Full disclosure: Jaron Lamar Davis is a personal friend of mine and frequent appearance here on the website; BUT that doesn’t keep me from giving my fair reaction and opinion to his debut album. Now jazz has never really been my cup of tea despite hearing it from my pops’ stereo for much of my life, but I’ve grown to appreciate it’s subtleties more as I’ve matured. For being a debut album from a professional drummer what immediately jumped out at me was the actual lack of drumming. Well, not the lack of drumming but it’s non-overpowering presence. At some points a trumpet is front and center, at other points it’s a piano, and others the drums, and so on and so on. It’s all dictated by the nature of the song and general vibe he’s trying to create instead of just giving us a collection of drumming exhibitions disguised as songs, and I appreciated this. But when the drumming does take center stage it’s exceptional and in fact my favorite moment on the album is the song “Talking Drums” where he goes in for 6 and a half minutes long. It’s the song that most hip-hop heads like myself will really gravitate towards. The rest of the album is smooth and crisp and left me with a much deeper appreciation for all the nuances of jazz as a genre and it’s an album I find myself throwing on often to really unwind.
“Waiting in between the lines of you
Loving underneath the shade of blue
Like a kiss in the night
Like water from storms
I am waiting for our time”
Have you heard My Views Through the Lens of Music? What’d you think about it? For a self-produced debut album how do you think Jaron Lamar Davis did? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to leave your own ratings and reactions to the album. And be sure to give it a listen if you haven’t already.
