REVEREND ZEN / PRESS
"REVEREND ZEN’s debut album Angels, Blues & the Crying Moon is simply a very good record."
JOHN SCHOENBERGER - BILLBOARD's RADIO & RECORDS (LA)
"Great songwriting, lyrics and arrangements by REVEREND ZEN."
PAUL OLUND - MSNBC.com’s INDEPENDENT STUDY / ARTIST'S YOU NEED TO KNOW (NYC)
"Reverend Zen sounds like a killer band that's tight, full of energy and swing, highly accomplished and credible."
PAUL SEDOWSKI - CEO; FAME GAMES EFFIGY AWARDS ABC RADIO NETWORKS (COSTA DEL SOL, SPAIN)
"The album is one of the year’s most interesting and its overall excellence demands repeated listening. If you want some adventurous rock/jazz/r&b check out Angels, Blues & the Crying Moon by REVEREND ZEN."
RICHARD LUDMERER - DIRECTOR; NY BLUES & JAZZ SOCIETY (NYC)
"I don't think there's one duff track on this entire cd. Rest assured we'll being playing Reverend Zen on Celtica Radio for a very long time."
BILL EVERATT - CELTICA RADIO LTD. (BRIGEND, UK)
REVEREND ZEN / AWARDS
2011-12 ASCAP Plus Award (NYC)
2010-11 ASCAP Plus Award (NYC)
2010 Semi Finalist Award UK Song Contest (London)
2009-10 Artist of the Year Nominee Effigy Awards Fame Games ABC Radio Networks (Spain)
2009-10 Song of the Year Nominee Effigy Awards Fame Games ABC Radio Networks (Spain)
7 Finalist Awards 2009-10 Effigy Awards Fame Games ABC Radio Networks (Spain)
2009-10 ASCAP Plus Award (NYC)
2009 Semi Finalist Award UK Song Contest (London)
2009 Semi Finalist Award Australia Song Contest (Sydney)
2008-09 Artist of the Year Nominee Effigy Awards Fame Games ABC Radio Networks (Spain)
7 Finalist Awards 2008-09 Effigy Awards Fame Games ABC Radio Networks (Spain)
2 Finalist Awards 2008-09 Unisong International Song Contest (LA)
2008-09 ASCAP Plus Award (NYC)
2008 Golden Wave Artist of the Year Award (Denver)
2008 Best Song Nominee Los Angeles Music Awards (LA)
2008 Best Song Nominee Toronto Exclusive Magazine Awards (Toronto)
2008 Finalist Award France's 100% Song Contest (Paris)
2 Semi Finalist Awards France's 2008 100% Song Contest (Paris)
3 Semi Finalist Awards 2008 UK Song Contest (London)
2008 Semi Finalist Award Australia Song Contest (Sydney)
2007-08 Song of the Year Effigy Awards Fame Games ABC Radio Networks (Spain)
2007-08 Artist of the Year Nominee Effigy Awards Fame Games ABC Radio Networks (Spain)
5 Finalist Awards 2007-08 Effigy Awards Fame Games ABC Radio Networks (Spain)
2 Finalist Awards 2007-08 Unisong International Song Contest (LA)
2007-08 ASCAP Plus Award (NYC)
2007 Artist of the Year Los Angeles Music Awards (LA)
2007 Song of the Year Los Angeles Music Awards (LA)
4 Best Song Nominations 2007 Los Angeles Music Awards (LA)
2007 Artist of the Year WCH Radio (St. Louis)
2006 Bronze Artist Award RGW Radio (Norfolk, UK)
2006 Finalist Award VH1 Song of the Year Contest (Houston-NYC)
5 Runner Up Awards 2006 VH1 Song of the Year Contest (Houston-NYC)
REVEREND ZEN / BIO
Check out the latest awards ceremony for independent music and you'll likely find Reverend Zen named among the nominees or winners. Since the release of their debut CD the rock, blues, jazz group has continuously garnered critical acclaim, receiving seventy music industry awards from around the world. John Schoenberger of Billboard's Radio and Records in Los Angeles reflects on the band's success stating, "Reverend Zen's Angels, Blues & the Crying Moon is simply a very good record."
Winning 2007/08 Song of the Year from ABC Radio Networks Fame Games Effigy Awards in Costa del Sol, Spain for "The Boston Shakedown", along with an Artist of the Year Nomination and five Finalist Awards, is just a start. An Artist of the Year Nomination and seven Finalist Awards followed from 2008/09's Effigy Awards, with the band receiving Artist of the Year and a Song of the Year Nomination for "Boy Genius", along with seven Finalist Awards from 2009/10's Effigy Awards.
Two thousand seven saw Reverend Zen receive four Best Song Nominations from Hollywood's Los Angeles Music Awards for "The Boston Shakedown", "Bad Attitude", "Don't Try to Tell Me" and "Dangerous Times". The genre stretching band was subsequently named L.A. Music Award's 2007 Artist of the Year, with "Bad Attitude" named 2007 Song of the Year. More kudos followed as "Her Love" and "Bad Attitude" received Best Song Nominations from 2008's L.A. Music Awards and 2008's Toronto Exclusive Magazine Awards respectively. The group concluded the year named recipients of 2008's Golden Wave Artist of the Year Award in Denver.
More European accolades followed with Reverend Zen receiving two Semi Finalist Awards and a Finalist nod for "Dangerous Times" from France's 2008 100% Song Contest in Paris and three Runners Up Awards from the BBC sponsored 2008 UK Song Contest in London. In Sydney the band was a Finalist Nominee in both the 2008 and 2009 Australia Song Contest, while back in the United States "Bad Attitude" and "Magdalena" received Finalist Awards from 2007/08's Unisong International Song Contest in Los Angeles as "Boy Genius" and "My Sigmund Freud" were Finalists in 2008/09's Unisong Contest. Along the way there were multiple awards from 2006's Billboard World Song Contest in New York, 2006's Mid Atlantic Song Contest in Washington, D.C. and 2007's Singer-Songwriter Awards in London. Add to those WCH Radio's 2007 Artist of the Year Award in St. Louis and RGW Radio's 2006 Bronze Artist Award in Norfolk, U.K., but the list is still incomplete.
From 2007-2012 Reverend Zen bandleader-songwriter Jack Evans was the recipient of five prestigious ASCAP Plus Awards in New York. Preceding those honors Mr. Evans and the group received five Runners Up Awards in 2006's VH1 Song of the Year Contest in Houston, as "Dangerous Times" was named a 2006-VH1 Finalist. The VH1 panel remarked, "Listening to these songs you're drawn in by their unique, vivid mirrors of human nature and emotion. Their lyrics and arrangements have the power to make you remember both the songs and their performances. This music has stand out guitar that's perfectly executed and first rate production. Above all this music is straight from the heart."
For Reverend Zen such substance and precision were honed over time, with the band writing and recording Angels, Blues & the Crying Moon over a ten-year period. You'll hear this dedication and attention to detail in each exacting lyric and every well-executed chord change. "Great songwriting, lyrics and arrangements from Reverend Zen." Comments Paul Olund of MSNBC.com's Independent Study - Artists You Need to Know. These are always timeless qualities in music and Reverend Zen not only reminds us of Steely Dan's cleverness and the grit of the blues, but they also touch upon the introspection of the singer-songwriters. These traits and more are evident on the group's slamming shuffle "The Boston Shakedown", with its tale of lust, debauchery and a college education, and in the dark beauty of love lost on "Don't Try to Tell Me" and "The One in Love".
Reverend Zen's musical credentials are beyond question. The group's musicians have a history of playing with the music greats, ranging from John Mayer, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Donald Fagen, John Scofield and Annie Lennox to B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Sting. The band's sound pays tribute to these influences, but also pushes musical boundaries mixing the funk laden wit of "Bad Attitude" and "Boy Genius", with the classic rock sound of "Magdalena" and its angelic tale of love found.
"Our influences span several genres." States Mr. Evans. "Miles Davis, James Brown, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Wayne Shorter and Claude Debussy is among our favorites. All of them inspire us with their spirit, eloquence and craft. They just seem to express themselves with conviction and humanity.". Strands of Ms. Mitchell and Mr. Debussy can be heard flowing through Reverend Zen's impressionistic ballad of love in question, "Only a Fool" with the New York group again bridging musical idioms.
Such rich musical backgrounds coupled with their distinctive writing has helped Reverend Zen quickly gain a reputation for thought-provoking lyrics and no holds barred rhythms. Those qualities and more are evident on the rocking "My Sigmund Freud", their National Inquirer like adventures of an amusing psychotic and his psychiatrist, on "Her Love" their haunting portrait of a woman's emotional damage and on "Dangerous Times" their analogy of the Wild West to current events in America and the world. It's music for the thinking man's head indeed.
Not only the music industry, but listeners around the world are discovering Reverend Zen with the band receiving air play and coverage in North and South America, the Middle East, Australia, Japan and Europe. Paul Sedowski, CEO of Meer Music International's Fame Games show, broadcast on Spain's Onda Cero Radio Network to audiences in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, and in the United States on the ABC Radio Network remarks, "Reverend Zen has gone and rocked our station totally and put big smiles on our faces. They sound like a killer band that's tight, full of energy and swing, highly accomplished and credible."
Global platitudes aside Reverend Zen's true genius lies in its music with lyrics of wit, introspection and cultural commentary, melodies that live on in your memory like old friends, dead on drum tracks, bad ass guitar solos and subtleties that slowly reveal themselves. Ten years in the making, Angels, Blues & the Crying Moon was worth the wait and is now taking Reverend Zen to the world stage.
REVEREND ZEN / MUSICIANS
Jack Evans - lead vocals, background vocals, keyboards, drums, percussion, co writer, arranging.
Rob Aries - keyboards (John Scofield, Donald Harrison, Bill Evans, Dennis Chambers, Creed Taylor, Freddie Jackson).
Kjell Benner - bass (Patti La Belle, Arlen Roth).
Chris Carter - guitar (Art Neville, Solomon Burke, Dr. John, Taj Mahal, NYC's Uptown Horns Revue, Joan Osborne).
Margaret Dorn - background vocals (Michael McDonald, Celine Dion, Boz Scaggs, Diana Ross, Bette Midler, Manhattan Transfer, Donald Fagen).
Rudy Feinauer - drums (George Russell, Jimmy Guiffre, David Mann, Syndicate of Soul).
James Gerard - keyboards, bass, co writer, arranging.
Sherryl Marshall - background vocals (John Medeski, NYC’s Uptown Horns Revue, RuPaul, Buster Poindexter, Joni Mitchell, Jane Siberry, Ashford & Simpson, Albert Collins).
Nick Moroch - guitar (David Sanborn, Donald Fagen, Chaka Khan, Dennis Chambers, Madonna, Bob James, Luther Vandross, David Bowie).
Gil Parris - guitar (Bob James, David Mann, Dr. John, David Sanborn, Toni Braxton, Paul Schaeffer, Syndicate of Soul, Diane Schur, Keith Carlock).
Kip Sophos - bass (Nile Rodgers, Bob James, Chuck Loeb, Keith Carlock, David Mann).
Vannese Thomas - background vocals (Sting, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross, Annie Lennox, Joe Cocker, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Pearl Jam, Donald Fagen, John Scofield, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin)
Soozie Tyrell - background vocals (Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Judy Collins, Buster Poindexter, Carole King, John Hammond, Shawn Colvin).
Chris Vitarello - guitar (Jimmy McGriff, Arlen Roth, Roxy Perry).
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