Though I enjoy all genres of music, jazz is what I always come home to and enjoy the most. I have a blog dedicated to sax players Sax Appeal. This blog is for all the of the other jazz musicians I enjoy listening to that can not be left out of being mentioned.
Brian Simpson, pianist, has played for greats like Janet Jackson and Dave Koz. His solo career was launced with the CD All Is Good released in 2006. There is an excellent review on Brian Simpson at http://www.jazzmonthly.com.
Check him out playing It's All Good that was number 1 in the U.S. for a month.
Image from http://www.celebrityrockstarguitars.com
Pat Metheny though he is a fabulous guitarist and plays beautifully, is not one of my personal favorites but he and his group The Pat Metheny Group are very well known and very well liked in the jazz world so I've got to give him a mention because he may turn out to be one of your favorites or already is. The great thing about jazz is like with other music genres, there is something for everybody.
My apologies to the rest of the Pat Metheny group but I couldn't find a picture to post, probably because the members have varied over the years.
Marc Antoine, guitarist is another smooth jazz guitarist I like. It's smooth jazz with a Latin undertone.
The story is, Marc Antoine suffered an injury to one of his hands and was told he could never play the guitar again. His perseverance proved the doctors wrong. He's played for name such as Celine Dion, Rod Steward and Take 6 and has also composed and performed for soundtracks to movies including and not limited to Get Shorty and Demolition Man.
The first video is a performance. The second video is an interview, the type I like to throw in occasionally because they give you an insight in the musician not just his music.
To be perfectly honest, I'd never heard of Steve Oliver until I went on this jazz cruise. Well, that's not entirely true. He did play something one night and I thought,"Oh! That's him!" I really like his unique style. You'll have to listen to a short clip of one of his performances on the jazz cruise to hear for yourself.
Norman Brown called him the human beat-box. His latest CD is called Radiance and it's one I bought on the cruise. You can also sample more of his music on the link to his MySpace page.
I've heard of Larry Carlton before but I supposed I never really paid attention until I saw him perform on the Smooth Jazz Cruise that I just recently went on. If you are a fan of Steely Dan you may recognize his name from being in that group.
The picture above is one I took while he was performing. I had a video clip and accidentally deleted it. I'm still boo-hooing about it so I had to go in search of one. This is a nice one of one of his tunes that is one of my favorite Steely Dan numbers.
Roy Ayers is a jazz musician who also does a cross-over into funk and hip hop. I just know that no matter what style it is, the minute he starts playing that vibraphone it sounds like jazz to me. The man does plays a mean vibraphone, or vibes, which is like a xylophone. The difference between the two is that a vibraphone's bars are aluminum and a xylophone's keys are wood.
I've knowing Roy Ayers from way back when and by I mean musically, not personally. I bought his album You Send Me. Looking back now I know that what I liked was the smooth jazz sound of the vibraphone that it added to the music.
Because he crosses over into both I have to give you a sample of both. The vist video is more R&B and one of the old songs I know, Can't You See Me.
The clip below is a must see. It's a "vibe battle" between Roy Ayers and a member of his band, Dwight Gassoway (don't know if I spelled his name correctly). These guys can play and it's worth the few minutes to watch and listen. And I'll leave you with this link which is to a purely jazz song. This video is just a picture with music playing but it's very nice.
I'm an advocate for buying what you listen to. Show an artist you like them by buying their music. Here's how I see it. You like an actor. A movie comes out and you go see the movie or you rent it, buy it or all of the above. They know they are a success by ticket sales. How does a musician or singer know they're a success? By record sales. Sure, maybe by the sold out concerts, but how often do we get to see them in concert compared to how often we see movies? If you can spend $18.00 to go see a movie (ticket, popcorn & drink), I think you can pay $15-18 for a cd.... can't you? And now you can pay for and download just one or two of your favorite songs. A couple of bucks for music that lasts a lifetime.
