Citrus Sun is Bluey’s side project and this is the 5th album. ‘Anaconga’ is out June 14th. The first single out May 24th “Down For The Third Time” – it’s a funky makeover of Bobby Caldwell’s 1978 classic with Natalie Duncan on vocals (Incognito) and Dominic Glover and Charlie Allen on trumpet and guitar respectively.
This new project is an homage to jazz and soul greats from back in the day.
The album opens with the gorgeous Maynard Ferguson tune “Mister Mellow” from the Seventies, with backing vocals from Tony Momrelle and Deborah Bond. Bluey and Richard Bull share the production . “Down For The Third Time”, the album’s lead single, is a deliciously funky remake of a classic Bobby Caldwell groove from 1978, with Natalie Duncan on vocals and Dominic Glover and Charlie Allen tearing it up on trumpet and guitar respectively.
“Mystic Brew” was originally written and recorded in the Seventies by funk, soul and jazz keyboard legend Ronnie Foster and Bluey includes it “to say thank you for his massive contribution to the music we love and are inspired by”. Erykah Badu’s “Honey”, also with vocals by Natalie Duncan, features beautiful trumpet and flugelhorn from Kevin Robinson.
The stand-out new songs on the album are “Santiago”, which features the young Indonesian harmonica player Rega Dauna, who starred on the band’s “Hard Boiled” instrumental hit from their last album “Expansions & Visions”, and “In Search of the Blue Note”, with Dominic Glover on flugelhorn and Graham Harvey on keyboards, which Bluey says is “inspired by New York City’s jazz history and nightlife”.
Bluey sums up the mood of the album: “I hope that the rhythms wrap themselves around your consciousness and the music slithers into your soul, whilst you bask in the light of the Citrus Sun! Unconstricted love, Bluey”.
Citrus Sun is the mainly instrumental-oriented side project which runs alongside Incognito and features many of the same musicians. The band released their first Dome album “People Of Tomorrow” in 2014. In the US they have enjoyed four smooth jazz hits with “Mas Uma Vez”, “Calling Mr Wolf”, “Hard Boiled” and “Thinking of You”. They have performed live in the US, UK, Japan and a number of European countries.
The album is available now. Citrus Sun- Anaconga