People & Places

Keyboardist Marc Seales recently released a new album on Origin Records with the legendary Ernie Watts called People & Places. The two of them are joined by Bruce Lett on the bass and Moyes Lucas, Jr. on drums, and for a quartet, they make a huge amount of sound together. Interestingly, the closest comparison I really have to what's going on here is to call them an acoustic take on Weather Report. Lots of chops used responsibly in service to the song. Fat grooves and earworm melodies help, too. And the inclusion of a Weather Report classic (Wayne Shorter's "Palladium") makes this theory even stronger. Ernie Watts sounds like he's at the top of his game throughout the album, and Marc Seales plays a ton of piano. When he does break out the synthesizers, they're used tastefully for texture. I don't know what People and Places Marc Seales had in mind when he envisioned this album, but I want to go there and meet them.