Wednesday, September 30, 2020
Hear Prodigy JUSTIN LEE SCHULTZ’s New Single w/Gerald Albright + Pieces Of A Dream! / LISTEN #jazz
*Born in Johannesburg, South Africa and based in Durham, NC, musical wonder-kid Justin Lee Schultz is the good news you did not even know you needed. He is joy personified.
The multi-instrumental wizard who has dazzled audiences on TV shows Harry, Little Big Shots and American’s Most Musical Family, is a prodigy in the fashion of his idols Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock. His talent is exceptional not merely because he is young but also due to his melodic, harmonic and technical maturation.
Justin Lee Schultz has got a social media contest going where people are sending in videos of them "jamming" with Justin for a chance to win his forthcoming CD.
Anyway, this is cool as Gerald Albright joined in the fun and took the "Challenge". As you know, he's on the new single, I thought you should all see this clip...
Bob James Revisits A Lost 1965 Studio Session And The Time He Recorded With Jazz Great Eric Dolphy #jazz
With a career and discography as lengthy as Bob James’, you wouldn’t blame him for forgetting about a session of two. For close to 60 years, the jazz pianist and keyboardist has written, produced and arranged for other artists as well as his own bandleader efforts, which includes groundbreaking, influential and Billboard 200 charting fusion records including BJ4 and Touchdown. But back in 1965, well before he became one of the biggest names in what came to be called smooth jazz, the Fourplay bandleader was just another musician trying to find his way in New York City.
Dave Koz - "A New Day" - Release date, October 9 - #jazz
A brand new recording by Dave Koz, his 20th album as an artist and first collection of original material in 10 years. Conceived and recorded completely under the umbrella of COVID-19, this album’s purpose is to give the listener a ‘musical hug’, hopefully providing a sense of comfort and good feeling amidst the intense backdrop of the pandemic we are all experiencing globally. With a roster of very special guests including David Sanborn, Bob James, Brian McKnight, Meshell Ndgeocello, Rick Braun and more…all of whom recorded their parts virtually, this album's release date is October 9, 2020…30 years and one day after the release of Dave’s debut album.
Monday, September 28, 2020
Smooth Jazz Chart - Weekly Top 20 - September 28, 2020 #jazz
Smooth Jazz Chart
This chart from smoothjazz.com is good for one week assuming it updates next Monday
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
R&B-jazz singer-songwriter Selina Albright makes a powerful statement against social injustice
The multiformat radio single, “Holding On,” drops October 16
Like so many Black people, R&B-jazz singer-songwriter Selina Albright is tired and her fatigue has nothing to do with becoming a mother for the first time earlier this year, which was the subject of her latest single to hit the charts, “Discovering.” No, Albright’s exhaustion and discouragement stems from “seeing videos of my brothers and sisters dying in cold blood, their deaths rooted in misplaced fear, their murderers allowed to live freely.” She cowrote and coproduced her forthcoming single, “Holding On,” to call out social injustice and the urgent need for reform. The single drops October 16 and will be promoted at urban adult contemporary and smooth jazz radio formats.
Musically, “Holding On” is an anthemic, multi-genre aural quilt sewn from soulful R&B heart, modern jazz progressions and tones, dramatic rock changes punctuated by drummer James “JRob” Roberson, and ethereal pop
vocal harmonies. But it’s the song’s subject matter and lyrical content that is radically new and different for Albright, who has etched her place on the urban-jazz scene with intimate love songs and autobiographical confessions such as those contained on her 2017 debut album, “Conversations.” Her most piercing and provocative cry in “Holding On” is when she passionately repeats “Burn it all to the ground.”
“I frankly find it exhausting and infuriating to see ongoing evidence of oppression without much change. And because writing music is a therapeutic outlet for me, I couldn’t help putting pen to paper about my struggle to maintain hope for the freedom of my people - real freedom to pursue happiness, be our beautiful selves, and to live fully as is our inalienable right. Instead, our rights are seen as privileges by those who work to prevent the impending moment when Black people truly know our strength,” said Albright who wrote the song with her coproducer Chris “Big Dog Davis, David P. Stevens and Kayta Matsuno.
Although “Holding On” is a song that captures present life for Black Americans, its origins date back to a November 2017 recording session between Albright and guitarist Stevens. Stevens awoke with the chord progression in his head and played it for Albright when she arrived in the studio.
“The lyrics were originally written to bring hope and consolation to people with emotional health disorders because at the time, suicides were hitting close to home. Something in my spirit told me not to release the song yet. Since then, the United States has been exposed around the world for its social injustice, the roots and workings of which are so well hidden and indulged by a small fraction of our nation, but whose disadvantages are felt by multitudes,” said Albright, who plans to release an accompanying video for “Holding On.”
As usual, Albright found a way to incorporate her own experiences into the lyrics. After having a series of discussions with friends about their similar experiences of being Black in America, she revisited the song’s lyrics in order to make them more specific to Black people and the fight for social justice.
“I remember the first time my parents told me that because I’m Black, I'd have to work twice as hard as my non-Black peers to accomplish the same result. They also taught me how to dress and behave when certain people were present so that the police wouldn’t be called, and I wouldn’t die. Wouldn’t die! They said my smile and ‘proper’ dialect would be my protection. I’m glad I was warned because the same has been true even in my adulthood. There’s really nowhere to run from it,” said Albright, the daughter of multi-time GRAMMY nominated saxophonist Gerald Albright.
Ultimately, Albright would like to see her message in “Holding On” become obsolete, a dark and distant memory of the past before “we started over using our spirit of power, love and sound minds” to prevail over systematic racism.
“Black people are being herded around the country like cattle, our culture and excellence exploited, rather than kept sacred. We are being poisoned by processed scraps of food, and then given the lowest quality of healthcare. I see many of us losing steam. We can’t afford to do that. We must continue to find the strength to keep holding on until the whole world knows that at the very least, we matter.”
For more information, please visit https://selinaalbright.com.
Monday, September 21, 2020
Smooth Jazz Chart - Weekly Top 20 - September 21, 2020 #jazz
Smooth Jazz Chart
This chart from smoothjazz.com is good for one week assuming it updates next Monday
Saturday, September 19, 2020
Contemporary Jazz Flutist Alexander Zonjic to Release New Album “Playing It Forward” on Oct. 9th, 2020 #jazz
Serving as the artistic director for nearly a dozen music festivals and concert series throughout Michigan ordinarily keeps contemporary jazz flutist Alexander Zonjic super busy from March through September in addition to maintaining his own active performance schedule. But with most of the events shelved this year due to coronavirus concerns, Zonjic was able to find time to finish his first album in more than ten years. “Playing It Forward,” his 13th album, will be released October 9 on his company’s Hi-Falutin Music label. GRAMMY-winning keyboardist Jeff Lorber produced the set with the exception of the first single, “Motor City Sway,” a throwback R&B groove inspired by Zonjic’s adopted home of Detroit, which was written and produced by Pieces of a Dream’s keyboardist James Lloyd. The single has been one of the most added songs on Billboard BDS chart two weeks in a row.
The title “Playing It Forward” makes obvious reference to “paying it forward,” something the philanthropic Zonjic is big on doing throughout the Metro Detroit region where the Windsor, Ontario native has been a multimedia personality ever since he began hosting a WVMV morning radio show in 1998 and expanded to weekly television hosting duties for his own show, “Alexander Zonjic: From A to Z,” three years ago.
“When we got into this pandemic, people really started to play it forward. For us, our connection with Detroit has always been this back-and-forth relationship and us finding ways to give back. We love the people of Detroit and do a lot of fundraisers for more than a dozen nonprofit organizations. My son and I came up with ‘Playing It Forward’ and I like the energy of it. It’s a very forward momentum record. There’s a lot of energy,” said Zonjic, a three-time Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards winner (including International Broadcaster of the Year) and a15-time Detroit Music Awards winner.
Indeed, “Playing It Forward” is a high-energy jazz, funk, fusion and soul collection featuring six original tunes, five of which were penned or co-penned by Lorber.
“Several years ago, Jeff started to send tracks. He always sends a ton of amazing songs and you want to record all of them. We have a great relationship that dates back to 1979. He’s a great producer,” said Zonjic, who was accompanied by noteworthy guitarists Chuck Loeb, Paul Jackson Jr. and Michael Thompson, drummer Gary Novak, horn player and arranger David Mann, and 14-year-old South African keyboard phenom Justin-Lee Schultz.
One of the new Lorber songs, “Musaic,” is one of the final songs co-written and recorded by Loeb, who died in 2017. It’s the album’s lone downtempo number that hangs a lush melody atop a Lorber groove as the backdrop for Zonjic’s flute and Loeb’s electric guitar to dialogue.
Zonjic said, “What an honor to have Chuck – not only composing a song for me but performing. Both from a performance and a composing standpoint, this is probably one of the last things that he wrote and produced. Musicians, more than the general public, knew what a profound guitar player he was. He truly was one of the greatest guitar players in the world. Having someone like him on the record comes with the fun challenge of going toe to toe with these guys when it comes to trading solos. You’ve got to have your chops together to trade solos with the likes of Chuck and Jeff.”
Along with a half dozen new songs, Zonjic reimagined five cover tunes for flute with fresh arrangements.
“A mix of originals and covers is a format that was very successful from a retro standpoint during the great era of CTI Records that came out of New York and made records by Hubert Laws, George Benson and Bob James. There was always a mixture of cool arrangements of covers along with originals,” said Zonjic.
Reimaging James’s “Night Crawler” has special meaning for Zonjic who was discovered by the GRAMMY and Emmy-winning contemporary jazz keyboard icon while playing in Detroit’s famous Baker’s Keyboard Lounge in 1981. James invited the flautist to join his band and off they went on tour. Their relationship has continued through various recording projects ever since.
Another cover selection was the standard “Nature Boy.”
“I always wanted to record ‘Nature Boy.’ I think it’s one of the great haunting melodies of all time when you think of the interpretations by Nat King Cole, George Benson or Kurt Elling. Flute players are very much like singers: they love melodies. The flute is pretty much the closest instrument to the human voice. When we hear great melodies, we want to play them,” Zonjic explained.
As a flute player who began as a teenage rock guitarist, Zonjic has been repeatedly asked ever since the 1980s when he was going to record a Jethro Tull song. That day finally arrives with “Living In The Past.”
“(Jethro Tull’s) Ian Anderson has been one of the great flute messengers for what seems like my entire lifetime. Although not a jazz musician, Ian has a unique sound and technique. ‘Living In The Past’ is such a cool composition. Its 5/4-time signature and smooth melody always made it one of my all-time Tull favorites. I had so much fun interpreting this melody using grunts, groans and classical chops all at the same time,” shared Zonjic.
The album comes to a rousing conclusion with a roof raising “Rolling In The Deep” showcasing the Selected of God gospel choir.
“‘Rolling In The Deep’ was not inspired by Adele but by watching Aretha Franklin sing it on David Letterman’s show. While listening, it dawned on me that it would make a great flute song. Lorber put this great track together and I got ahold of Selected of God, who I had seen on ‘America’s Got Talent’ and in an Eminem video. That’s from where the magic came.”
Although recording was complete and the mixing process was underway prior to mid-March’s COVID-19 shutdown, the questions then arose about when and how to release the album. A lot has changed in the recording industry since Zonjic’s 2009 release “Doin’ the D” and in the midst of a global pandemic, he wasn’t sure if and how best to proceed.
“The pandemic really changed things. This was a new experience for me because I normally don’t have the time to do focus groups and to research the stuff that I had to research because of all the other things we normally have going on with our various festivals and concert series this time of year. I asked a lot of questions. I interviewed a lot of big artists on my radio show that airs on Detroit’s 910AM Superstation and all of us had the same question, which was ‘Is this a good time to release a record?’ In my case, I worked so hard on it for so many years and spent so much money on making it that I wanted the fun of assembling a team to release it. I’ll admit that it’s been quite a learning curve, but I’ve really been enjoying it. I don’t plan to wait another ten years to do another album. I probably enjoyed the process of making this record as much as I do all the fun that comes from releasing it.”
“Playing It Forward” contains the following songs:
“Jazz Café”
“Benita”
“Hipster”
“Night Crawler”
“Motor City Sway”
“Playing It Forward”
“Musaic”
“Living In The Past”
“Nature Boy”
“Bottom Heat”
“Rolling In The Deep”
For more information, please visit http://www.zonjic.com.
Great Scott P.R.oductions
Jazz singer-songwriter Yola Nash is an unstoppable force when "Touched By Love" #jazz
Her second album, an intimate acoustic jazz meditation on love, dropped on August 26.
Growing up stifled by the communist regime in Poland and an abusive, alcoholic father, Yola Nash found solace by escaping into music where she feels safe and protected. With her personal experiences in love serving as muse for her songs that paint the complete color palate of human emotions, Nash's "Touched By Love" dropped on Wednesday. It's the jazz singer-songwriter's second album, an intimate six-song acoustic set that she produced with GRAMMY winning jazz pianist Edsel Gomez (Dee Dee Bridgewater) serving as musical director. The multimedia artist who hosts the celebrity driven "The Yola Nash Show" on New York City's WABC Radio wrote lyrics for the album.
Nash began writing for "Touched By Love" five years ago. Having released her debut disc ("Another Girl") over ten years ago, spawning the Billboard No. 1 most added adult contemporary single "I Wanna Be Loved By You," she struggled to find her sound and direction for her sophomore outing. She turned to composers Dr. Graham Keir (guitar) and Dr. Octavio Vazquez (piano) to help create and develop her musical vision. Gomez tailored warm, elegant instrumental soundscapes around the award-winning jazz chanteuse's sensual, breathy vocals that emit longing, fragility, heartache, hope and bliss, guiding Nash to cozy acoustic jazz settings. GRAMMY-winning percussionist Luisito Quintero (Chick Corea) and bassist Dave Baron (Herbie Hancock) anchor the rhythmic grooves while GRAMMY nominated accordionist Alex Meixner adds vital ambiance that fosters organic Polish-European accents, making "Touched By Love" a multicultural listening experience.
At the heart of the album is Nash's heart that somehow manages to beat with her strong optimistic spirit and the vibration of hope despite her often-pained subject matters and difficult past. She's come a long way, facing and triumphing over adversity in the process, and living to sing about it.
"The songs were inspired by my life, beautiful love and longing for it, or tremendous pain, betrayal, burning questions or just hunger for hope. All of those powerful emotions that needed to be shared and expressed. The world needs more love, hope and the spirit of never ever giving up. I'm here as living proof that bad times always pass and good things always prevail," said Nash who arrived in New York City over 15 years ago, not knowing any English or anyone or having any place to go, with only the $1,000 that she borrowed from her late mother, Danusia, to whom the album is dedicated.
The lone song on "Touched By Love" not penned by Nash is "Dance With Me," a cabaret-like track that she describes as "musical exploration." It sets a theatric poem by award-winning poet and film director Fella Cederbaum to music written by the author.
The "Touched By Love" recording sessions began before the COVID-19 quarantine with the goal of a spring album release, but then came the New York-New Jersey lockdowns, which halted the project's initial momentum.
"During the first editing-mixing session, we found out we were going to be in quarantine and that completely shut down our production process. It took months to finally get back to the studios to finish the album. It was such relief to go back, but it meant nonstop chasing the clock. I jumped into the studio and in one six-hour session, I recorded all my vocals for the album. We didn't have the luxury of taking many takes and spending days in the studio on it," said the resilient and determined Nash who performed at New York Fashion Week earlier this year.
Highlights of Nash's performance career include singing for Pope John Paul II and becoming the first Polish American to perform and record with the GRAMMY-winning Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and its director, multiple GRAMMY-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. On the radio, Nash has been interviewing A-list celebrities, world changers, spiritual leaders and inspirational speakers in the Big Apple for nearly 15 years, inspiring her audiences around the globe to live a happier, more fulfilling life. An artist in other media who studied fine arts, she's a Guinness Book world record holder for creating the original key art for the largest theater poster in the world for the renowned new play "Anne Frank," which took eight professional mountain climbers to hang. Indeed, Nash is an unstoppable force who thinks and acts big.
"I'm creating my purposeful path every day with my determination. I hope my story and my music will inspire people to be stronger and dream big, especially now during these challenging times, so they can find a creative way through the impossible waters and the impossible becomes possible," said Nash.
"It's a dream come true to finally put out my new album. I'm also excited because I found my signature sound that I've been looking for my entire life. Although it's my second album, this one feels like I'm going in the right direction. I feel I'm being touched by love through this music, the people who came along to support it and the amazing musicians who brought their sensibilities to make it happen. ‘Touched By Love' expresses what I felt and feel in my heart. After all the hardship, major challenges, obstacles and pain, I never lost hope. The album is not just a music project; it's a miracle to me. It's a voice of hope, a chance and a voice of strength that expresses my life's motto: ‘Never ever give up on your dreams!'"
"Touched By Love" contains the following songs:
"Lies and Wishes"
"I Miss You Loving Me"
"Ready For Love"
"Dance With Me"
"Forbidden Love"
"Lololove Me"
For more information, please visit http://yolanash.com.
# # #
More Information: http://yolanash.com
Submitted By:
Great Scott PR
Friday, September 18, 2020
Van Morrison protests Covid-19 lockdowns in three new songs
"No More Lockdown" is perhaps the most blunt of the bunch. Morrison rages against the government-imposed lockdown, singing that officials are "pretending it's for our safety when it's really to enslave."
The Grammy-winner previously has criticized the government for canceling live music shows. In a now-deleted post on his website from August, Morrison called on members of the music industry to "fight the pseudo-science" around Covid-19, the Guardian reported.
Monday, September 14, 2020
Smooth Jazz Chart - Weekly Top 20 - September 21, 2020 #jazz
SmoothJazz.com Top 100 Album Chart
THE WORLD'S ONLY SMOOTH JAZZ ALBUM CHART - FORMERLY THE GAVIN REPORT
This chart is valid for this week only if there is a new chart published next Monday.
Sunday, September 13, 2020
Vocalist Luba Mason set to release new album "Triangle" on October 23 #jazz
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Friday, September 11, 2020
Wednesday, September 09, 2020
Smooth Jazz Chart - Weekly Top 20 - September 7, 2020 #jazz
SmoothJazz.com Top 100 Album Chart
THE WORLD'S ONLY SMOOTH JAZZ ALBUM CHART - FORMERLY THE GAVIN REPORT
This chart is valid for this week only if there is a new chart published next Monday.
Friday, September 04, 2020
Dave Koz - Colors Of A New Day — Week Two: Orange “The Closer We Get” #jazz
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