Album Review: The Humble Warrior | Wayne Escoffery

This is album #38/20 that I listened to for my 20 for 2020 challenge. I listened to this album 8 times for my review.

Here are some quick stats about The Humble Warrior by Wayne Escoffery:

• Album #14 (as the leader)

• Released April 10, 2020 (Previous album released (as the leader) in 2018)

• Album length: 63:00, 10 tracks

• Hasn’t charted on US Billboard 200 so far

• Genre: Jazz

• No Metacritic score

I chose this album because I had been looking for a new traditional jazz album to listen to. I chose this album because I believe it was #1 or #2 on the top of the jazz charts at the time.

I really enjoyed this album. This is the type of traditional jazz that I have been looking for. It seemed to be more improvisation-focused than I prefer. I prefer for there to be more of a standard structure with a main theme, with the occasional improv at the 50-75% mark. The songs and motifs stick out more in my mind like that. I wasn’t a big fan of the vocals in “Benedictus.” My favorite song was “Quarter Moon.”

There isn’t a full Wikipedia page on this album, so I’m not sure how much of these songs are original, they may all be covers, they may all be original and it may be somewhere in between. I really have no idea.

If you like jazz music, I would recommend this album. I'll definitely be coming back to listen to this album in full. I'm definitely interested in listening to his previous works or future albums. I would give this a 6/10. I think it’s a good, standard jazz album. If you’ve listened to this album, be sure to let your thoughts be heard in the comments down below!