Welcome to My Life (2019)

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Randy Muller Boom Chang Bang – Welcome to My Life

Welcome To My Life, the new project by Randy Muller Boom Chang Bang, gives listeners an insight into where Muller is as an artist, as well as where he has been and where he is going. Listeners will hear a bit of the danceable funk that Muller made with Skyy and that the percussive, hard driving jazzy funk he made with Brass Construction. And there is a bit of the wood wind jazz that has been Muller’s forte for the last decade and a half.

Muller gives us all that within the first six tracks, and then he expands from there to hit listeners with a bit of bossa nova and brassy Afro-Caribbean funk on the tracks “Brazilian Nights” and “Something Simple (Algo Simple).” Muller’s attraction to the music of South America, Central America and the Caribbean should not be surprising, as he was born in British Guyana.

Jazz is what’s capturing Muller’s musical interest these days, and Welcome To My Life has several strong fusion tracks where Muller showcases his ability as an improvisor on the flute. “Groovin’ U,” finds him going on a creative flight of fancy, undergirded with an on-the-one bass line, while the bumping “Slip n Slide,” with its organ and bass engaging in an instrumental conversation with Muller’s flute, is a cut one that the skaters and steppers will enjoy.

Listeners looking for some of that hard driving and percussive funk that Muller created with Brass Construction will get that with “What Are We Gonna Do,” while the cowbells, hand claps contribute a funky playfulness of “Booty Bump” might recall some of the party anthems that Muller created with Skyy. Muller’s work on the flute, energized by the call and response that he engages in with the vocals, is a creative high point on a record that has more than a few.

Muller admits that there was indeed a message behind the album’s title, noting that he hoped to provide listeners with a glimpse of his musical DNA. He does indeed open the creative door on Welcome To My Life, and those who enter will certainly want to stay for a while. Highly Recommended.

By Howard Dukes

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