Milton Suggs - Pure Intention (2024) [Official Digital Download 24/88]

The vocal-piano duo has always been one of my favorite configurations to listen to as well as perform. Timeless recordings from pairings like Abbey Lincoln & Hank Jones's "When There Is Love" and the Tony Bennett / Bill Evans album have remained a fixture in my rotation since my first listen many years ago.

Pure Intention, is my second venture in recording a vocal-piano duo album; the first being "Just Like Me" with my god-father and teacher, Willie Pickens, recorded 14 years prior in 2009. While "Just Like Me" featured compositions written by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, "Pure Intention" mostly features my lyrics to music written by some of my favorite musicians and composers like Horace SIlver, Mulgrew Miller, Cedar Walton, Lee Morgan, Buster Williams, and others. This album gave me the opportunity to exercise one of my favorite creative pastimes by writing lyrics while celebrating a few of the artists and compositions that I love. It is a pursuit that I inherited from the likes of Oscar Brown, Jr., Eddie Jefferson, and Jon Hendricks.

Joining me on this album is fellow Chicago native and prodigious piano talent, Michael King, also a former student of Mr. Pickens. Though I have been performing many of these songs for years, it was Michael's technical facility, harmonic ingenuity, and overall inventiveness that opened up possibilities beyond what I had previously conceived.

TRACKLIST

1. Milton Suggs - Sing A Song Of Song (There Is A Song)
2. Milton Suggs - Sunrise In Malibu (A Pleasant Surprise)
3. Milton Suggs - Nzingah (Pure Intention)
4. Milton Suggs - Cry Together
5. Milton Suggs - Change Your Mind
6. Milton Suggs - Firm Roots (What We Really Need)
7. Milton Suggs - Old Folks
8. Milton Suggs - Along Came Betty (The Day She Came Along)
9. Milton Suggs - Pretty Eyes (Those Eyes)
10. Milton Suggs - Helen's Ritual (Toxic)
11. Milton Suggs - Holding Hands (Holding Your Hand)
12. Milton Suggs - To Wisdom The Prize (Wisdom)
13. Milton Suggs - Golden Time Of Day



Thanks to the Original customer.