He’s the One: R&B/Jazz guitarist Blake Aaron scores his third Billboard No. 1 single from the “Love and Rhythm” album that dropped on Friday.
The timing was serendipitous. After four weeks of hanging out in the second spot on the Billboard singles chart, R&B/jazz guitarist Blake Aaron’s “She’s the One” claimed the No. 1 position days prior to the release of his new Innervision Records album, “Love and Rhythm,” which arrived on Friday (April 19). The soulful and sensual midtempo instrumental groove that he wrote with Adam Hawley and Carnell Harrell and was produced by Hawley captured the top spot on four charts simultaneously: Billboard, Mediabase, Radiowave and Smooth Jazz Network. “She’s the One” is Aaron’s third Billboard No. 1 single from “Love and Rhythm,” the guitarist’s seventh album.
It’s been said that whenever Aaron releases an album, it’s essentially a greatest hits collection because he traditionally issues a handful of Billboard chart-topping singles before bundling them as an album. That thesis definitely proves true for “Love and Rhythm.” The ten tracker scored three Billboard No. 1 singles - “Dreamland,” “Feels So Right” and “She’s the One” – and one No. 3 hit, “Crush,” even before the album was released.
“Love and Rhythm” is a project centered on Aaron’s ardent joy for making music that explores and experiments with a variety of genres and rhythms. The songs on the new album, all penned by Aaron, are energetically groovy, vibrantly melodic, and guided by the fretman’s adept and agile guitar play. The settings traverse contemporary and Brazilian jazz, fusion, R&B, worldbeat, pop and dance music.
Aaron utilizes an accomplished ensemble of hitmakers and first-call session players to illuminate “Love and Rhythm.” Multi-time Billboard chart-toppers Hawley and Greg Manning produced the album with Aaron and they deployed layers of dynamic and dramatic horn section (David Mann, Trevor Neumann, Donald Hayes, Michael Stever, Bob Mintzer, Jimmy Reid, Andrew Neu and Nick Lane) parts throughout the record. In addition to Manning’s skilled hand on keys, Harnell and Tateng Katindig contributed keyboards and piano. The all-important rhythms were crafted by drummers Eric Valentine, Tony Moore and Will Kennedy and bassists Mel Brown, Alex Al and Hussain Jiffry.
There are more singles – and more hits - to come from “Love and Rhythm,” an album of the year contender that Aaron will support with concert dates through the end of the year. He’ll hit the stage with his band for gigs in Milford, CT this Saturday (April 20), the Los Angeles area where he is based (May 4 and June 28), Houston (May 11), London, England (May 23), the Netherlands (May 24-26), the San Diego Jazz Festival (June 22), San Antonio (July 19), Charlotte (August 16), and Branford, CT (August 22). Aaron was recently added to the star-studded Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival on October 11. Additional shows will be added to the itinerary.
To date, Aaron has collected seven Billboard No. 1 singles as a solo artist plus three more as a producer. For more information, please visit https://www.blakeaaron.com.
“With Aaron’s outrageously dexterous playing…‘Love and Rhythm’ will without doubt be one of the best smooth jazz albums of 2024.” – Smooth Jazz Therapy
“Rarely do you find a guitarist who creates an album with such meticulousness as Blake Aaron… every listener will find something valuable for their personal taste.” – Smooth Jazz Daily
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