Tyshawn Sorey & Jennifer Curtis – Invisible Ritual

Album cover for Tyshawn Sorey and Jennifer Curtis "Invisible Ritual"

This record reminds me why I love music. It reminds me that music can transform our minds and our souls and the way we see the world.

Each of its eight songs is an improvised duet between Carter’s violin and Sorey on either piano or drums. Each song is like a conversation between two people who are connecting for the first time: at times it’s awkward and vulnerable, at times it’s confusing and overwhelming, but mostly it’s energized and exciting and alive.

I listened to this record on headphones with a glass of wine at the end of a stressful week. It took me back to fifth grade when I got my first FM radio, when I was transfixed by the “block party weekend” on the local rock station, when I heard Zeppelin and Aerosmith and AC/DC for the first time. That weekend led to a decade-long career as a professional musician and a lifelong obsession with music. It transformed my mind and my soul and the way I saw the world.

Listening to this record, listening to Tyshawn and Jennifer getting to know each other, takes me back to why I fell in love with music and why I still love it 40 years later.

Released: January 24, 2020

About Chuck

After spending 10 years working as a professional bassist, Chuck realized he loves listening to music much more than playing it. Eleven albums or events that dramatically influenced his relationship with music and life, in the order he encountered them: Fleetwood Mac, Rumours; Van Halen, Fair Warning; Foreigner, 4 tour, 2/9/1982; John Coltrane, Crescent; De La Soul, Three Feet High and Rising; Puccini, La Boheme (Beecham, de los Angeles); Everything But The Girl, Walking Wounded; Carl Cox, live at Twilo, 2000; Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Yanqui UXO; Grateful Dead, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Grateful Dead (Fillmore East, NYC, 1971); Taylor Swift, 1989.

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