Prior to the recording of this album, at a private performance in May 2005, Seventh Key, the five-year magical musical partnership between Kansas bassist Billy Greer and his old Streets bandmate, Mike Slamer, had never played a live gig. And that is a damn shame, because Live in Atlanta proves loud and clear that Seventh Key sounds heavier, tighter and more dramatic on the stage than in the studio, especially on songs like 'An Ocean Away', 'Winds Of War' and 'The Sun Will Rise'…
Four-time SESAC Award-winning and Grammy nominee Pianist/Arranger Bob Baldwin continues his flow of music, and follows up with his tributes to Michael Jackson and Songwriter extraordinaire Thom Bell with his MelloWonder/Songs In the Key of Stevie CD. MelloWonder… takes some of his favorite songs from the catalog of Stevie Wonder, and particularly a huge chunk between 1969-1974, when Baldwin believes this was the beginning of an era where Wonder turned the keyboard into a “one-man orchestra.” The project is a dream project, which took two years to complete.
"Key Largo may best be described as a group of musicians seeking to create something fresh and unique within the supposed musical boundaries of what most people would simply term blues" state the sleeve notes to their album. In fact what's on offer is pretty British blues rock produced by Mike Vernon, and released through the Blue Horizon label. with lots of harmonica, percussion and brass arrangements in places. The album includes cover versions of Willie Dixon, Alain Toussaint, B.B. King and P. Mayfield songs. Tracks include the soul/funk orientated “Give It Up” with a brass arrangement; the slow number “As The Years Go Passing By”, which features some good blues guitar work, and “Come On And Get It Baby”, written by thirties English pianist Stanley Black - an instrumental with jazzy electric piano, sharp guitar chords and percussion by Kenny Lamb who later went on to Jellybread.
Taking more than two years from conception to release, Stevie Wonder’s classic 1976 double-album Songs In The Key Of Life is now generally accepted as his finest creative hour in an enduring recording career spanning over four decades. Released on October 9th 1976 Songs In The Key Of Life was a worldwide best seller. It entered the U.S. Billboard album chart at number 1 and remained there for 14 weeks, as well as securing a 44-week chart residency in the Top 40.
In The Key Of Joy is the first new album from Sergio Mendes in 5 years. It features an array of guests artists that join him in creating an album with the forward leaning sound that has come to define his music. Guest artists include Common, Cali y El Dandee, Buddy, Hermeto Pascoal, Roge, Guinga, Sheléa, Sugar Joans, Gracinha Leporace and Joe Pizzulo. The album accompanies the documentary by the same name, which is a joyful cinematic celebration of this singular musical artist who remains as vital and relevant today as when he exploded on the scene with his group, Brasil ’66. The deluxe edition of the album features some of his greatest hits and serves as the official soundtrack to the documentary. It features classic songs by Sergio Mendes such as Mas Que Nada, Never Gonna Let You Go, Fanfarra - Cabua-Le-Le and many more.
"The Key", the debut album of the Mauritian pianist now resident in France, Jerry Leonide, is the key to a whole world; to the music and joie de vivre of an island paradise 1,700 km from the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Leonide translates the irresistible, bouncingly danceable, clearly African influenced grooves and light and breezy crystal-clear melodies of his homeland into the vocabulary of jazz. He himself says of his debut: "For me 'The Key' is the revelation of Mauritian music before the eyes of the world." His global piano playing enthralled the jury of the "Solo Piano Competition 2013" at the Montreux Jazz Festival so much that they awarded him first prize.
Eilen Jewell's music lives in a middle ground between vintage country and the blues, and her plain-spoken but artful songs serve as an apt reminder that there's more the two styles share than there is that keeps them apart. Jewell's sixth album, 2011's Queen of the Minor Key, is her first release since her tribute to the songs of Loretta Lynn, Butcher Holler, and while Jewell wrote all 14 songs on this set, one might guess she was thinking Patsy Cline during these sessions after previously contemplating Cline's friend Loretta.