Boz Scaggs | "Fade Into Light"

"Fade Into Light", an intimate and understated studio album from the singer BOZ SCAGGS, will be released by Virgin Records on September 27, 2005. Previously released by Virgin Japan, "Fade Into Light" has become a much-sought-after prize among Scaggs aficionados who've paid high prices for the import. It offers "unplugged" versions of some of Scaggs' best-known songs, along with several new compositions. Included in this U.S. Virgin DualDisc edition is a new recording by Scaggs of the 80s classic, "Love TKO."

The DVD side of the U.S. package contains the entire album in Enhanced Stereo, along with concert performances in 5.1 Surround Sound and High Definition Video of "Lowdown, " "Harbor Lights" and "We're All Alone, " taken from the "Boz Scaggs Greatest Hits Live" DVD, recorded in San Francisco.

When asked about his approach to this production, Scaggs says: "I've always worked like this in my recording. I hire good musicians and let them do what they do. What you hear on this album is those guys, in that room, on that day." Scaggs initiated the original session when he was hired to write and record the title track as a theme song for a Japanese film. Later, the label requested four more songs to make up an EP, and then more songs to make a full album. Scaggs and the band recorded new arrangements of his classic songs "Lowdown, " "Harbor Lights" and "We're All Alone, " from his landmark album "Silk Degrees, " as well as "Simone" from 1980's "Middle Man, " along with several newly written songs, at Skywalker Sound in Northern California. Among the players joining Boz are Nathan East, Greg Phillinganes, David Paich, Ray Parker, Jr., Lenny Castro, Dean Parks and Booker T. Jones. Tom Scott did the solo on "Lowdown."

Born in Texas, and raised with an abiding respect for a wide spectrum of American roots music, Boz Scaggs recorded early on with his high school buddy Steve Miller. He made his solo debut in 1969 on Atlantic Records with "Boz Scaggs." His 1976 album "Silk Degrees" has been RIAA-certified for sales of over 5 million copies, its classic hit singles and frequently covered album tracks sparking an extraordinary album chart run of well over two years. Other notable Scaggs albums include the platinum-certified "Middle Man, " "Slow Dancer, " and the three albums he made in the 1990s for Virgin: his label debut "Some Change, " the Grammy-nominated blues collection "Come On Home, " and the critically acclaimed "Dig." In 2003 he released "But Beautiful, " a classic jazz quartet outing through the Great American Songbook on his own Gray Cat label.

"Fade Into Light" was produced by Boz Scaggs, with the exception of "Lowdown" (produced by Scaggs and David Paich, the original co-author of that song and the original arranger of the "Silk Degrees" album), "Love TKO" (produced by Paich), "Lost It, " "Time, " "Sierra" and "I'll Be the One" (produced by Scaggs and Ricky Fataar).

Technorati tag: Jazz