Melvin Johnson & The Electro-akoustic at The Bitter End

Houston, TX pianist/composer Melvin John son will offer a gift to the world with his debut album, Little Red Wagon, overflowing with musical narratives on family love and the life lessons they provide. Johnson, who once thought of himself as only a live performer, found a unique hunger for recording and production during covid lockdown.  Mixed with exposure in multiple genres and styles, his education and training as a classical pianist forged a fluid and diverse com poser and producer whose time has finally come! Little Red Wagon is an invitation into the narratives that have created who Melvin is today, immersing you through sound and story… overflowing with origins profound and far-reaching. Little Red Wagon opens with “To Pop: The  Explanation,” an homage to his adopted father, Robert Lloyd Parker...

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Houston, TX pianist/composer Melvin John son will offer a gift to the world with his debut album, Little Red Wagon, overflowing with musical narratives on family love and the life lessons they provide. Johnson, who once thought of himself as only a live performer, found a unique hunger for recording and production during covid lockdown.  Mixed with exposure in multiple genres and styles, his education and training as a classical pianist forged a fluid and diverse com poser and producer whose time has finally come! Little Red Wagon is an invitation into the narratives that have created who Melvin is today, immersing you through sound and story… overflowing with origins profound and far-reaching. Little Red Wagon opens with “To Pop: The  Explanation,” an homage to his adopted father, Robert Lloyd Parker. “I wanted to open by verbalizing something to bring the listener into my story. One year, I went to an all-state competition, played with phenomenal musicians, and made first chair. I called to tell  ‘Pop’, but, unusually, he did not answer. He’d died in the hospital… This track is me having a final conversation with him.” Recorded with several hand-picked musicians from  Houston, including members of his band  The Electro-Akoustic, Little Red Wagon is filled top to bottom with autobiographically inspired life gems.  The welcoming shifting tempos of “Perspective” are Melvin’s reflection on the Bible scripture, 1 Corinthians 13:11, which begins,  “When I was a child, I spoke as a child…”  There’s a sizzling danceable number titled  “Black Bacon Funk.” The hypnotic waltz “Beyond the Glass” was inspired by a summer excursion Melvin and his wife Tamara took their son Gavin on to a local amusement park.  Most powerful of all is “Extension,” inspired by a moment of panic, when Melvin realized that he had not fully processed the weight of a situation that he experienced as a child, at the hands of his stepfather.  Reflecting on all he has created here, Melvin Johnson concludes, “These first fully arranged instrumentals do not belong in any genre box, be it Jazz, Classical, Choral, Gospel, etc. If anything, what I hear in my heart and spirit is music for film – for mature musical audiences. Little Red Wagon is a road  map to the next six collections of original  music I’m recording in the future.”The Electro-Akoustic, Little Red Wagon is filled top to bottom with autobiographically-inspired life gems. The welcoming shifting tempos of “Perspective” are Melvin’s reflections on the Bible scripture, 1 Corinthians 13:11 that begins, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child...”There’s a sizzling, danceable number titled “Black Bacon Funk.” The hypnotic waltz “Beyond the Glass” was inspired by a summer excursion, Melvin and his wife Tamara, took their son Gavin on to a local amusement park. Most powerful of all is “Extension,” inspired by a moment of panic, when Melvin realized that he had not fully processed the weight of a situation that he experienced as a child, at the hands of his step-father. Reflecting on all he has created here, Melvin Johnson concludes, “These first fully arranged instrumentals do not belong in any genre box, be it Jazz, Classical, Choral, Gospel, etc. If anything, what I hear in my heart and spirit is music for film – for mature musical audiences. Little Red Wagon is a road map to the next six collections of original music I’m recording in the future.” 

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