This World is a Mean World!

Prescient Finger On The Pulse dept.

Jan 30, 2025

The composition featured in this post, entitled Mean World comes from my son Jaimeo Brown’s first album entitled Transcendence. It features his collaborators Chris Sholar (guitars) and JD Allen (woodwinds). Since Jazz-inspired music is often perceived as “ahead of its time” I was struck by how “of these times” this particular composition seems to be.

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[Energetic music, caution with volume advised]

Jaimeo credits friend and composer Dayna Stephens with introducing him to the music and culture of the Alabama’s Gee’s Bend community. Learning from the quilters and singers of Gee’s Bend opened Jaimeo’s eyes to significant personal, artistic and spiritual revelations which became the foundation for his Masters thesis in Jazz Performance at Rutgers University.

After visits to the Alabama community to interview and briefly live with the present day descendants, Jaimeo, JD and Chris created a musical statement depicting the resilience, beauty and wisdom of a community whose inner spiritual strength transcended any physical or psychological bonds which might have held them down.

Just as our forefathers and foremother’s survived their challenges so must we…and we must do it with some class.

The composition Mean World, opens with a lament from an original Gee’s Bend field recording joined soon thereafter by volcanic drumming from Jaimeo, atmospheric guitar work from co-producer Chris Sholar with sound design from yours truly. The scene is illuminated further by an ever-searching Coltrane-inflected solo from Tenor saxophone phenom JD Allen.

As you listen, please consider those worldwide whose lives have been upset, disrupted or destroyed. For them it is a mean world but despite it all, they persist and endure. The best of African American jazz has always had a finger on the pulse of the times. Mean World (conceived in New York City following the chaos that was Sept.11, 2001) acknowledges hard reality, but underneath the chaos, there is a deep, rich calm which offers resolution and repose at the conclusion.

Jazz music, that uniquely Africans-in-America Music will always exist. Jazz may not be the trend, but it will never end. Jazz doesn’t care, ‘cause it’s not about the public square. It’s about reaching into the heart of love to reconnect with the part that hurts, that cries, that loves, that sighs.

Jaimeo Brown Transcendence can be acquired from Amazon

To see Jaimeo, JD and Chris perform live, Just click here

See more about Jaimeo and his music here

Welcome to Episode two of the Music Makers series where I will indeed explore “the who, what, when, where and why and HOW songs (both mine and others) get from inside our imagination out to your ears. A fascinating subject to be sure. I hope you’ll join me and the other great Iowa songwriters here including Jason Walsmith and my longtime friend and colleague Shadric Smith.

Next: I write a song for mom. She likes country music :-/

This World is a Mean World!

Prescient Finger On The Pulse dept.

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