Album Notes

Richard Negri teamed with saxophone phenomenon Howard Mall to create a marriage of poetics and jazz. The two together warmed up for the headlining Neville Brothers in January 2002 at the Miami Jazz Festival.

In May 2002 Negri and Mall traveled to New York City to record with bassist and jazz legend Leonard Gaskin. Gaskin's illustrious career found him holding the bottom for such musical giants as Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, John Coltrane,and Bob Dylan, among many others. The result of that session is“Meditations on a Downbeat, Words Spoken Through Jazz,”the critically acclaimed 11-track disk encompasses a perfect mix of straight-ahead and Be-Bop jazz and urban tribal beats.
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By Angela Delgado Staff Writer
© 2002 Sun-Sentinel
“In the beginning, there was the word. Then the word got jazzed up [Richard Negri's] poetry and voice … ooze the music's rhythms”
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Bing Futch, Music Journalist ~ Orlando, Florida

...There was a palpable sense of connection with the dirty underbelly of the country and Richard Negri has captured that reality with a twist of spiritual celebration; a validation for his subjects. Rejoice in this new work, for it plants the seeds that will hopefully bring more compelling fruit from the roads and from the cities.
-Review of Pen To Paper & Other Blues, Negri's first recording - 5 stars out of 5, appeared first in Ink 19.