IMPROVIJAZZATION NATION
Lynette Washington - KALEIDOSCOPE: There are some lady jazz singers who are just "pretending" to have the soul that's the key ingredient in making a vocal performance vibrant & memorable - but there's nothing like that on Lynette's great vocals. The player list is far too long to run down here, but one of her partners, pianist Dennis Bell (who produced this CD), is right there (as are all the other players) to help emphasize Lynette's high energy and talent. Folks, just check out "Stolen Moments"... an amazing 6:51 rendition... Bell's keyboard intro leads right into Ms. Washington's deep & husky-toned vocal that wraps you right around her finger immediately. I mean, you'll fall in love with her spirit from this tune alone - & there are 11 more powerful tunes to spin over & over & over. If you're lookin' for something with a little more bluesy flavor (& heavy-duty PUNCH), you'll find "Get Back" much to your liking... if you didn't have any "soul" before this tune started, you WILL by the end of the 5 minutes... & that ORGAN is just KILLER, folks. The other thing I especially enjoyed on Lynette's CD is that every tune she does is her own... it doesn't matter who wrote the piece, she just reaches out with her exquisite voice and TAKES IT ON! In fact, my favorite track isn't "stock jazz" at all, it's "Colors of the Wind" (an Alan Menken composition) that grabbed that slot... she is just so expressive on this piece. If you love female-fronted jazz vocals, you'll certainly agree with me - it's MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED & gets an "EQ" (energy quotient) rating of 4.97. Get more information at www.reverbnation.com/lynettewashingtondennisbelljazzny Rotcod Zzaj
Lynette Washington
KALEIDOSCOPE
GuavaJamm Entertainment, Inc (www.guavajamm.net) is pleased to announce the upcoming release of
“Kaleidoscope” by the Jazzmobile Award-Winning, iTunes Essential Jazz Vocalist
Lynette Washington.
Produced and arranged by Gold/Platinum award winning pianist/producer Dennis
Bell (www.cityslickerproductions.com), the album features Dennis Bell Jazz NY
with guest artist jazz greats Alex Blake (Bass), Victor Jones (Drums), Casey
Benjamin and Jacques Schwarz-Bart (Saxophones), Kenyatta Beasley
(Trumpet), Dave Valentin (Flutes) John Cariddi and Paul Steinman (Guitars), Pete
Levin (Organ), Victor See Yuen (Percussion), and Mark Wood (Violin).
The 12 song album includes such jazz classics as Stolen Moments, Doxy, Cristo
Redentor, and Dat Dere. Ms Washington also puts her own original jazz stamp on
classic songs such as Danny Boy, Get Back, and Billy Joel’s Lullabye.
LYNETTE WASHINGTON, jazz vocalist, is a native New Yorker,
born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Her extensive music career in jazz, R&B, and
gospel, has taken her across the globe travelling as far as Australia. She has the gift and
ability to sing in several languages including Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish, French, Italian, and
Portuguese. Ms. Washington is a sought after artist for a variety of multicultural events.
Lynette was the 2005 Grand Prize Winner of the Jazzmobile / Anheuser Busch Jazz Vocal
Competition, and was featured on WBGO's Singers Unlimited Show with Michael Bourne.
As the Grand Prize Winner, Ms. Washington performed at WBLS' Croton Music Festival,
the City Of Yonkers' Friday Night Jazz Festival in the Yonkers Sculpture Garden, and BB
Kings Jazz and Blues Club in the heart of New York City.
An established songwriter and arranger, Lynette has worked with well-known artists such
as, Aretha Franklin, U2, Peter Gabriel, Celia Cruz and Clifford Jordan, to name a few. She
was a featured lead singer and musical arranger with New Voices of Freedom, the singers
who appeared in U2's Rattle & Hum, with performances at Madison Square Garden and
Radio City Music Hall in New York City. She was also featured in a Special Olympics live
telecast at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Other performances
include the BBC/Virgin Records worldwide telecast and album, One World, One Voice, the
Give Peace A Chance video with Lenny Kravitz, the 2002 VMA Music Awards with the
Godfather of Soul, James Brown and comedian Jimmy Fallon.
Lynette has recorded national radio and television commercials for Roy Rogers, Pizza Hut,
Nabisco, and Toyota. In 2002, Lynette completed her first solo project entitled Long, Long
Ago: A Jazz Celebration of Christmas, Chanukah and Kwanzaa, and released her second
album, Smoky Dawn, in 2004. She is presently recording her third solo album scheduled for
release in early 2010.
She appears regularly at New York metropolitan area venues, including The River Room,
Creole, The Schomberg Museum, BB Kings, The Zinc Bar, Solomon’s Porch, Pier 2110,
The Brooklyn Museum, and The Sculpture Garden in Yonkers. She was selected by the
Jazzmobile Society to pay tribute to Nina Simone at a solo performance held at Harlem
Stage/Aaron Davis Hall in September 2008. She is currently touring in the Off-Broadway
production of Regina Taylor’s Crowns.
Lynette Washington is an iTunes Essential Jazz Artist. For your listening pleasure, Ms.
Washington's CDs, Smoky Dawn, Live! At The Kennedy Center, and Long, Long Ago are
available at www.guavajamm.net and all major digital outlets including iTunes.
Dennis Bell, pianist, is a gold and platinum award-winning producer, arranger, songwriter/
composer, conductor and music educator. Graduate of the High School of Music & Art, NYU
(BMus in Piano/Music Theory) and CUNY Queens College (MA in Composition). Dennis has
produced records by Doug E Fresh, Dave Valentin, New Voices of Freedom, U2, and Touché,
amongst others. He was the musical director/ conductor for the international tour of Jesus Christ
uperstar and has written TV and Radio Jingles for Drakes, Hardees, Roy Rogers, and Nabisco
companies. His modern dance scores have been performed at The Yard in Martha’s Vineyard, The
Arts Umbrella in Vancouver, Yale University in New Haven, LaGuardia HS of Music & Art and
Performing Arts in NYC, Ailey II, Juilliard New Dances 08, Perry Mansfield in Steamboat Springs
and U Cal at Irvine amongst others. His compositions for modern dance/ballet CD, “Musique Pour
La Danse Modern” was released on GuavaJamm Entertainment (www.guavajamm.net) in 2008 in
addition to his Dennis Bell Jazz NY and solo piano recordings. His recordings are also available
from Apple iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/ dennis-bell/id3690433), Amazon.com,
CDBaby.com and all other major internet digital outlets.
He has played with and/or performed on albums and concerts with Marcus Miller, Buddy Williams,
Nick Brignola, Jimmy Owens, Dave Grusin, Buddy Morrow, Sal Salvador, Dave Valentin, Noel
Pointer, Steve Jordan, U2, Lenny Kravitz, Celia Cruz, Billy Preston, and many others. He was the
musical director/conductor of the international tour of Jesus Christ, Superstar and has performed
and conducted in venues from Carnegie and Alice Tully Halls to Madison Square Garden, and
appeared on the Joan Rivers Show, New York at Night, MTV Music Video Awards, music videos,
and in the movie U2, Rattle and Hum.
Dennis is the founder and CEO of City Slicker Productions, Mark of Aries Music (BMI) and record
label GuavaJamm Entertainment (www.guavajamm.net). He was a long time Music Educator in the
NYC school system. At LaGuardia HS of Music & Art and Performing Arts he was teacher of Jazz
Improvisation, Musicianship, Choir and Music Technology. He was the long time Conductor of the
award winning Bronx Boro-Wide Chorus and he is presently an Adjunct Professor of Music and
Music Technology at Mercy College in Westchester County. Dennis Bell is a Yamaha Influential
Artist.
Casey Benjamin is a first generation New Yorker, born of Caribbean and Panamanian parents.
Casey started playing the saxophone at the age of eight and began performing professionally at
the age of twelve. After attending the famous Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art
and the Performing Arts Benjamin worked with such greats as Grover Washington Jr., Wynton
Marsalis, Chick Corea, Arturo Sandoval, Roy Ayers, and many others. After LaGuardia he
attended The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in Manhattan and currently plays
with Q-Tip (rapper), Mos Def, Stefon Harris and The RCDC Experiment. Casey has also worked
with D.J. Logic and is one half of the funk pop new wave duo HEAVy, with vocalist Nicky
Guiland, his band that blends jazz, soul and roots music. He has received numerous honors
such as the C.D. 101.9 Jazz Group / Artist of the Year, the Saturn scholarship, Bertlesman's
"World of Expression" Songwriting Competition, and first place Presidential Scholar in the
National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts. He has performed at many New York jazz
clubs including the Village Vanguard, The Apollo, Lincoln Center and Washington DC's Kennedy
Center. His most memorable performance was in 1996 for President Clinton's 50th birthday
celebration at Radio City Music Hall, N.Y.C. He has performed at Birdland N.Y.C. with The Joe
Chambers Quintet, the Spoleto Jazz Festival in Spoleto, Italy with the late Betty Carter, Blue
Note N.Y.C. with Pucci Amanda Jhones, Lynette Washington, Dennis Bell Jazz NY at a variety of
venues and with The Buster Williams Quintet at the Jazzmobile in N.Y.C.
Kenyatta Beasley at three years old picked up his father’s trumpet and made… well, some
would call it music; some would call it noise. Either way, it was little Kenyatta Beasley’s
announcement that he was about to enter the Pantheon of great musicians who hail from the
music capital of the world, New Orleans.
Growing up on New Orleans’ West Bank, Kenyatta Atiba Beasley’s life does seem almost preordained.
By the age of nine, Kenyatta was already a dominant force, being hand-picked from a
field of 2,000 to portray a young Louis Armstrong in the touring musical Satchmo: America’s
Musical Legend. In 1991, he enrolled in the esteemed New Orleans Center for Creative Arts,
whose alumni include the likes of Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr. and Terence
Blanchard.
After graduation, Kenyatta traded in The Big Easy for The Big Apple, making his way to the
Mannes School of Music, where he received his B.A. in Jazz Composition and Performance.
From there, at the age of twenty-two, he signed on for what was arguably the hottest ticket of the
late nineties: Lauryn Hill’s seminal tour to support her multi-platinum album, The Miseducation of
Lauryn Hill, upon which Kenyatta also appeared. He went on to work with Shakira’s promotional
tour with Wyclef Jean for her Hips Don’t Lie album, appearing on Ellen and American Idol,
among other such nationally broadcast shows. And he recently wrapped up an exhaustive
double duty journey with Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z for their sold-out Heart of the City tour.
He released his own solo recording, Brooklyn Mardi Gras, in 2002. Cites Kenyatta, of his life’s
calling, “Music should have a purpose and reflect life…[I have a] real appreciation and respect
for all music…there is a truth that is being portrayed in it.”
From the water-like rasgueo patterns of flamenco, to the transference of the bass into a group of
tone drums, bassist Alex Blake combines cultural experience into an expression of one
complete world of music. His career has spanned countless styles of music. He has toured and
recorded with so many great musicians: Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Stan Getz, McCoy
Tyner, The Last Poets, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Billy Cobham, The Manhattan Transfer,
Pharaoh Sanders and Randy Weston
Alex Blake was born in Panama where, as a child, he enjoyed the infusion of cultures common in
Central America. Acting as a bridge between North and South America, Panama captures a little
bit of each culture passing through. It only follows that as one of the building blocks to his
character, this environmental influence would later be echoed in his uncanny ability to play every
style of music. Alex moved with his family to the United States when he was seven years old,
and continued to be influenced by his environment, which this time round was Brooklyn, New
York.
By the time he was sixteen, Alex had reached the epitome of "outside" success by touring and
recording with Sun Ra. From there, at the ripe old age of seventeen, Alex had moved on to play
with Dizzy Gillespie, which catapulted the demand for his presence to an international basis.
The calls poured in from Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Randy Weston, Pharoah Sanders and
many others who desired his inventive interpretations on the bass
Many who work with Alex consider him an entire rhythm section on his own. With his evocation
of rhythm guitar and steady drumming, along with lyrical bass lines emanating from his own two
hands. If one counts the occasional scat singing over some of his solos, one might be inclined to
call him the whole band and give him the horn chair as well!
Drummer Victor Jones was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1954 and started his musical journey
playing trumpet in the symphonic orchestra of the Elmwood Elementary School in East Orange.
After 10 years of studying the instrument, he developed an intense interest in the drums as a
result of seeing the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan Show.
While Jones continued his trumpet playing, the drums became his real passion. As a teenager,
he won several awards for outstanding musicianship, and in 1975, was discovered by Lou
Donaldson. This led to a string of prestigious gigs, including two years with Donaldson's outfit
and then a stint with Stan Getz's band. Touring with Getz introduced Jones to an international
audience, and he has since toured and recorded with a multitude of renown artists, such as
James Moody, Woody Shaw, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Clarke, Phyllis Hyman, Stanley
Turrentine, Masabumi Kikuchi, Michel Pettruciani, Dizzy Gillespie and Chaka Khan. For the last
two years, he has been touring wit the world famous Jimmy Scott.
Between his tours with other artists, Jones has formed his own group, The Victor Jones R&B
Bop Band, which has performed extensively throughout the United States and Japan. In 1995,
he issued his first release under his own name on New Frontier Records. Created through the
union of music and the visual art of Tom Reyes, "Visible Sound Groove" was inspired by a
current musical direction in New York known as Acid Jazz. "I always try to stay in touch with new
trends in music. Jazz runs the risk of losing its creative edge by focusing on artists who are
reproducing music that was perfected before they were born", states Jones.
After years playing as a sideman on over 100 releases and on film and production work, Victor
Jones is now emerging as a new breed of bandleader.
Grammy award winner Dave Valentin, who has recorded 25 albums, 15 albums for GRP,
combines together the influence of pop, R&B, and Brazilian music with Latin jazz to create a slick
and accessible form of crossover jazz. At age nine, Valentin enjoyed playing bongos and
congas. He gigged at Latin clubs in New York from age 12 and it was not until he was 18 that he
seriously started studying flute. Valentin's teacher, Hubert Laws, suggested that he not double on
saxophone because of his attractive sound on the flute. In 1977, he made his recording debut
with Ricardo Marrero's group and he was also on a Noel Pointer album. Discovered by Dennis
Bell, Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen, Valentin was the first artist signed to GRP and he has been
a popular attraction ever since. Since the mid-2000's, Valentin has been signed to High Note
Records releasing World On A String in 2005 and Come Fly With Me in 2006. Dave Valentin
appears courtesy High Note Records.
Undoubtedly Jacques Schwarz-Bart shares the vision put forth by the writer Patrick
Chamoiseau, “The contemporary melting pot of cultures and ethnicities has created a worldwide
phenomenon of “creolisation”.. This New York based jazz saxophonist, praised by major
American soul artists, raised by a Black Guadeloupean mother and a French Jewish father-,
grew up between Switzerland and Guadeloupe… The son of two award winning novelists,
Jacques followed an original and sinuous path that speaks volume about his identity. He was
born in the suburbs of Pointe a Pitre on December 22nd 1962. It is this different identity that is
the soil for Jacques’ inspiration in his music.
Says Jacques, “The great common denominator between all the styles I love, being Gwoka,
Jazz, or Soul, is that the music starts with the drums. It is all about the feel. The word “Gwoka”
comes from N’goka, a word from central Africa that means: the drums. It is interesting that gwoka
and jazz even shared the same name at one point: Bamboula. Each of these musical forms
offers me an opportunity to express my personal feelings and unique story. I always felt that they
needed to come together”.With the album “Soné Ka la”, Jacques Schwarz-Bart is the first
musician to fully consume the marriage between Gwoka and Jazz: 2 musical styles coming from
the African Diaspora.
Roy Hargrove called him to replace David Sanchez in his Latin Jazz band Crisol and in early
2000 he entered the recording session/concert fields where he got the nick name “Brother
Jacques” from D’angelo. Many others have called upon Jacques’ for his musical abilities: Roy
Hargrove, Erykah Badu, Eric Benet, Meshell N’degeocello, Mario Canonge, James Hurt, Danilo
Perez, Soulive, Ari Hoenig, David Gilmore and Stephanie McKay to name a few...
Jacques brings back to life the spirits of the great ones of old.
Victor Y. See Yuen, percussion, is of Chinese, African, Spanish and French ancestry from the
Caribbean Island of Trinidad and Tobago, W.I. He is co-founder of the organic percussion world
music ensemble, named “Heritage O.P.” He has a passion for record producing, poetry and song
writing. Among his many credits is the musical score for the 1998 Alvin Ailey American Dance
Theatre premier of "Days Past, Not Forgotten" at City Center.
Victor’s extensive experience in the music industry has given him the opportunity to perform, tour
and or record with such mega stars including Sonny Rollins, Kathleen Battle, Sarah Vaughn,
Wynton Marsalis, Mos Def, Ron Carter, Judith Jamison, Geoffrey Holder, The Mighty Sparrow,
Luther Vandross, Phyllis Hyman, Melba Moore, McCoy Tyner, T.S.Monk, Nat Adderley, Diane
Reeves, Najee, and Lester Bowie’s Brass fantasy, The Mighty Sparrow and Luther Vandross.
Victor plays a huge variety of percussion and melodic instruments including congas, bongos,
mbira, and the Vietnamese dant'rung.
Composer and ubiquitous guitarist on the New York recording studio scene, John Cariddi has
performed and/or recorded with Jazz and Pop artists including Steve Marcus, Patti Austin, Ricki
Lee Jones, Angela DeNiro, Annie Haslam, Nancy Wilson, and Peggy Lee. A master guitarist
with a blazing technique, John's dynamic approach to live performance has made him one of the
most in-demand guitarists in the New York area. His debut album “Come Together” was released
by GuavaJamm Entertainment in 2008 (www.guavajamm.net).
Organist Pete Levin has a diverse music career spanning several decades, has performed and recorded
with hundreds of Jazz and Pop artists - including Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, Miles Davis, David
Sanborn, Lenny White, Jaco Pastorius and John Scofield - receiving critical accolades for his
work during a 15 year association with Gil Evans, and his 8 years with jazz icon Jimmy Giuffre.
In 1990 he released his first solo album, “Party in the Basement,” for Gramavision, followed by “A
Solitary Man” and “Masters In This Hall.” In 2007, after a series of CDs for Alternate Mode, Pete
returned as a band leader with the Motema Music release, “Deacon Blues,” while also returning
to his first love, the Hammond Organ.
In an industry where originality is a highly prized commodity, recording artist, performer,
producer, inventor and Emmy-winning composer, Violinist Mark Wood is truly an original. He began his
career with a full scholarship to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York and had the privilege
of studying under Maestro Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Program. As an electric
violinist, Mark Wood is a highly acclaimed international recording artist who has released six CDs
of his highly original music; showcasing his unique approach to the electric violin with his own
line of patented instruments. He has toured and recorded with many of the industry's most
prominent performers, such as Celine Dion, where he was featured on a duet with her for the
song "To Love You More," Mark was also string arranger on two of her records. He was the
featured violinist in Billy Joel's video "All About Soul," appeared on "MTV Unplugged" with Lenny
Kravitz, was a lead character in Dee Snider’s Van Helsing’s Curse, and has performed with
Everclear in a live special for New York radio station WPLJ-FM. Mark also toured with Billy Joel
in 2008 and was with him for both historic final concerts at Shea stadium in July 2008. Mark
recently starred in a national television ad campaign for Pepsi. The music track is a Kanye West
produced hip hop version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (featuring the rapper Nas). Mark
was an original member of the multi-platinum-selling symphonic rock group Trans-Siberian
Orchestra since their inception 13 years ago, receiving two platinum and three gold records for
his work with them.
August 2009 marked the broadcast premiere of The Mark Wood Experience “Prologue” on
WLIW21 (the 3rd largest public television station in the US). Plans are in the works for a national
release and a long-form concert film. As a follow-up to “Prologue,” Mark is putting finishing
touches on his latest release and tours with an amazing group of musicians as part of The Mark
Wood Experience. Featured vocalist Laura Kaye collaborates with Mark and appears on several
of his CDs. In the capacity of composer, Mark received an Emmy award for music he composed
for CBS-TV’s coverage of the Tour de France bicycle race. Over the years, he received three
additional Emmy nominations; for music for the Winter Olympics on CBS-TV, a documentary for
ABC-TV, and CBS-TV’s Tour de France broadcasts. Major media appearances in the capacity of
recording artist and composer include: THE TONIGHT SHOW with Jay Leno, Good Morning
America, Live With Regis & Kelly, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, QVC, PBS, CBS Sunday
Morning, MTV News, Entertainment Tonight, E! Entertainment, CBS Sports, CBS News, and
CNN (among others).
Guitarist Paul Steinman is also a recording engineer, studio owner and composer; winner of the best musical score,
Berlin Film Festival, 1997; Cleo nomination for advertising music, 1991; and an Emmy award for
sound design, 1996. Paul Steinman has over 15 years as a sound mixer for numerous bands
and television productions, including over 350 shows for The Late Show with David Letterman.
He is the former Chairman of the Music Technology Program at the Center for Media Arts in
Manhattan and presently the Director, Music Industry + Technology at Mercy College in
Westchester County, NY
Engineer Steve Ward was an undergraduate in Electrical Engineering at Tufts University. Steve graduated from
Berkelee College of Music Cum Laude with a BA in Music Production and Engineering. He's the
1999 - 2000 recipient of the J.E. & B. Collins Music Scholarship. He earned his Masters Degree
in Music Technology at NYU's Steinhardt School of Education. He's worked as Technical
Supervisor at Damfino Productions, NY. For the last five years he's been a full time Professor of
Recording Technology at Mercy College WP, NY.
As a composer he's scored work for films shown at Sundance, PBS and others. Performers he's
worked with include Jose Feliciano, Martha Plimpton, Jim Steinman, and Grandmaster Flash.
His professsional affiliations include The Audio Engineering Society, The American Federation of
Musicians and BMI.
Copyright © 2010 GuavaJamm Entertainment, Inc
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