Jimmy Greene - Beautiful Life (2014) [Official Digital Download 24-bit/96kHz]

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Jimmy Greene - Beautiful Life (2014) [Official Digital Download 24-bit/96kHz]

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Jimmy Greene - Beautiful Life (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time - 48:42 minutes | 1022 MB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

"There was a lot of tears. There was a lot of anguish," said jazz saxophonist Jimmy Greene of his new album, Beautiful Life, which is dedicated to his late six-year-old daughter Ana Márquez-Greene. Ana was one of the 20 children killed, along with six adults, in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012.

The first song captures the poignancy and skill of this wonderful album. The track is an arrangement of Come Thou Almighty King, a hymn that was in a piano book Greene's son, Isaiah, was learning in 2012. On Beautiful Life, Greene’s subtle tenor saxophone blends perfectly with Pat Metheny’s acoustic guitar and, movingly, the track finishes with Ana's vocals.

Beautiful Life features spirituals, modern Christian music, ballads, hymns and three original compositions from Greene, who has previously recorded nine solo albums and been a member of Harry Connick Jr's Big Band.

Greene, who is also Assistant Professor of Music and Assistant Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Western Connecticut State University, told NPR: "I want the music to reflect the way that Ana lived. My daughter, who always loved to be around my son when he was practicing, she would be around the piano and she sung the lyrics to Come Thou Almighty King while he was playing."

Chesky Records provided a studio and production for free on an album from MackAvenue Records that also features contributions from Renee Rosnes, Kenny Barron and Cyrus Chestnut (piano), Christian McBride (bass), Lewis Nash (drums) Jonathan DuBose (guitar) Kurt Elling, Javier Colon and Latanya Farrell (vocalist), a spoken word contribution from actress Anika Noni Rose – reading a haunting poem called Little Voices – and a 13-piece string ensemble from the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.