Blue Muse - It Never Entered My Mind

Blue Muse
It Never Entered My Mind
Self-Produced

Blue Muse is a Jacksonville Florida based band consisting of Jarrett Carter, guitar; Cody Wheaton, bass; Javian Francis, piano; John Medico, drums; Jack Miller, drums; Sarah Lee, tenor sax; Lance Reed, trombone; and Steve Strawley, trumpet & flugelhorn. Blue Muse was formed after saxophonist Sarah Lee left her 20-year career in Information Technology and pursued her passion, jazz. It was while attending Jacksonville University that she brought together the jazz musicians who became Blue Muse. "It Never Entered My Mind" is this group's second album.

This album is a well-played recording in the vein of the classic Blue Note recordings of the sixties, with the influence of Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, and Art Blakey particularly evident. Three of the six tunes are Shorter compositions. The opening track, "One By One," was by Shorter and recorded by Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. It is a driving performance with clean, crisp ensemble portions and engaging solos from Reed, Francis, Lee, Strawley, Carter, and Wheaton. Following is the title track, the only standard on this album. Strawley's muted trumpet opening with a lyrical solo while the other horns provide atmosphere in the background. Carter again impresses with a guitar interlude. A finger-popping rendition of Horace Silver's "Nutville" follows with some hot trumpet before Sarah Lee takes a dynamic, rhythmic solo before Reed's well-burnished trombone solo and Medico's fascinating use of his whole drum kit on his solo.

"Sweet Sour" is another Wayne Shorter composition initially recorded by Art Blakey. Guitar Carter dazzles on this selection, followed by Reed's gravelly trombone and Francis' fluid piano. Also heard are interpretations of Joe Sample's "Freedom Sound" and Shorter's "Ping Pong." Again, there are spirited solos set against a tight, responsive ensemble on more marvelously played, straight-forward hard bop performances. Blue Muse is calling this an EP as it 'only' has 40 minutes of music. In the days of vinyl LPs, this would have been a full LP, and in any case, these six tracks with 40 minutes are solid performances in the hard bop vein.

I received my review copy from a publicist. This review appeared in the July-August 2021 Jazz & Blue Report (Issue 397). Here Blue Muse performs "It Never Entered My Mind."