Destiny Calling

A deeply melodic guitarist along the lines of Grant Green. Apicella faithfully has sought to channel an era of American music when hard bop and R&B reigned... But the guitarist still manages to keep things fresh.
DownBeat

New York guitarist Charlie Apicella's musical voice runs historically deep, with his seven recordings to date highly focused on celebrating the elders of jazz, R&B, and the Blues. His band, Iron City, has been with him the whole way, providing a base context for all of his projects. With Destiny Calling, this hard bop rhythm section drives headlong into the future as the elder masters of The Griots Speak draw from a lifetime of experience in communication with the ancestors. Trail blazing percussionist Juma Sultan formed the Griots with saxophonist Daniel Carter, bassist William Parker and Apicella to help celebrate a patriarch of New York's '60's loft scene. Simultaneously fluid, extroverted, light, confrontational, and meditative, their music is poetry in motion. They create spontaneously, as they move between instruments, including a variety of indigenous instruments which convey a pan-ancestral tapestry at the core of their sound. For Apicella, it's the realization of lessons learned through his studies with Yusef Lateef and the opportunity to further amplify the legacy.

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Track Listing

1 As the Sun Rises 2:16 (Apicella, Parker, Carter)
2 Titan vs. Sphinx 3:45 (Apicella)
3 Juma's Song/Maliki Malesha 3:57 (Sultan & Apicella / traditional)
4 We're All Here in Spirit 4:31 (Apicella, Parker, Sultan)
5 It's Alright to Run 4:27 (Apicella, Parker, Sultan)
6 I Heard in Passing 3:40 (Apicella)
7 If You Know Where to Look 8:15 (Parker, Walker, Apicella)
8 Where Do You Find These People? 5:04 (Whiteley, Carter, Apicella)
9 Sparks 7:06 (Apicella)

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