For those unaware, Orrin Evans is a musical catalyst and one of the most relentlessly creative forces in modern jazz.

As a pianist, composer, and bandleader, Evans virtually guarantees music with genuine originality and inspired creativity.

He’s worked with Bobby Watson, David Murray, Kevin Eubanks, and the Bad Plus, and his impressive discography includes small group and Captain Black Big Band titles.

What’s behind THE RED DOOR? For pianist Orrin Evans, that question has come to symbolize the daring path his life and music have taken over the course of his three-decade career.

On his latest album, he once again flings that door open, delighting in the collaborators, friends, inspiration, and history that he finds inside.

1. Red Door (4:04)
2. Weezy (7:11)
3. Phoebe’s Stroll (7:35)
4. The Good Life (9:15)
5. Big Small (4:36)
6. Dexter’s Tune (3:58)
7. Amazing Grace (4:12)
8. Feed the Fire (5:15)
9. All the Things You Are (4:25)
10. Smoke Rings (2:43)
11. They Won’t Go When I Go (5:22)
12. I Have the Feeling I’ve Been Here Before (3:33)

The colorfully vibrant new album opens on the free flowing musical majesties within the titular Red Door and the skittish, yet flourishing melodies of Weezy, and then bring us the skittish affair Phoebe’s Stroll, the late night balladry serenade of The Good Life, before we get to next hear the upright bass-led, Jazzmeia Horn-vocalized Big Small and the shimmering, veritably translucent Dexter’s Tune.

Up next is an absolutely breathtaking, Sy Smith-vocalized Amazing Grace and the gracefully ornate, even when liberated Feed the Fire and they are in turn backed seamlessly by the free flowing melodies within All the Things You Are, the luxuriant jam fest within Smoke Rings, the recording rounding out on the jaunting piano ballad the Alita Moses-vocalized They Won’t Go When I Go, closing on the softly cultured, low slung shuffle of I Have the Feeling I’ve Been Here Before.

“I’ve realized that along with red meaning ‘warning’ or ‘stop,’ it also represents so many beautiful things,” Orrin says. “Roses are red, and Valentine’s hearts. So, I do see color, and we all should see color, but we shouldn’t see the negative history that comes along with it. Instead, we need to allow ourselves the opportunity to walk inside and discover what’s behind the red door.”

Musicians:
Orrin Evans, piano
Nicholas Payton, trumpet (1, 2, 5, 10)
Gary Thomas, tenor saxophone (1, 5, 10) & flute (2)
Robert Hurst, bass (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12)
Marvin “Smitty” Smith, drums (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12)
Wallace Roney, trumpet (9)
Larry McKenna, tenor saxophone (4)
Buster Williams, bass (4 & 9)
Gene Jackson, drums (4 & 9)
w/Jazzmeia Horn (5); Sy Smith (7) & Alita Moses (11)

Official Purchase Link