Performer Notes

Recording information: Affina Hotel, New York City; Ameraycan Studios, Los Angels, CA; Make Believe Studios, Omaha; Newport, New York; Organic Grease Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Orgenic Grease Studios, Los Angels, CA; Red Bull Studios, Santa Monica, CA; Village Studios, Los Angeles, CA.
Photographer: Sean Nana .
Out of his many solo projects through 2016, Velvet Portraits is Terrace Martin's most concentrated work. As with the releases that preceded it, styles continually bump against one another and mingle -- freewheeling funk and gritty throwback soul are abundant -- but this one involves no rapping. Some of the ideas were cooked up while Martin was working on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, an album with which this shares a couple elements and some personnel. It plays out like it was conceived during relaxed daytime sessions on rare weekends when Martin and his associates were able to break away from professional and personal obligations. Martin primarily sticks to his tangy alto saxophone and a battery of keyboards, setting the tone with a lazing but impassioned intro that settles into "Valdez Off Crenshaw," where he and his group make like a West Coast version of Blue Thumb-era Crusaders. The sunbaked groove incorporates Donny Hathaway's "Valdez in the Country." Donny's daughter Lalah happens to be among the diverse group of vocalists. She takes the lead on the aching "Oakland," a quiet-fire ballad. Among the album's drummers is Martin's father Curly, who is honored with "Curly Martin," a slowly intensifying instrumental that involves two of the Bruner brothers (drummer Ronald, bassist Thundercat) and Robert Glasper (on Rhodes) as most of its rhythm section. Martin, in vocoder-ized form, is the lead voice on only "With You," a blissed-out G-funk glider. While it occasionally careens and meanders with some sequences that are merely pleasant or heavy-lidded, Velvet Portraits is one of those generously warm albums, seemingly designed for unwinding, that isn't likely to wear out its welcome. ~ Andy Kellman

Professional Reviews

Spin - "'Valdez Off Crenshaw' is a laidback cruise spotlighted by the auteur's warm sax tone. Then there's 'Turkey Taco,' an electro-funk masher featuring the Emotions..."

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