Giant Steps Music Action Collective – What If (Giant Steps Music, 2018)
What If features songs by a group of musicians that participated in the San Francisco-based Giant Steps’ Music Action Lab 2.0. The month-long music lab took place in the Fall of 2017 throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and ended in Ixtapa, Mexico.
The Music Action Lab 2.0 brought together nine musicians from various parts of the globe: drummer Ernesto “Matute” Lopez; Kenyan percussionist Kasiva Mutua; cellist Avery Waite; multi-instrumentalist Sevana Tchakerian; Albanian singer Rona Nishliu; jazz saxophonist and composer James Brandon Lewis; Tanzanian multi-instrumentalist and percussionist Kauzeni Lyamba; Japanese-American pianist and flutist Erika Oba; and American bassist Chris Bastian.
The majority of the songs on What If are pop and jazz-oriented, featuring soulful vocals, ubiquitous smooth jazz saxophone, tiresome rapping in various languages, great African drumming and some Latin American influences. Despite the international talent, most of what appears in the album is stereotypical Americanized music.
The concept behind the music lab is to build a worldwide community of musicians that create music to advance social change.
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.
