I do indeed have some very special music to play for our first segment of the show this week.
We were left with a huge void in Smooth Jazz with the sudden, unexpected death on the last day of 2021 of one of the true greats of this format, The big windy cat from Chicago, guitarist Nick Colionne. Colionne was at the height of his career, having scored eight Billboard Smooth Jazz number ones. His electrifying performances were in much demand. He was enjoying a very heavy performance schedule at high profile venues. After his untimely passing it was reported that Colionne had already completed work on a brand new album. In March an early release of a single titled What You Do To Me from that forthcoming album quickly vaulted up the charts to become a Billboard number one. Colionne holds a record that may never be broken by achieving five Billboard number ones from one album, 2016’s The Journey. Would it not be a wonderful thing if his new album scheduled for release on the one year anniversary of his passing, were to be the album to break his own record. I understand that album will be titled Just Like That. For now we have a second song just released from that forthcoming album. We will be following it closely to see how quickly it climbs the charts. I am playing the greatly missed guitar of Nick Colionne with that second song, just released, titled Step To This.
An album whose release is among the most highly anticipated releases this year is due out Friday September 23rd from sax man Boney James. As far as I can tell superstar saxophonist Boney James has more Billboard number ones than any other Smooth Jazz artist, an amazing sixteen of them. His new album is titled Detour. We played a few weeks ago an early release from that forthcoming album, an album that is certain to be one of the best of the year. Now I have a second early album release. I am playing the sax of Boney James with his song Coastin’ featuring a vocal from a singer often heard on Smooth Jazz artist’s work, Lalah Hathaway.
On August 12th, Billboard-charting keyboardist and composer Mark Etheredge released his latest album “Love Planet,”. It was a new album produced by two-time Grammy® winner Paul Brown. We have mentioned several times on this show that Paul Brown has been a most successful producer of Smooth Jazz music and that he also has become a highly successful performing guitarist. Indeed Paul Brown contributes his guitar work on some songs on this album. The collection presents ten instrumental contemporary jazz originals composed by Etheredge. Etheredge states' Love Planet is about love for each other, as well as self-love. I am playing the keys of Mark Etheredge with We Will Make It Through.
Samara Joy, originally from the Bronx, is a rapidly ascending jazz vocalist. This young singer attracted a good deal of attention in 2019 after winning the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. She appeared on the Today Show earlier this year and recently Samara made her “glowing, auspicious debut” at the Newport Jazz Festival, earning multiple standing ovations in the process. September 16th she will release her sophomore album Linger Awhile. Our first listen to this soon to be famous artist is a vocal from Samara Joy with Can’t Get Out Of This Mood.
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