Unspoken, unconventional, but calculated with balance and tact, Sam CD and DJ Toshi’s latest joint release is an entrancing piece that works exceedingly well, for all the right reasons.
The Miami, Florida based pianist Sam CD has been at it for three decades, playing jazz and classical music extensively and probably studying jazz’s infamous Real Book three times over. The result? Sam CD is out to create a songbook for hip hop, and here we land on his latest release, ‘Everything I Am’.
A joint venture with DJ Toshi, ‘Everything I Am’ is an (almost) piano only piece that features few notes, and even fewer chords, interspersed with DJ Toshi’s turntables uttering and glitching extensively throughout. Sam CD chose to go with a bright, spangly upright piano sound that remind of countless ragtime classics, instead of Jazz’s usual, warm grand pianos, creating a sound that both stands out and feels different in its impact. Furthermore, his choice of a few minimal chords, and relatively predictable turnarounds and motifs have made the simple cut easy to listen to and made the unusual piano sound less harsh and demand less mental effort to fully encompass.
Sam CD could have gone jazzy with his release, with intricate voicings and shapeshifting rhythms, maybe with horns or woodwinds too. But instead, he went with a jangly upright, musical passages that sink right in, and with independent input from a capable DJ that elevates the experience into something even more unusual. Sam CD is putting his 30 years of experience in full display in this minimal, unseeming instrumental.