Archive for September, 2018

Jamie Bonk – Who Said It Was Easy?

Canadian guitarist and songwriter Jamie Bonk has set up a home studio in Vancouver with a lot of love. The identical love he gives to his albums. All started with his same-named debut album in 1997. Further projects are A Perfect Tomorrow (2000), My World (2004), 5 (2007), St. Joseph Street (2009), Side B (2010) and Necessity (2012).

He left himself some time for his new album Who Said It Was Easy? (2018). He started to write some songs for his new album, when he still lived in Toronto. But properly his album took shape in his home studio in Vancouver, BC. He played in all instruments, that means guitars and keyboards and all the midi-programming. He also engineered and mastered the album. He also did the cover photography, artwork and layout and even made a promo video.

Originally he intended to write lyrics for his songs, he also wrote them, but then recorded the songs purely instrumentally. This definitely had an effect on the way he finally recorded the songs. Jamie: “I was “thinking/playing” the lyrics as I recorded the tunes. Made me truly focus on the meaning/intent of each song.” Since the development process turned out to be difficult and complex, it was obvious for him to name his album Who Said It Was Easy?.

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Adewale Olutunbi – Close to You

Adewale Olutunbi is a saxophonist from United Kingdom. His debut album Close to You is a unique collection of seven songs. Adewale comments: “These songs were inspired by my experiences in life and how I had to rely on God’s guidance through prayers and in dreams. The awesomeness of God is so great, and his earnest desire to restore you, remains his number one priority. No matter how far have detoured from his original blueprint, I undoubtedly want to positively assure you that God’s unconditional love is greater far than any pen can ever tell As you listen to these songs, I pray it brings miraculous healing to your broken soul, family, relationship and sleep.”

Close To You is available on CDBaby.

Valery Evlanov – On the Other Side

Friends of smooth jazz guitar music will love Valery Evlanov‘s new album On the Other Side.

I highly recommend to listen to this album on CDBaby.

Tommy Proulx – Saxtrax

Saxophonist, Tommy Proulx is an example of one of the biggest artist development breakthrough stories in recent years. From high school band-geek to internationally acclaimed instrumental pop star, Tommy is the modern model of a self-produced, independent recording artist, a concept that many in the music industry refer to as “the new making it.” As a popular Instagramer and recording artist, Tommy’s success story started with a single Kickstarter campaign that launched an international touring career, taking his shows to over 40 countries on 6 continents worldwide.

With a Masters degree in saxophone performance, Tommy utilizes his classical and jazz training to break through the music industry bringing the saxophone to a new generation of listeners. His high-energy live shows catapult the audience into a world where the complexity of modern jazz meets the infectious energy of pop, hip-hop and R&B. With the release of his debut album, SaxTrax, his youthful, yet sophisticated sensibility redefines the saxophone as a tasteful addition to today’s urban pop sounds. Tommy’s recording credits span across many genres and has recently landed him his first contribution nominated for a GRAMMY award, Marvin Sapp’s “Here I Am.” An inspirational speaker, vlogger, and music educator in his spare time, Tommy uses his story to inspire young musicians to take pride in the very thing that makes them unique – then wait for the world to catch up.

With his new album Saxtrax Tommy lays down fresh sax tracks of current pop covers, classic R&B, and grooving original compositions. The album is available on CDBaby.

Denny Jiosa – Mueve Tu Cuerpo

Nashville-based guitarist Denny Jiosa is often compared with Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Stylistically he cannot be fixed, his creative field lies somewhere between Rock, Smooth Jazz and Latin Music.

Moving Pictures (1995), Inner Voices (1996), Jazzberry Pie (1998), Among Friends (1999), Body 2 Body (2002), Dreams Like This (2008) are his solo albums, followed by the band album JIOSA On the Edge (2011). Now Denny Jiosa has with Mueve Tu Cuerpo (2018) Latin tinged jazz in his focus.

Denny plays guitar on all tracks and adds his vocals on selected tracks. Further lead vocalists are Janet Kenyon and John Santos. Keyboardists are Kenny Zarider and Pat Coil, bassists Keith Kenyon, Chris Kent, Gary Branchaud, drummers Raymond Massey and Chester Thompson, percussionists Glen Caruba, Eric Darken and John Santos. Hollie Farris plays the trumpet, Roy Agee trombone and Phil Keaggy guitar.

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Salentin & Scheffler – Urban Insomnia

German Trumpeter Hans Peter Salentin and Roland Specialist Hans Jörg Scheffler in collaboration with an outstanding cast of high class musicians from all over the world have created Urban Insomnia, the ultimate soundtrack for sleepless city nights. Stay awake with 12 tunes that offer a musical melange of styles and sounds perfectly capturing the urban lifestyle in beats and frequencies.

HP Salentin provides the elegant trumpet and flugelhorn leads and solos in Schefflers harmonically rich compositions. Sophisticated grooves played by drummers like Steve Gadd, Peter Erskine, Craig Blundell and Matthias Knorr and additional solos played by musicians from all over the planet like Jean Mi Kajdan from Paris on guitar, Tatsuya Nishiwaki from Tokyo on chromatic harmonica, Rob Friedman from the US on piano and Greg Schlaepfer from Frisco on Rhodes piano and Nivaldo Allves from Brazil on vocals make this record stand out from the crowd.

Urban Insomnia is your first choice on CDBaby.

Will P Lyte – I Hear Music Everywhere

Willie Polite aka Will P Lyte is a passionate musician performing music since his youth, during his military service and later in the creative arts ministry at Right Direction Church.

Lyte EFX is his debut album offering a variety of grooves and rhythms (smooth jazz, latin groove, West Indies rhythm, Funk and Go Go) from the heart of a percussionist. His sophomore album Smooth Jazz EFX is featuring Nigel Blanding, Darius Starks, Avery Brown, Timeka Smalls Tucker, Darin C. Ginyard, and more!

His third album I Hear Music Everywhere is now available on CDBaby.

Grance Taff – Still a Minor?

Grance Taff (born Khalil Lejon Williams) grew up in the San Joaquin Valley, California playing saxophone, drums and keys from a young age, and largely in his church. Khalil began writing music around the age of 14, but given his lack of access to high-end recording gear, he began experimenting with the means he had available: hand-me-down iPhones and iPod Touches with first Music On: Drums (Nintendo 3DS), then Frooty Loops Studio. He found his sound on saxophone in 5th grade and began developing it. 6 years later, Khalil was introduced to Berklee College of Music’s Five-Week Program, at which he fell in love with the school and committed two years after (taking one year to graduate high school and another to attend community college to build up credits).

He is currently producing and recording his own music. “Still a Minor?” is his first official album release under the pseudonym Grance Taff (say it three times fast!). The songs are all produced by and feature him on saxophone. The album’s title synthesizes Khalil’s personal evaluation of his behavior.

Check it out on CDBaby.

Chillaxonic – Ist Facet

Ukraine-born multi-instrumentalist Konstantin Klashtorni has released his newest creation 1st Facet under the project name Chillaxonic. It is probably due to the effervescent creativity of this gifted artist that he publishes his works under more and more new names. On the other hand, this name also results from a combination of the music styles Jazz, Chill Out and Electronica, which can be found on the new album.

We are already used to it from Konstantin that he utilizes the advantages of his own studio and records the album quasi all by himself. However this album features Michael Simon (trumpet) and Alex Yarosh (guitar) as guest musicians on selected tracks. Konstantin has written, mixed and recorded all tracks.

The new project starts stylistically, where Konstantin’s previous albums left off. Ineffable elegantly mixes pleasurable sounds of guitar, synths and sax to the typical Klashtorni groove. Ethereal is the attribute for extremely light and delicate music, as if not of this world.

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Elliott Yourse – Finally

Hailing from Greensboro, North Carolina saxophonist Elliott Yourse studied management information systems at Winston-Salem State University. Now he has made his bachelor work in music called Finally. A smooth jazz album infused with modern R&B and Trap Music elements.

Get this album on CDBaby.