Photo by Martin do Nascimento
Smooth coffee jazz creamed with truth and experience is the tall order filled by Chicago’s Sidewalk Chalk. Their fourth album An Orchid is Born is the physical embodiment of their growth as a unit and individuals. Realizing that hope and loss are all part of life and learning, the seven piece use their latest album to explore that theme through stories set-up and illustrated by MC Rico Sisney, filled with the honey-colored soul and intimacy of Maggie Vagle’s sumptuous jazz vocals, and backdropped with a dynamite rhythm and horns section.
“Trapped” in the context of growing-up and navigating life, speaks for itself. Being in one self-defined place for too long, not having the life years to know what’s too slow and what’s the status quo, and finding the inner-strength and integrity to thrive, evolve, and never lose sight of the goal. It’s all here wrapped in a jazzy, hip-hop bow, recorded live in our Studio 1A.
“Trapped” is available on An Orchid Is Born, out now, via Ropeadope Records. Check out their full Studio 1A session here.
-Taylor Wallace- host, Thursdays at 8PM and Saturdays at 2PM; Producer, Eklektikos with John Aielli and SoundCheck Music News
