The Evolution of Oneself

ORRIN EVANS EMBARKS UPON A NEW CREATIVE TRAJECTORY with The Evolution of Oneself and introduces an extraordinary new piano trio—featuring Christian McBride and Karriem Riggins—that takes listeners on a deeply personal journey that touches on jazz, folk, country, neo-soul, and hip hop. “This album is about personal evolution. The journey, the trip, and all the people you meet along the way. The people I’ve learned from and the people that have helped me. It’s a conscious musical list to remind me of the things and people that wake my mind, encourage the expansion of the full picture, always force me to embrace my emotions and search for new personality traits. That’s what this record is all about.” explains Evans. Conceived and developed over the past several years, it was recorded live in the studio and includes recurring themes that bind the music together. The album opens and closes with three very different arrangements of the jazz standard “All the Things You Are” including a penultimate track featuring his wife Dawn Warren Evans and a haunting album concluding version with vocalist JD Walter. Marvin Sewell contributes his ethereal guitar playing to a moving interpretation of the folk song “Wildwood Flower” made famous by the Carter Family and dedicated here to the memory of Matt Wilson’s wife, Felicia. Sewell also appears on Grover Washington’s soulful “A Secret Place.” Orrin himself has written several surprising new compositions including three “interludes” remixed by his son Matthew that are woven throughout the record. From start to finish, this arresting artistic odyssey reveals new layers of meaning with each listen. The Evolution of Oneself is available for purchase as an 8-panel CD-Deluxe Album complete with liner notes, interview and additional photos or as a high resolution download mastered for iTunes.