Charlie Apicella & Iron City meet The Griots Speak - Destiny Calling

A deeply melodic guitarist along the lines of Grant Green. Apicella faithfully has sought to channel an era of American music when hard-bop and r&b reigned - But the guitarist still manages to keep things fresh. - DownBeat. New York guitarist Charlie Apicella's musical voice runs historically deep, with his 7 recordings to date highly focused on celebrating the elders of jazz, R&B, and the Blues. His band, Iron City, has been with him the whole way, providing a base context for all of his projects.

With "Destiny Calling," this hard bop rhythm section drives headlong into the future as the elder masters of The Griots Speak draw from a lifetime of experience in communication with the ancestors. Trail blazing percussionist Juma Sultan formed the Griots with saxophonist Daniel Carter, bassist William Parker and Apicella to help celebrate a patriarch of New York's '60's loft scene. Simultaneously fluid, extroverted, light, confrontational, and meditative, their music is poetry in motion. They create spontaneously, as they move between instruments, including a variety of indigenous instruments which convey a pan-ancestral tapestry at the core of their sound. For Apicella, it's the realization of lessons learned through his studies with Yusef Lateef and the opportunity to further amplify the legacy.