Michael Manson is a highly gifted bass player. He already performed with Kirk Whalum, Brian Culbertson, George Duke or Oletta Adams to just name a few. Like most of the contemporary jazz artists he was on the search of a new label. Now he found his haven in NuGroove Records and presents his label debut Up Front (2008). Portions of this CD have been remastered from his previous album Just Feelin It.
Michael explains: “Due to circumstances beyond my control, that this CD hasn’t available for over a year, some of that music has been included in Up Front as a thank you to the many fans who couldn’t buy that CD.” The new album has a huge list of guest-musicians like Alex Al, Mel Brown, Norman Brown, Nick Colionne, Ray Fuller, Keith Henderson, Paul Jackson, George Duke, Michael Logan, and Jeff Lorber, just to keep it short.
Darren Rahn penned the opening Bring It On presenting melody maker Michael Manson in his best role as lead bassist. George Duke performs a short piano filling. On Coming Right At Ya Michael performs anew the lead bass while Alex Al is accompanying him on his bass. This song was recorded at Dave Kochanski’s sound design studios. There is a great horn passage played by Stephen Berry (trombone), Kirk Whalum (sax), Larry Bowen (trumpet), Pharrez Whitted (trumpet), Ted Hosarth, Jerry Di Muzio (sax) and Jeff Lorbers’ piano part is superfinished.
