“A master of six-string bass, Roland Guerin put the bottom in Allen Toussaint’s band during the composer-pianist-producer’s second act as a world-traveling concert artist,” wrote John Wirt in the October issue of OffBeat
Also in October, Guerin released Grass Roots via Louisiana Hot Red Records, an album which debuted at the number-five position on iTunes’ Jazz chart. Now, he’s premiering a music video for the album cut “Stick to the Basics,” for which the late Toussaint penned the lyrics.
Described as “decidely more angsty” than what Mr. Toussaint’s version of the record may have sounded like, Guerin’s song is about “coming to terms with “being betrayed and abandoning naivety.” As Guerin says,“Details in music reflect the details in daily life. Some folks walk right on by life as it happens. The melody in the song is like blood flowing through the body. The groove of the song is like a heart beat. The story of the song is its spirit. These are things that Allen didn’t say but are things that I’ve grown into believing through him openly sharing his musical experiences with me.”
Toussaint handed Guerin the lyrics to what would become “Stick to the Basics,” asking him to set them “in the way that spoke to him,” ultimately evolving into a intergenerational and inter-genre collaboration.
Guerin adds “I have no angst in what I’m now doing as a musician. I do have a sense of urgency, mainly because I have over 17 albums worth of music to get to…and I’m constantly writing more. I have hope that whatever I do musically can be shared with folks throughout the world and hopefully spark something hip. In life, if we’re presented with something that is not hip, it actually may not be hip. Deep down I feel that we all know what greatness is or what greatness can be. It’s up to us to embrace that as a possibility and not just settle for any old thing. And in doing so, even though social media pushes for an individual approach, getting to some hipness together is not a bad thing at all.”
For more from Roland Guerin, visit his official website.
