Destiny Calling Charlie Apicella & Iron City meet The Griots Speak

• 1 As the Sun Rises 02:16
• 2 Titan vs. Sphinx 03:44
• 3 Juma Speaks/Maliki Malesha 03:56
• 4 We're All Here in Spirit 04:30
• 5 It's Alright to Run 04:26
• 6 I Heard in Passing 03:40
• 7 If You Know Where to Look 08:14
• 8 Where Do You Find These People 05:04
• 9 Sparks 07:05
• Total Runtime 42:55

Info for Destiny Calling

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.

"With winningly loose and organic sounding pieces written in collaboration with The Griot Speaks guitarist Charlie Apicella who leads the organ-guitar-drums combo Iron City meshes in a very free flowing pan-African riff led spree. Avant bass icon William Parker superb with Elaine Mitchener, Orphy Robinson et al a few years ago on Good News is in glo ..." (Marlbank-UK, Stephen Graham)

"Two bands for the price of one are served here, as the Iron City team of Brad Whiteley/org and Austin Walker/dr join forces with The Gritos Speak band of Daniel Carter/sax-fl-cl-p-tp, Charlie Apicella/perc-g, William Parker/b-misc and Juma Sultan/perc. The result is a combination of soul grooves and sounds that serve as a foundation for exotic harm ..." (Jazz Weekly, George W Harris)

"Traditionally, the griot is the human repository of remembered oral history and traditions regarding West African culture. The griot is a historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. When the griot speaks, it is from a lifetime of communicating about the ancestors. Here it is about communicating traditions and spurring others to pl ..." (Jazz Views-UK, Ed Sapiega)

"Since the early 2000s, guitarist Charlie Apicella's Iron City trio has devoted itself to maintaining the tradition of soulful, organ-based jazz. The aptly-titled Groove Machine (OA2 Records, 2019) preceded Destiny Calling, the group's 2023 album. And the latest one is quite a change-up. For this outing, Apicella has teamed up with The Griots Speak, ..." (All About Jazz, Troy Dostert)

The Griots Speak:
Daniel Carter, saxophones, flute, clarinet, trumpet, piano
Charlie Apicella, madal drum, Tibetan singing bowls, guitar
William Parker, bass, doson ngoni, double reed: gralla, gembiri, pocket trumpet
Juma Sultan, congas, shakers, percussion
Charlie Apicella & Iron City:
Brad Whiteley, organ
Austin Walker, drums

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 48 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 96 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Charlie Apicella
was voted onto the 84th and 86th DownBeat Readers Poll for Guitar.

He studied composition and improvisation with musical titans Yusef Lateef and Pat Martino and was trained as a historian by Archie Shepp and Dr. Billy Taylor. As a young guitarist he met his idol BB King, who offered him advice and shared some stories.

He has performed concerts and recorded with jazz legends Dave Holland, Sonny Fortune, John Blake, Jr., and Avery Sharpe as well as contemporary masters Joe Magnarelli, Vic Juris, Dave Stryker, Don Braden, and Jon Herington of Steely Dan.

In 2022 he formed The Griots Speak with bassist William Parker, saxophonist Daniel Carter, and percussionist Juma Sultan who is known for his work with Jimi Hendrix.

Charlie Apicella is the founder and Director of Blues Alive: the living tradition of the blues.

He is an Eastman Guitars Featured Artist, a Guild Guitars Sponsored Artist, and a ZT Amplifiers Official Artist.

"Apicella's playing shines...[he] is aware of the straight-ahead tradition, showcasing his Wes Montgomery influence...Apicella's guitar sound is bright and clean, and easily cuts through the huge sound of the organ." - TIM FISCHER, Just Jazz Guitar Magazine

Daniel Carter
is an American experimental saxophone, flute, clarinet, and trumpet player active mainly in New York City since the early 1970s. One of the legendary masters of creative music. Born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania in 1945.

Carter is a prolific performer and has recorded or performed with Sun Ra, Billy Bang, Roger Baird, William Parker, Roy Campbell, Sabir Mateen, Simone Forti, Joan Miller, Thurston Moore, Nayo Takasaki, Earl Freeman, Dewey Johnson, Nami Yamamoto, Matthew Shipp, Wilber Morris, Denis Charles, MMW (Medeski, Martin, & Wood), Vernon Reid, Raphe Malik, Sam Rivers, Sunny Murray, Hamiet Bluiett, Cecil Taylor, David S. Ware, Karl Berger, Don Pate, Gunter Hampel, Alan Silva, Susie Ibarra, D.J. Logic, Margaret Beals, Douglas Elliot, Butch Morris, TEST, Other Dimensions in Music, One World Ensemble, Saturnalia String Trio, Levitation Unit, Wet Paint, The Transcendentalists, and many, many others.

This album contains no booklet.