flights while he writes songs that zigzag the earth to land gently at Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport. Everestâs songs emerge from baggage claim with the pain of creation intact. Saudade as only this restless and worldly Upper Midwestern son can convey.

- Patrick Whalen

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