Urbanus (album)
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| Studio album by Stefon Harris | ||||
| Released | August 25, 2009 | |||
| Recorded | January 13, 2009 – Jananuary 15, 2009 | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 55:18 | |||
| Label | Concord | |||
| Producer | Stefon Harris | |||
| Stefon Harris chronology | ||||
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| Allmusic |    |
Urbanus is the seventh album by jazz vibraphonist Stefon Harris. It was released in August 2009 on Concord Records, Harris's first release with the label, his previous six releases were on Blue Note Records. The self-produced album was Harris's second with his band Blackout, the first being 2004's Evolution. It reached number 15 on the Billboard Top Traditional Jazz Albums chart and was nominated for the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.
With Blackout, it really is a band. It's not about me. It's about every member of the ensemble. Everyone contributes songs. Everyone contributes arrangements. It goes wherever the moment goes.
Urbanus, Latin for urban, features Harris's band Blackout, drummer Terreon Gully, keyboardist Marc Cary, saxophonist Casey Benjamin, and bassist Ben Williams. Harris has called this effort a continuation of the work the same band accomplished with its 2004 release, Evolution. The album incorporates jazz with element of hip hop but is closer to pre-1970s jazz and funk than the earlier work by this quintet.
The album was recorded in the days leading up to Barack Obama's inauguration, an event that Harris said filled the band with a sense of pride. Promotion began in May 2009 with a show in Kalamazoo, Michigan at the Dalton Center of Western Michigan University, where Harris completed his residency.
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