Mean Ameen is an album by American jazz saxophonist Ernest Dawkins' New Horizons Ensemble, which was recorded in 2004 and released on Delmark. It was a tribute to New Horizons' trumpeter Ameen Muhammad, who died in 2003 at the age of 48.[1]

Mean Ameen
Studio album by
Released2004
RecordedMarch 21 & 22, 2004
StudioRiverside Studio, Chicago
GenreJazz
Length66:31
LabelDelmark
ProducerRobert G. Koester
Ernest Dawkins chronology
Misconception of a Delusion Shades of a Charade
(2003)
Mean Ameen
(2004)
The Messenger
(2006)

Reception edit

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [2]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz    [3]

In his review for AllMusic, Scott Yanow states "These musicians are clearly talented in several styles, play with open minds, and react quickly to each other's ideas."[2]

The Penguin Guide to Jazz says "All in all, a fine album, well crafted and full of excellent solo playing. If it's not quite up to previous offerings, the cover portrait of the missing Muhammad goes some way to explaining why."[3]

The All About Jazz review by Rex Butters says "Delmark's sound—clean, live, and rough—delivers the broad tonal options employed by the ensemble. With Mean Ameen, Dawkins and company have created a 21st century hard-bop maelstrom."[4]

In his review for JazzTimes Chris Kelsey notes "The performances are fairly straight-ahead but enormously creative within slightly loosened conventions of small group jazz."[5]

Track listing edit

All compositions by Ernest Dawkins except as indicated
  1. "Mean Ameen" – 10:46
  2. "3-D" (Steve Berry) – 15:12
  3. "Jeff to the Left" (Steve Berry) – 6:16
  4. "The Messenger" – 13:33
  5. "Haiti" – 4:24
  6. "Buster and the Search for the Human Genome" – 16:20

Personnel edit

References edit

  1. ^ Original Liner Notes by Aaron Cohen
  2. ^ a b Yanow, Scott. Ernest Dawkins – Mean Ameen: Review at AllMusic. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
  3. ^ a b Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2006). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (8th ed.). London: Penguin. pp. 336. ISBN 0141023279.
  4. ^ Butters, Rex Mean Ameen review at All About Jazz
  5. ^ Kelsey, Chris Mean Ameen review at JazzTimes