eBraam with Guests and Dean Bowman, The Extraordinary Love Story of Aye Aye and Fedor

In the interests of full disclosure, I should say before I begin that Ana Isabel Ordonez is owner of Ruby Flower Records, the label that happily has released ten of my own albums with an 11th on the way. The CDs I review here I have no financial or artistic connection with, so I approach the contents with an impartiality.

OK, so we have at hand two versions of the Fusion-Prog-Jazz-Rock opus The Extraordinary Love Story of Aye Aye and Fedor (Ruby Flower). It is out in two versions, one with a narrative of Ana Isabel Ordonez' striking story line from her first children's book of the same name; the other with only the music by eBraam and Guests. The music in the second version is somewhat rearranged and at times lengthened in parts.

You get an idea of the vividly primal illustrations from the book version with several of them on the CD. This narrative-music edition at hand today will be the basis of two ballet versions: as choreographed by Virginie Mecene for the Martha Graham Academy, and by Sifiso Kweyama in Cape Town, where the ballet will be performed this fall by the Jazz Dance Theater as part of the festivities honoring Desmond Tutu.

The music was written by Dutch pianist-composer Michiel Braam and his eBraam band with some beautiful guitarwork by guests Pieter Douma and Jorg Lehnardt. It is an eclectic blend of fusion jazz with memorable themes and a wide variety of grooves and moods to fit Ms. Ordonez's story of love and liberation.

The music holds its own, Dean Bowman's narrative captures the essence of the story nicely and ultimately the ballet will send the whole thing further into the story zone that the book gives us so amusingly and deeply.

Children of all ages will take to this, whether they have read the first book or not (though they should, ideally while listening to the CD).  It holds its own with brilliance and a total experiential vibe.

Ana Isabel Ordonez carries the day!

Yeah!

You can get both on Amazon.com. Here is a link to start you off: https://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Story-Fedor-Narration-Music/dp/B01IJ007ZA/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469705641&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=eBaum+with+Guests+and+Dean+Bowman