From WBGO.org
Pianist Joey Alexander has a few associations with the onset of summer. “I think summer is a time where we flourish,” he tells WBGO. “It’s a time of maturing. So I decided to write this tune in the sense of being hopeful, looking forward to a time when we can perform, and in this uncertainty, we don’t feel obligated and we don’t feel stuck.”
The song to which Alexander is referring is “Summer Rising” — his new single on Verve, premiering today at WBGO. With a vibrant melody and a flowing pulse in quintuple meter, it features Jaleel Shaw as a special guest on alto saxophone, along with Daniel Winshall on bass and Tyson D. Jackson on drums. “Summer Rising” is the third standalone single that Alexander has released this spring, following “Salt” (in March) and “Under the Sun” (in April). “All three songs I wrote during the height of the pandemic,” Alexander says. “And to me, ‘Summer Rising’ — I would say basically it’s about, in this uncertainty: how do we rise above it?”