Right now, the world is remembering and celebrating the extraordinary life of Louisville's native son Muhammad Ali. The eyes of the global community are on Louisville as this city leads both our communal grieving and joyous reminiscing. As a Louisvillian and a musician, I wanted to offer an artistic tribute to the legendary figure who has inspired, influenced, and captivated humanity in the modern era.
Which is how Float Rumble Rest was born. This 8-minute instrumental features contributions from guitarist Jim James of My Morning Jacket, and producer extraordinaire Kevin Ratterman. All sales from the new recording, available today at iTunes and elsewhere on sonaBLAST! Records, will benefit Louisville’s Muhammad Ali Center, which is scheduled to collaborate with the Louisville Orchestra next season during the orchestra’s second annual Festival of American Music.
Learning from Ali’s story and message, I’ve found both personal inspiration and a call for the world to be a far more peaceful, empathetic, and tolerant place. I hope that, in a small way, this piece of music can help keep his beautiful story alive and his legend may help guide the species in future generations. The final sequence of the piece is a meditation and a duet between the Hammond organ and my friend and fellow Louisvillian Jim James on a mournful but transcendent guitar line. Thank you to Jim and also the great producer Kevin Ratterman for bringing this work to life.