Milton Suggs with Michael King : Pure Intention

Rating: ★★★★

Record and Artist Details

Musicians:

Milton Suggs (v)
Michael King (p)

Label:

Imani Records

October/2024

Media Format:

DL

RecordDate:

Rec. 18 December 2023

Pure Intention is Milton Suggs’ second vocal-piano duo album, the first being his 2010 album Just Like Me recorded with his teacher, Willie Pickens. While the earlier album featured material from the Ellington/Strayhorn songbook, Pure Intention mostly features Suggs’ newly penned lyrics to music written by some of his favourite musicians and composers including Mulgrew Miller, Lee Morgan, Horace Silver, Cedar Walton, Buster Williams, and more.

From the wondrous take on the Kenny Garrett opener ‘Sing A Song of Song (There Is a Song)’, from Garrett's exceptional 1997 album Songbook, the music-making from Suggs and King is never less than sublime, with the former's rich baritone and compelling way with a lyric perfectly matched by the latter's soulful playing and beautiful reharmonisations.

Suggs and King (another former student of Pickens) present a fabulously inventive brace of Horace Silver jazz waltzes, the first ‘Sunrise In Malibu (A Pleasant Surprise)’ from Silver's 1997 Impulse! album, Prescription for the Blues, the second, ‘Pretty Eyes (Beautiful Eyes)’, from his majestic 1966 Blue Note album, The Cape Verdean Blues.

Dedicated to Suggs’ daughter, the title track ‘Nzingah (Pure Intention)’ is based on the gorgeous ballad ‘Christina’ written by the great Buster Williams. As well as an unfailingly moving interpretation of the much-recorded standard, ‘Old Folks’, the duo also presents imaginatively reworked covers of the O’Jays’ classic ‘Cry Together’ and Maze's ‘Golden Time of Day’.

A stellar recording which exemplifies the art of the voice-and-piano duet at its finest.

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