Monty Alexander - Harlem-Kingston Express, Vol. 2 - The River Rolls On (2014) Hi-Res

Throughout a career spanning six decades, the New York-based artist Monty Alexander has garnered acclaim for bridging American jazz, popular song, and the music of his native Jamaica. For the new album, Alexander convened the band for its first studio recordings—primarily at New York City’s Avatar and Dubway. "Commander 'Zander's" reggae-fied one-love groove jazz party continues in high studio style on this rock-steady follow up to his 2011 Grammy®-nominated, chart topping Harlem-Kingston Express volume 1. The piano genius enters his 70th year with this infectiously grooving reggae/jazz fusion studio project, featuring great live bonus tracks.
They perform a mix of Alexander originals (which are themselves steeped in both Caribbean music and American jazz and R&B) and Alexander interpretations of classics, from the soul hits “People Make the World Go Round” and “What’s Going On” (here with the alias “Wa’a Gwan”) to Jimmy Cliff’s reggae landmark “The Harder They Come.”
Harlem-Kingston Express Vol. 2: The River Rolls On at once encapsulates the current moment in Alexander’s singular career and finds him returning to its earlier stages: both his teenage years, when he played on sessions helmed by pioneering reggae producers Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, Duke Reid and Chris Blackwell, and his first decades in the U.S., when he had the occasion to record and perform with icons such as Frank Sinatra, Milt Jackson and Ray Brown, among countless others.