Brian Simpson (musician)
Brian Simpson (born May 11, 1961) is a contemporary jazz pianist and composer. He has released 10 albums as a solo artist, his most recent, ''All That Matters'', released in 2021. Biography Simpson was born May 11, 1961, and raised in Gurnee, Illinois, to very music-oriented parents. His father was a fan of jazz music, and Simpson says, "Our house was filled with music. I never really considered any other lifestyle." The musician also states that his brother and sister both played instruments. At the age of ten, he began to play the piano. He states that while he initially preferred the sound of jazz guitar, the main individual who influenced his piano tastes was Oscar Peterson. Simpson then graduated from Northern Illinois University, earning a Bachelor's of Arts degree in music (piano). Soon after graduating, Simpson moved to Los Angeles in order to take part in the music scene there. He played with several jazz artists, including Boney James, Norman Brown and Everette Harp. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gurnee, Illinois
Gurnee ( ) is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Its population was 30,706 as of the 2020 census. It borders the city of Waukegan, and is a popular tourist attraction within the Chicago metropolitan area. Best known for being the location of Six Flags Great America, Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Chicago and Gurnee Mills, the village sees an average of over 23 million visitors annually. History Early settlers in the Gurnee area came by foot horseback and by "Prairie Schooners" drawn by oxen or via the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes. They came from the town of Warren, New York, which was named in honor of Major General Joseph Warren, killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Warren Township, formed in 1850, was also named after him. The first settlement of Warren Township commenced in 1835 in the vicinity of the Aux Plaines River (now the Des Plaines River). In 1835–36, a land company from New York State erected a Community House (site of the old Gurnee Grade Sch ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Allen Hinds
Allen Hinds (born 1956) is an American guitarist, who has recorded or performed with Natalie Cole, BeBe & CeCe Winans, The Crusaders, Hiroshima, Roberta Flack, Randy Crawford, Bobby Caldwell, James Ingram, Marilyn Scott, Eric Marienthal, Marc Antoine, Gino Vannelli and Boney James, among many others. His songs have appeared on the TV shows ''Lucky'', '' JAG'', ''Pawn Stars'', ''Sons of Guns'' and '' Sliced'', among others. He is also an instructor and artist in residence at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California, and has released five solo albums. Early life and career Hinds was born in Auburn, Alabama, playing blues, R&B, jazz and fusion in his youth. He began playing professionally at clubs and frat parties in major colleges across the American south. He attended the Berklee College of Music, then moved to Los Angeles. He then studied at the Musicians Institute, where he is now a member of its teaching staff. He has performed as a session musician for, and has pe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Smooth Jazz Pianists
Smooth may refer to: Mathematics * Smooth function, a function that is infinitely differentiable; used in calculus and topology * Smooth manifold, a differentiable manifold for which all the transition maps are smooth functions * Smooth algebraic variety, an algebraic variety with no singular points * Smooth number, a number whose prime factors are all less than a certain value; used in applications of number theory * Smoothsort, a sorting algorithm Arts and entertainment Music * Smooth (singer), Juanita Stokes, American singer, rapper and actress * ''Smooth'' (album), by Smooth, 1995 * ''Smooth'', an album by Gerald Albright, 1994 * "Smooth" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2017 * "Smooth" (iiO song), 2004 * "Smooth" (Santana song), featuring Rob Thomas, 1999 * "Smooth", a mashup by Neil Cicierega from ''Mouth Moods'', 2017 Other media * ''Smooth'' (magazine), an American publication for young black men * Smooth Radio (other), UK radio station networks * smoothfm, an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shanachie Records
Shanachie Records is an American, New Jersey-based record label, founded in 1975 by Richard Nevins and Dan Collins. The label is named for the Gaelic word ''seanchaí'' (anglicised as shanachie), an Irish storyteller. It was previously distributed by Entertainment One Distribution. Starting as a label that specialized in fiddle music, they began releasing work by Celtic groups such as Planxty and Clannad. Other genres on the label include Latin American, African music, soul, country and ska. In 1989 they acquired Yazoo Records from Nick Perls. This allowed them to release vintage jazz and blues recordings. Today, they have another imprint, Shanachie Jazz. In 1992 Shanachie began releasing CDs by folk singer-songwriters, including Richard Shindell, Dolores Keane, John Stewart, Rod MacDonald, Richard Meyer, Karan Casey, Sue Foley, Four Bitchin' Babes, Kevin Gordon, and others. In 1980 Shanachie released its first reggae album, ''King Tubbys Meets Rockers In a Firehous ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rendezvous Music
Rendezvous Music (formerly known as Rendezvous Entertainment) is a record label founded by multiple-Grammy Award nominee and RIAA Certified Gold recording artist Dave Koz, radio entrepreneur Frank Cody and music business veteran Hyman Katz in 2002. At various times, the label has been distributed by Sony Music Entertainment's Red Distribution and Universal Music Group's Fontana Distribution. In 2008, artist Patti Austin received her first Grammy Award for album ''Avant Gershwin'' released on Rendezvous Entertainment in 2007. In 2011, artist Kirk Whalum received his first Grammy Award for song "It's What I Do" (feat. Lalah Hathaway) from album ''The Gospel According to Jazz Chapter III'' released on Rendezvous Music in 2010. Since its acquisition in August 2008, Rendezvous is part of the Mack Avenue Records label group and continues to release new music by Kirk Whalum, Jonathan Butler, Kyle Eastwood as well as previously unreleased music by Wayman Tisdale. List of Rendezvous artis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Najee
Jerome Najee Rasheed (born November 4, 1957, New York City), known professionally as Najee, is an American Jazz-Smooth Jazz saxophonist and flautist. Early life Najee was born in the lower west side of Manhattan in New York City and lived his teenage years in Queens, New York. His father died at a young age, and Najee and siblings were raised by his mother Mary Richards. His mother was an important figure and supporter throughout his life and musical career. Najee's musical pursuits began in grade school at age eight, where he began playing the clarinet, but he had a deep desire to play saxophone. He was influenced at this age by listening to his mother's recordings of Miles Davis and other legendary American jazz artists. A pivotal moment in his life came when he made the decision to become a professional jazz musician. In high school, Najee began to study jazz as a student at the Jazzmobile program (co-founded by Dr. Billy Taylor) where he honed his skills on tenor saxophone a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Maysa Leak
Maysa Leak (born August 17, 1966) is an American jazz singer better known by her mononym Maysa. She is well known by fans of smooth jazz both for her solo work and her work with the British band Incognito. Early life and career Leak attended Milford Mill High School in western Baltimore County. After high school, she studied music at Morgan State University in Baltimore City and graduated with a degree in classical performance. There she performed as a member of the world-famous Morgan State University Choir under the direction of the late Nathan Carter. Leak met performer Stevie Wonder during a college performance. After receiving her degree from Morgan State University, Maysa headed to Southern California to perform with Stevie Wonder’s female backup group Wonderlove. While with Wonder, Maysa was a vocalist on the ''Jungle Fever'' soundtrack, and performed on numerous television shows including ''The Arsenio Hall Show'', ''Oprah'' and ''The Tonight Show''. It was during an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jonathan Fritzén
Jonathan Fritzen (born October 11, 1982) is a Swedish contemporary jazz pianist and multi-instrumentalist. Biography Fritzen was born in Stockholm, Sweden to a Swedish mother, flutist Katarina Fritzén, and an American father, composer Steve Dobrogosz. He started playing drums at a young age, and as he got older he also learned the piano, bass, guitar, flute and vocals. His formal music education comes from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm, where he became one of the first students to receive a master's degree from the jazz department. His debut solo album, ''Love Birds'' was released in 2008. Besides playing piano, he did all the composing, producing and played all eight different instruments. Fritzen's second album ''VIP'' (2009) features vocalist Laila Adele, guitarist Jay Soto, saxophone players Michael Lington and Greger Hillman. The album spent 40 weeks on the Smoothjazz.com TOP 50. His third album ''Diamonds'' (2010) features saxophone players Darren ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Peter White (musician)
Peter White (born 20 September 1954) is an English musician and composer who plays guitar, piano, accordion and harmonica. He is known for his 20-year collaboration with Al Stewart. Musical career Early career with Al Stewart Born in Luton, England, White first gained fame with his distinctive guitar style as accompanist to singer/songwriter Al Stewart. He started in Stewart's band in 1975 at the age of 20, then moved to Los Angeles in 1978. During a 20-year tenure with Stewart, he co-wrote many songs, including Stewart's 1978 top-ten hit " Time Passages" and “Midnight Rocks” (which reached #24 on the US charts) in 1980. That same year he formed Shot In The Dark, a band which backed Stewart and released an eponymous album in 1981. Basia In 1984, White’s brother Danny White, one of the founders of Matt Bianco, invited him to play on the Matt Bianco debut album '' Whose Side Are You On?''. He played acoustic guitar (uncredited) on the song "Half A Minute"--the first time ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Euge Groove
Steven Eugene Grove (born November 27, 1962), better known as Euge Groove, is an American smooth jazz saxophonist. Early life and career Born in Hagerstown, Maryland, he graduated from the University of Miami School of Music in 1984. Grove did not record his first solo album until 2000. Prior to that, he had replaced Richard Elliot in the Tower of Power when Elliot decided to pursue a solo career, and he also did session work with various pop acts, most noticeably the Miami girl group Exposé. He has a sax solo on their No. 1 hit "Seasons Change," and another on their 1993 hit "I'll Never Get Over You (Getting Over Me)." Grove adopted the name Euge Groove; initially presumed to be coined by fans who saw him perform in Europe, Grove later indicated in an interview on XM Radio in 2006 that his mother-in-law conceived the idea for his stage name. Euge Groove's best-known solo hits include "Sneak a Peek," "Slam Dunk," "Rewind," "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight," "Livin' Large ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kirk Whalum
Kirk is a Scottish and former Northern English word meaning "church". It is often used specifically of the Church of Scotland. Many place names and personal names are also derived from it. Basic meaning and etymology As a common noun, ''kirk'' (meaning 'church') is found in Scots, Scottish English, Ulster-Scots and some English dialects, attested as a noun from the 14th century onwards, but as an element in placenames much earlier. Both words, ''kirk'' and ''church'', derive from the Koine Greek κυριακόν (δωμα) (kyriakon (dōma)) meaning ''Lord's (house)'', which was borrowed into the Germanic languages in late antiquity, possibly in the course of the Gothic missions. (Only a connection with the idiosyncrasies of Gothic explains how a Greek neuter noun became a Germanic feminine). Whereas ''church'' displays Old English palatalisation, ''kirk'' is a loanword from Old Norse and thus retains the original mainland Germanic consonants. Compare cognates: Icelandic & ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Wayman Tisdale
Wayman Lawrence Tisdale (June 9, 1964 – May 15, 2009) was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and a smooth jazz bass guitarist. A three-time All American at the University of Oklahoma,"Tulsan Wayman Tisdale dies" '''', May 15, 2009. he was elected to the in 2009. [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |