Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Donald Edwards Quintet: The Color Of US Suite

Donald Edwards Quintet: The Color Of US Suite

By Chris May
August 18, 2021
View read count

Donald Edwards Quintet: The Color Of US Suite

This is an album one really wants to love but ends up applauding more for its intention than its realisation. Drummer Donald Edwards has composed a suite which addresses the race hate which besmirches America and which, observed from the other side of the pond, seems to have become more bitter and entrenched with the passing years.

On the opening "Little Hopes," a young girl identified as Sophia Edwards, possibly Edwards' daughter, relates with affecting simplicity her colour-blind love for her rainbow community of school friends. On "Tan," towards the album's end, an adult man, Frank Lacy, delivers impassioned spoken word with the running refrain, "Freedom... Democracy... Equality."

There are no other vocals on The Color Of US Suite and that is the first problem. Unless you have read Edwards' sleeve notes setting out the specific issues each section of the suite addresses, all the tracks bar the aforementioned "Little Hopes" and "Tan" could be about pretty much anything you like. Another issue-based 2021 album, British composer

Ed Puddick

arranger
b.1980

" data-original-title="" title="">Ed Puddick's all-instrumental suite Crazy Days (ATS Records), concerning Britain's exit from the European Union, though a magnificent piece of music, faces similar problems of interpretation. Without knowledge of the sleeve note, it is "just" high-grade big band music.

In that context,

Christian McBride

bass
b.1972

" data-original-title="" title="">Christian McBride's The Movement Revisited (Mack Avenue, 2020) comes to mind. McBride's suite is concerned with subjects adjacent to those of Edwards' The Color Of US Suite, and by augmenting his orchestra with sung and spoken word expositions McBride makes his intended message crystal clear. Another bassist,

Charles Mingus

bass, acoustic
1922 - 1979

" data-original-title="" title="">Charles Mingus, alive and politically engaged when the story McBride relates was being written, used spoken word, and plain-speaking track titles, with similar efficacy.

Which brings us to this album's other problem. Edwards, who has recorded with the Mingus Big Band and Mingus Dynasty, and been the drummer on two albums by mid-1970s Mingus sideman, trumpeter

Jack Walrath

trumpet
b.1946

" data-original-title="" title="">Jack Walrath, does not possess Mingus' genius for composing and arranging. The material on The Color Of US Suite, despite the notable contributions of tenor saxophonist

Abraham Burton

saxophone, alto
b.1971

" data-original-title="" title="">Abraham Burton and electric guitarist

David Gilmore

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">David Gilmore—and of Edwards himself, a solid as a rock sticksman—all sounds a tad samey. Edwards is coming from the right place and is heading in the right direction, but this album does not succeed in carrying at least one listener with it all the way.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Little Hopes; Red; White; Blue; Intro To Black; Black; Brown; Tan; Finding Beauty; Hurricane Sophia.

Personnel

Donald Edwards

drums

Abraham Burton

saxophone, alto

David Gilmore

guitar

Anthony Wonsey

piano

Ben Wolfe

bass

Additional Instrumentation

Abraham Burton: tenor saxophone; Sophia Edwards: voice (1); Frank Lacy: voice (8).

Album information

Title: The Color Of US Suite | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: Criss Cross

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Restraint: Chianti Classico Meets So...
< Previous

Live From Caf�� De Loge, Bar Lume An...
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.