I'm used to receiving albums from well intentioned and often self financed older musicians who are, to put it nicely, over proud of their accomplishments on said album. Art Fell, a reader who now resides in France was just the opposite. He sent me as modest a letter explaining this album as one could imagine. I was expecting only that it be modestly enjoyable.
Of course what he sent turned out to be a bit of an underground hit, a sleeper success story if you will. Reviewers on Amazon have felt compelled to expound on how many times they've listened to the album on road trips and how their children dance and sing along. For what it is the album is excellent, and as it happens it is Art Fell's only album with musical partner David Cross released on a commercial label.
Recorded in 2006, the story of the album itself is interesting. Art was playing with a band at a very upscale resort in the Seychelles Islands, off the coast of East Africa, when a "British Industrialist" invited him to record for his label MacJazz. He was invited to form a band for the engagement and brought in David Cross on trumpet. Two very busy British musicians, Bill Stagg, guitar, and Mike Godwin, bass, joined them in studio for what turned into an ambitious 24 track, 75 minute album with almost no rehearsal and very few takes, all recorded in one session. In other genres, and with less skilled musicians, that
