Music is a two-way street, or more appropriately, a conversation. The artist might be the instigator, but a conversation only works when two people are involved; it’s the difference between dialogue and merely talking to yourself. Well, that is the philosophy that lies behind The Used Notes, and it makes perfect sense.
With this in mind, The Used Notes offer music designed to mean different things to different people. The creator of a piece might have a specific idea in mind, but it is the listener who indeed decides what that piece is all about, for them anyway, and it will be different for every use. That is the power and poignancy of music.
This time out, we have My Story, a melodic and uptempo slice of groovy jazz, an engaging and enchanting collection of skittering and busy drums and buoyant bass, breezy brass and spacious, punctuating piano chords and gorgeous vocals dancing over the top.
It is definitely jazz, but it is jazz that breaks out of its genre and will draw in a broader audience; jazz for pop fans, it is roots music that is branching out. Jazz has long been eyed with suspicion or as a closed door to many; songs such as My Story are precisely what the genre needs to embrace those beyond its usual spectrum.