Joey Sommerville’s sobriquet is “The Facilitator.” And his brand-new jazz CD, Get Down Club, authenticates that he is deserving of an alias with such delicious, sonic clarity.
He facilitates the ascension to a higher level in mood, disposition and spirit whenever he and his trumpet conjoin. It’s been that way ever since he realized his divine gift to elevate church members during Sunday service. And he has shared this gift of uplifting audiences all across the globe.
“For me, that’s my reality. The same feeling you get when the hair on the back of your neck stands up, and you get chills, when the spirit is on the room, and the whole place is lifted, that’s the same feeling you get when you move the audience,” Sommerville testifies. “I don’t care what genre of music is playing, it’s the same. I try to lift the room, wherever the room is. If the room is a church, I’m trying to lift a church. If it is a club, I’m trying to lift the club. If it is an ampitheater, I’m trying to lift the ampitheater.”
And he uplifts on Get Down Club as he bathes us with the melodies and massages our emotions and tickles our senses with his trumpet. Sommerville likes to refer to it as “cognac music” because you can press play, sip on premium spirits, and let the whole joint ride out.
“I know we got iTunes today. But I believe that you can still put in a record, press play, and you don’t want to skip, that it takes you on a trip [because] the sequencing of it has all been worked out. And it all comes down to the spacing between the songs. Because it makes a difference,“ he says. “I study how people listen to music and try to craft it so that it works and resonates and communicates in the context of what they’re doing. I understand, they are trying to get the cognac going, and you don’t want to interrupt the groove. I’m trying to facilitate.”
Sommerville says he is not a minister. But armed with a trumpet in hand and with jazz as his platform and podium, he is able to conduct his “ministry of music” to multitudes worldwide.
“I try, through my music and whole presentation and persona and representation, to uplift folks. My job is to go over the world, literally, and play music and make people happy. I’m here to make your day better than when you came through the door,” he says. “Music is here to help us get through life. If you look at what music does, it has intense spiritual powers. That’s the beauty of it, and, consequently, that’s also the dangers of it. The force can be used for good or for bad.”
As a deeply spiritual man devoted to creating love and “cognac” music, we know how he uses his force, just by listening to him and his trumpet make sonic magic.
–terry shropshire
