333maxwell - Walk Awhile

Hear The Track Here

Last couple of tracks coming up for this month and here, squeezed right on the very end, is our old friend Chas Holman (known to all and sundry as 333maxwell) making the kind of track that I infinitely prefer him to be working in: jazz (or to be totally accurate Jazz Lounge whatever that happens to be). 333maxwell is a bit of a genre bender and I think I have reviewed a track from him in just about every musical field there is, but when I look back at those tracks that have made the difference with me, they are almost all jazz in some form (usually throwbacks to Jazz's Golden Age of 1940/1950s). It was this incredible musical reach that finally convinced me that he should become my Artist of The Year 2009 (along with the 9 Must Haves he had for that particular year.

It also helps that he is one of the most professional sounding musicians on Soundclick, again regardless of genre as even the shortest of drive by listens will show; pick a track, any track. As I say though, I prefer him when he has on his jazz hat because here is a musician who truly understands the genre. My father played in dance bands during the '40's and '50's so this is music that I grew up surrounded by and luckily this is the very era that 333maxwell plunders so well. Almost all the 333maxwell tracks I still play are from this genre and Walk Awhile goes further into the blue note than most. Yeeeeeeessssssss.....

His musical talent is prodigious; he's a guitarist, a piano player, a horn player (of some considerable chops) and he's no slouch as a singer. In fact, if he were a comely maiden I might be tempted to marry him. However, I know that he is a grizzly man of a certain age, so no thanks I'll just take the music, thank you. And what music it is, Walk Awhile being an absolutely note perfect rendition of yer actual 'crooner' jazz blues, not an area he has cavorted much in before but one I hope to hear more of. I'm a sax man (for the sound) and the tone of this sax is - not to put too fine a point on it - incredible, smoky, blue and as rich as a chocolate bath. It has to be said that you should probably like music of this era to really appreciate the job of work Chas has created here, but try it you never know. Jazz can be like that; one minute you hate it, the next it is all you want to hear.

MUST HAVE time travel.