The Debut Album of Jonathan Mills

The Debut Album of Jonathan Mills

Bruce Von Stiers

Jonathan Mills does a bunch of things. He plays drums, composes music and teaches music. Mills also tours as a band leader and performs and tours as a member of a few different musical groups.

Mills has just released his debut full-length album. Self-released, the album is titled No Mentions, No Worries. The album has eight songs and a play time of fifty minutes.

Mills does all the drummer duties on the album. He is assisted by several notable musicians. Luke Weathington plays alto sax on the album. His credits include work with Freddie Cole, Johnnie Mathis and the Atlanta All-Star Big Band. Patrick Arthur is on guitar. He's played with people such as Russ Miller and Wycliff Gordon. Tyrone Jackson plays both the piano and Fender Rhodes on the album. A few of the top artists he's performed with include Wynton Marsalis, Larry Carlton and Earl Klugh. Tommy Sauter played the acoustic bass. Besides performing with the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, he played on an album from Thomas Heflin and has performed with several noted jazz musicians.

The album opens with the title song, No Mentions, No Worries. Strong bass and a hard groove sound begins the song. There is some strong drum behind nice sax and guitar. Then there is some really cool funk keyboard work.

For Hadley's Folks is a soft and gentle piece. Mills wrote the song for his newborn niece, with the intended theme being much needed rest and relaxation.

When My Mind's Quiet is an interesting song with a fast-paced intro that moves into a moderately paced, toe tapping beat.

Solecism has a nice, melodic sound. It has a breezy tone at some points, then some moderate sax moves in. That's followed by a nice guitar solo. And there is a nice drum solo in the song as well.

Cool Out is a mellow, Thelonious Monk styled song.

Calderazzish is a toe-tapping song that was written as a sort of thanks to Joey Calderazzo, who wrote many songs that Mills has enjoyed.

Then there is Wait For It. The song has a lot of bass and sax in front of subtle drum that leads into a good guitar solo.

The album closes with Sneak Attack. It is a fun, smile effecting, toe-tapping song.

Jonathan Mills has put together a decent jazz album. Not only did he compose some nice songs, Milla brought in some very talented musicians to complement the music.

No Mentions, No Worries can be found on Spotify and Amazon Music among other music outlets and streaming services. To learn more, visit Jonathan Mills' web site at

https://www.jonathanmillsdrums.com/

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