Paul Cherry - Pure Grooves, Vol. 1

Pure Grooves is the kind of record that nobody asks you to make, and nobody necessarily wants you to make, but is the soul food that I needed to keep going. This album is so many things to me. This record is an homage to my mother who would put on Pat Metheny Group’s Letter From Home every sunday while cleaning the house when i was a kid. It’s a love letter to my live band and the ability to give them a platform to not just be the backing band for singer/songwriter Paul Cherry. The record is also a fuck-you to the music mindset in the  streaming age, and the punk-ness of jazz is that it’s beauty isn’t tied into it’s perceived value. The story in this record is about returning home, coming back to what you’re really in touch with no matter how un-cool or un-popular it may be. The album was a self-actualization for me, someone who loves jazz so much but never quite had the chops to put together something like this until I was 30. It’s the first record I’ve made living in LA, the land of pop and image. It’s my personal and private rebellion I’m willing to make public because I think this record is so beautiful and adds a small amount of beauty to the current landscape. The music itself is also a reflection of LA and SoCal, inspired by 70’s and 80’s  fusion jazz like Jeff Lorber and Lee Ritenour, anything you’d hear on The Wave. It’s also inspired by artists like Haruomi Hosono or Todd Rundgren who had instrumental records dropping casually and regularly between vocal pop records, something that feels dangerous now in the age of playlist pitching. This is what it sounds like when I get to make truly whatever the hell I want, and it’s just the first installment in one pillar of my artistry. There will be a Pure Grooves Vol II, III, IV etc etc.