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Volution

Israel Neuman composer, bass & electronics
Brian Perez saxophone
Cole Bracey lyricist, vocals
AceKidd lyricist, vocals

Daleton Lee drums
Sebastian Morales guitar
Jarrett McConnell piano
Willie Britton III drums

Release Date: April 28, 2023
Catalog #: BR8976
Format: Digital
21st Century
Jazz
Piano
Saxophone
Voice

Israel Neuman’s VOLUTION fuses the power of hip hop with the versatility of jazz to form a uniquely forceful expression. The music heard on the album hints at a number of other musical genres as well, including rhythm and blues and middle-eastern folk music, to name a few. Vocalists including AceKidd and Cole Bracey rap and sing over the kaleidoscopic timbres created by Neuman’s music. In Tear It Down, AceKidd’s lyrics decry systemic injustice with lines like “man down/oh but you won’t lend a hand out/pressed down expecting us to stand down.” In Rough, a lovesick Cole Bracey croons “I’m worthless without your love/I’m spinning…Oh it’s rough.” With evocative lyrics, masterful modulations, and a smooth blend of celebrated musical styles, VOLUTION invites a wide audience of music lovers to the table.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Tear It Down Israel Neuman, AceKidd Israel Neuman, bass and electronics; AceKidd, vocals; Brian Perez, saxophone; Sebastian Morales, guitar; Jarrett McConnell, piano; Willie Britton III, drums 7:20
02 Rough Israel Neuman, Cole Bracey Cole Bracey, vocals; Brian Perez, saxophone; Sebastian Morales, guitar; Daleton Lee, drums; Israel Neuman, bass and electronics 7:37
03 Just be Great Israel Neuman, AceKidd AceKidd, vocals; Brian Perez, saxophone; Sebastian Morales, guitar; Jarrett McConnell, piano; Willie Britton III, drums; Israel Neuman, bass and electronics 6:23
04 Till Death Israel Neuman, AceKidd AceKidd, vocals; Brian Perez, saxophone; Sebastian Morales, guitar; Jarrett McConnell, piano; Willie Britton III, drums; Israel Neuman, bass and electronics 7:05
05 Level Up Israel Neuman, Cole Bracey Cole Bracey, vocals; Brian Perez, saxophone; Sebastian Morales, guitar; Daleton Lee, drums; Israel Neuman, bass and electronics 6:16
06 Love Loss Israel Neuman, Cole Bracey Cole Bracey, vocals; Brian Perez, flute; Sebastian Morales, guitar; Jarrett McConnell, piano; Daleton Lee, drums; Israel Neuman, bass and electronics 7:46
07 Volution Israel Neuman Brian Perez, saxophone; Sebastian Morales, guitar; Daleton Lee, drums; Israel Neuman, bass and electronics 8:47

All tracks were produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Israel Neuman December 2021 through September 2022 in Houston TX

Cover artwork painting by Avi Orr

Executive Producer Bob Lord

A&R Director Brandon MacNeil

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Aidan Curran

Artist Information

Israel Neuman

Bassist, Composer

Dr. Israel Neuman is a composer, producer, sound engineer, bass player, and educator. He teaches sound production at the Texas Southern University School of Communication. Neuman’s sound projects are diverse both in content as well as in their uses of technology. He recorded, mixed, and mastered for jazz artists such as John Rapson, Damani Phillip, Lewis Nash, Jim Buennig, and James Dreier. He collaborated as sound designer and composer with filmmakers Tyrone Dixon and Yuval Cohan as well as playwright Thomas Meloncon.

Learn More

AceKidd

vocals and lyricist

AceKidd (Derrick Andre Abram Jr) is a Hip-Hop/R&B songwriter and artist from Houston TX. Active since 2013, he is the owner and founding member of the production company AllDayRecess LLC. AceKidd has released two full length projects: Good Intentions (2014), and Love Yourself (2017), as well as Summer’s OveRRated in July 2018. In addition to his own music, AceKidd has amassed a number of songwriting credits as a member of the production team 100 Grand, including songs written for Beatking, Katt St. John, Rich Andruws, Shania Juzil, Kevin Gates, Alexis Finley, QBDaProblem, LabOx, Madicin, Truly Téo, Joel Love, Princess Richie, and various others. AceKidd’s songwriting was recognized when he won the national songwriting competition Creator Camp in 2019.

Cole Bracey

vocals and lyricist

Born and raised in Houston TX, Cole Bracey began his artistic endeavors as young child, participating in musical theatre programs at The Ensemble and Theater Under the Stars and eventually in high school and college. Bracey also had an interest in songwriting from an early age and verses of songs scribbled on crumpled paper were often found around the house.

Known artistically as BXTRM, prior to his move back to Houston, while living in New York City he began to expand his development as an artist and songwriter. Currently he is studying Entertainment and Recording Industry Management at Texas Southern University and working on his debut project.

Brian Perez

saxophone

Dr. Brian Perez is a saxophone and woodwind performer, educator, and composer. He is the Director of Jazz Studies and Woodwinds at Texas Southern University where his duties include directing the jazz ensembles, teaching jazz curriculum courses, teaching the woodwind studio and coordinating the annual Jazz Festival. Under Perez’s direction the TSU Jazz Ensembles have performed for the Houston Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Jazz Education Network National Conference with Kirk Whalum, the Texas Music Educators Association Conference, and the HBCU Band Directors Consortium.

Perez holds a D.M.A. in saxophone performance from the University of Maryland College Park, a Master of Music in Jazz Pedagogy from the University of Miami, and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of Minnesota Duluth, and has studied at the L’Aula Conservatori del Musica in Barcelona, Spain. Perez’s teaching career includes 10 years as Assistant Professor of Saxophone and Director of Jazz Ensembles at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Perez performs regularly with the Houston Jazz Orchestra and has performed with artists such as the Cab Calloway Orchestra, the Conrad O. Johnson Jazz Orchestra, Ruben Blades, and the Temptations. As a solo artist he has performed nationally and internationally including Spain, Colombia, and Venezuela.

Notes

I am honored to write the liner notes for this eclectic and diversified album. After I listened to each piece, I soon realized that this entire album is a genius musical rainbow of distinct genres and styles that speak to the universality of music and the commonality of the human experience.

There is a subtle African bell that season one piece; giving me images of Ashanti people dancing to the rhythms of African drums. And in another selection Coltrane-like rich, vibrant impressions can be heard, putting me in the mood for a glass of red wine with my wife on a summer’s afternoon. A rhythm and blues selection scored with spoken word reminded me that these two genres are born from the same canon of African American music; and that both are storytellers with word magic.

Added to this listening entertainment is the sound of middle-eastern folk music combined with jazz motifs. This album took me on a journey across cultural boundaries and revealed how music is the most powerful and shared common denominator among human beings.

Finally, it has been said that musical instruments can be seen as extensions of the human voice. In the case of this great album, when diverse voices can speak their musical language through words and instrumentation, and yet harmonize their connectivity to each other, then it is worth the journey.

— Thomas Meloncon, playwright

Lyrics

Lyrics by AceKidd

These quiet times,
thoughts race through mind at this time of night,
set the scene vivid dreams flicker like candle light,
melt me away, no rather take me away,
pen and pad and I scribble away,
slipping away, you keep your head in the clouds,
it got you feeling a way,
can’t keep my feet on the ground,
I’m often drifting away,
no use in holding us down,
no use in keep us bound,
still standing tall and we tearing it down,

To the ground,
tear it down tear it down,
to the ground no use in holding us down,
no use in keeping us bound,
still standing tall and we burning it down

These silent nights,
time races through mind,
and I just view the stage through my mind’s eye,
you see all the pain,
and yet you just turn a blind eye,
side eye,
when all your people broken and crying out,
how you can stand by,
man down oh but you won’t lend a hand out, pressed down expecting us to stand down, tear down,
brick by brick till fold and it crumbles,
until it’s nothing but rubble…….
tear it down.

To the ground,
tear it down tear it down,
to the ground no use in holding us down,
no use in keeping us bound,
still standing tall and we burning it down

Lyrics by Cole Bracey

Tell I’m enough
I’m worthless without your love
I’m spinning
My minds been running
Oh it’s rough

I’d give it all to be enough
I’m worthless without your love
I’m spinning
My minds running
Oh it’s rough

I wonder if I gave it up
Would you make me the one to take you to the sun
I’ve ran all these races
But still can’t seem to be placed with you
And if I could wish upon a star
I pray for a ticket to have a fast car
I ran all these races
But still can’t seem to be placed with you

Lyrics by AceKidd

Green lies the money
Greed or it’s humbly
Feast or your hungry
It’s siege on the country
Take heed or a seat as we read on a Sunday
It’s lovely

Mad rich
Or a savage
But we running through this money like bandits
Way we burning through it straight acid
Madness
Cash it
And we hear is yapping
Turning on the news each day more tragic
Asking
Will it ever stop?
Who knows things happen
in life
We keep laughing
My thoughts too deep so they told me keep rapping
Then or maybe just go and dribble a basket
Do a trick or sum
Make it swish or sum
Few options
Life hit or miss or sum
Two or three I’m just tryna get it in
Don’t matter how what it cost I’m just tryna get a win
Make it spin
Collecting all my thoughts and bring it in
Then it click
No matter what you do time tick tick ticks
It never wait for you
And please know that death is but a date,
Regardless of your path just be great
Regardless of your past don’t worry look strait
Don’t flake
Bend and you do but can’t break
Just be great

Lyrics by AceKidd

Time moves fast like a lady in a red dress,
or sport car,
two doors leather seats we pull off,
bright lights the city dim,
but we shining,
baby we diamonds,
in rough tough life so what
cuz we make it look easy,
me and you together yea it could all be peachy,
or if they give us lemons we squeeze it,
say we got the juice and it’s pulp free,
in other words so lovely…….
it’s but a word but I’d put nothing above the, girl cuz you fancy huh?
And you flashy and classy,
and dancing with the stars till we crashing, and I’m making a wish won’t you grant me, just a night,
under moonlight and candles,
on beach off coast in our sandals,
where it’s hot and you too much to handle,
roll the dice take a gamble

You and me
It could be so simple baby
And if you believe
Just say the word let’s break away

We can cut the scene,
we can make a scene,
make a dream,
come true make believe,
and front page cover girl Maybelline,
you would be my centerfold,
always make me lose control,
lose my hold,
probably not the one but I promise you that I’d give mind body soul,
cuz I couldn’t let you go,
cuz I want you and I need you,
hearts my heart girls you can keep it,
ball and chain lock,
you’re an angel, and stranger,
I don’t know your name,
but I know you’re amazing,
and I’m trapped in your maze and I’m chasing a green set of eyes,
and a Coke bottle waist,
and I’m not even shame,
or a hater like those other guys that you dated,
I’m saying, till death do us part we could make it.

Lyrics by Cole Bracey

You had been down, stuck
But now I’m growing on my luck
Was it love or material lust
Guess it’s time that moved on and leveled up
Leveled up

Bonded by the fruit but never seen the truth
Laid skin to skin
Introduced you to my kin
Did you ever love me right
Did you think I’d never catch on to your lies
Ever, ever you thought you were clever
Make it through the weather
But I’m sweet much better
Better, better
Can keep your umbrella
I’m moving up a level couldn’t try to slow the tempo on me

Separated by love
As if it ain’t come from up above
Kept our eyes glue to matters that would end up
Broken hearted lone-wolf, send us
Leaving your gardens I found a new Route 42
And it takes me straight to the booth
Putting my pain into these records
I’d go insane if I kept them
I’m just tryna move on to another level

You had been down, stuck
But now I’m growing on my luck
Was it love or material lust
Guess it’s time that moved on and leveled up
Leveled up

Lyrics by Cole Bracey

Kisses, intimate moments
You take me higher
Your love is the only component my heart requires

I need you to light my fire
By me
You fulfill all my desires
Keep me
All in the heat, on a private beach
Love lost, like we’re on an island

Let’s escape into the sky
You and me, let’s ride
We can coast the mountain sky
Baby let’s ride, fly high

I need you to light my fire
By me
You fulfill all my desires
Keep me
Centered and focused
No cloud or no rain
Just the sun shining for us
Like we’re on an island
Fly high

I need you to light my fire
By me
You fulfill all my desires
Keep me

I need you to light my fire
By me
You fulfill all my desires
Keep me