Inspired musical partnerships have characterized the signature sound of Kansas City for a century. Among the fruitful pairings featuring one or two notable Kansas City musicians are Count Basie with Eddie Durham, Andy Kirk with Mary Lou Williams, Pat Metheny with Lyle Mays and more recently, Bobby Watson with Curtis Lundy.
Hermon Mehari and Tony Tixier have enjoyed a similarly productive artistic relationship for the past 15 years. Upon forging a friendship with the French pianist, the trumpeter invited Tixier to Kansas City in 2011.
The old friends deepen their bond on Soul Song, a duet album recorded in France on November 12, 2024. With Tixier on Fender Rhodes, the duo investigates four compositions from the 1970s- Stanley Cowell’s “Maimoun,” George Duke’s “The Black Messiah,” Bobby Hutcherson’s “Now” and Marius Cutler’s “Laini.”
A pair of original pieces and two improvisations round out the impeccably spartan and sensitively performed set of spiritual jazz. As the careers of Mehari and Tixier continue to ascend the duo is likely to continue refining an artistic pact that’s an estimable extension of a hallowed Kansas City tradition.