Song of the Day: Blue Reality Quartet - Love Exists Everywhere

Michael Marcus, Joe McPhee, Jay Rosen & Warren Smith as a Blue Reality Quartet released a self-titled album full of wonderful music, like the first single Love Exists Everywhere.

In 2018, jazz musician extraordinaire Michael Marcus got an invite to bring his duo with drummer Jay Rosen to the Austrian venue Jazzgalerie Nickelsdorf. And when he arrived, the promoter of their show sprung a novel idea on them: performing their set with fellow reedsman Joe McPhee and another drummer. It was a great concept, Marcus remembers. And the chemistry was really good. Marcus wanted to capture the sound of this unusual group—two horns and two percussionists improvising without a bass player or a piano or any other chordal instruments—on record. But with the drummer they played with in Austria unavailable to travel, Marcus, Rosen, and McPhee called on their friend and collaborator Warren Smith. And the Blue Reality Quartet was born.

Listen to Blue Reality Quartet new single Love Exists Everywhere from the band's new self-titled album:

Michael Marcus wanted to use the name of this group to acknowledge the time and circumstances in which the album was recorded. As the front cover should tell you - pictures of each player, their faces covered by a mask, the four men met up in a New York studio in the thick of the coronavirus pandemic. So Blue Reality is a nod to a terrible time in our collective history that had an incalculable impact on the music industry and resulted in the deaths of thousands of people worldwide.

Watch the video below of Blue Reality Quartet new single Love Exists Everywhere from the band's new self-titled album: