Mills Hit Record

Bruce Von Stiers

Pete Mills is a jazz saxophonist. He was born in Toronto, Canada, but now resides in the Columbus, Ohio area.

Mills has had four critically acclaimed albums, especially the hard bop laden Sweet Shadow.

This year Mills has a brand-new album out. It features him as the leader of a quartet. This new album is titled For The Record. It was released on the Mighty Ernie Records label.

Mills has had the same musicians in his quartet for a number of years. Tom Davis is on electric guitar. Zach Compston is the drummer. Jon Eshelman is on the Hammond B3 organ. And Mills is the leader on saxophone.

For The Records has nine songs and a runtime of a bit over fifty-one minutes. Each member of the quartet wrote songs for the album. Eshelman wrote one and Compston wrote two songs. Davis wrote three songs for the album and Mills also wrote three songs for the album.

The album opens with the title track, For The Record. It is a fun tune, with the sax being in the forefront. But there is also a nice guitar solo and they sneak a really cool organ solo into the song.

The Kid begins with a sort of bossa nova styling. Then it transitions into moderate mood with the organ, and the song completes with a mellow guitar solo.

Bird Lives is a fast paced, sax-based tune that is a tribute to Charlie “Bird” Parker.

Kenny, Ken is a guitar-based tune that was listed as a homage to jazz guitar legend Kenny Burrell.

Z is for Zadie is a song that provides a great drum brush solo. It was written by the group's drummer, Zach Compton, as a way to celebrate the birth of his niece.

There is a British slang term, Jammy Git. It means someone who has great luck but hasn't put much effort into it, and so, is not really deserving of it. The album has a song with the same title. It is a toe-tapper with some cool organ music. The notes on this song tells of Tom Davis having written it during his time in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Visitor has a slow and easy pace, an almost mild bossa nova styling.

Step On It has a toe tapping beat. Mills states that the music for the song came to him during a fast-paced morning drive. The song strongly features Mills at first, then has nice guitar and organ solos.

Closing out the album is the soft and gentle song, Baby Simon. Like the title might suggest, it is a kind of jazzy lullaby, with great sax, organ and guitar solos.

I really liked the momentum that For The Record has. There are a couple of soft and gentle songs, but the rest are moderate or fast paced. Which gives the album a great balance. I especially liked Jammy Git, but as a “Bird” fan, I really appreciated Bird Lives.

I think that For The Record will be a hit record for Pete Mills.

You will find For The Record at Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and other streaming and music outlets.

To find out more about For The Record and Pete Mills, visit https://petemills.com/

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