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RICHARD GUBA, Songs for Stuffed Animals

Jonathan Widran

When a legendary sax player like Richard Guba waits till 50 years into his career to record his debut album as a leader, it’s bound to be – and it better be – epic, original and maybe even something so magical and whimsical that no other veteran jazz cat would dare.


That’s the wondrous feeling listeners are bound to experience as they tap into Guba and his dynamic octet perform Songs for Stuffed Animals, which captures our imagination more as the contemporary jazz equivalent of Saint-Saëns’ “Carnival of the Animals” than the children’s album the colorful cover and font might lead one to expect. (It’s kind of like if some of the characters of the Toy Story series suddenly turned on a set of hipster jazz).


That cover, featuring a painting of a pink stuffed goat, isn’t just window dressing – it’s the entire inspiration for the stylistically and rhythmically eclectic, exuberantly performed eight-piece whirlwind of musical imagination. The liner notes are impossibly small but full of insight. To wit, the cover photo is of a painting Guba’s late wife Lisa created in middle school in the late 70s. After her unexpected passing, he discovered it in the back of a closet – which sparked the concept of a collection of jazz originals and re-imaginings of classics that he imagines stuffed animals might hear and enjoy.  


Envisioning a vinyl release in addition to streaming, Guba breaks down the set into two sections. The first four songs, starting with an edgy yet whimsical romp through Spyro Gyra’s exotic crossover hit “Morning Dance” and wrapping with the peppy, brass-fired Larry Willis jam “To Wisdom the Prize,” reflect the theme of Waking Up and Meeting the New Day. The flip side of the LP, collectively bundled for the purposes of “Winding Down,” opens with the multiple mood swings (from frisky to sensual, sultry and laid back) of guitarist Nicholas Carico’s “Simply Do Not” and wraps with a sparsely arranged take on McCoy Tyner’s “Search For Peace” which serves as a powerful solo showcase for both Guba and trumpeter Joel McCord.


Along the way, our stuffed friends get to feast on the spirited, Latin-tinged charms of a smoky spin through Joe Henderson’s “Black Narcissus” featuring Rodney Lester on flute.

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