Sounds of April and Randall

Self-Produced, self-released, recorded in Little Falls, mixed and mastered in South Orange, Dishes Ain’t Clean, the fourth album from the duo known as Sounds of April and Randall, contains 13 of their originals that veer from jazz, indie-folk and world-pop to soul-funk.

April May Webb won the 2024 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition held in Newark every year. She studied at William Paterson University in Wayne. Randall Haywood plays trumpet, flugelhorn, synthesizer and percussion. He trained at Juilliard and met Webb at a Jersey City jam session at Moore’s Lounge.

According to their camp, “the album uses a familiar household chore as an extended metaphor for self-presentation, examining the versions of ourselves we polish for public view alongside the unfinished truths left behind closed doors.”

The album has been supported by Chamber Music America’s Performance+ program, funded by the Doris Duke Foundation and New Music USA’s Next Jazz Legacy program. Mentored by TS Monk (son of Thelonious), they also have a seal of approval by the esteemed percussionist-composer-educator Terri Lynne Carrington (Herbie Hancock’s go-to drummer) who characterizes Dishes Ain’t Clean as “a superbly produced eclectic offering from the dynamic vocal/trumpet duo, giving strong cinematic, singer-songwriter and R’n’B vibes along with beautifully swinging tracks for your staunch jazz and hybrid jazz fans.”

Now add piano, organ, bass, drums, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, violin, viola and cello on intermittent tracks and you have one of the best damn albums of the year. They’ll be in New York City at The Pocket Jazz Club on September 3; Hartford CT Sept. 10, Newark October 3 at Spotlight Gala with John Pizzarelli; Newark again at this year’s Sarah Vaughan competition Nov. 22; and December 11, 12 & 13 in Philly at the South Kitchen Jazz Parlor. The clip below is from earlier this month at the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival in Wilmington Delaware.