BARRY WHITE FOR THE DIGITAL AGE

Barry White was the ultimate Love Man; known for his sensual deep voice, size, and highly romantic image. From his own records to his own orchestra and "girl group," Barry has ruled the heart of his fans for more than four decades. He is a five-time Grammy Award-winner with his greatest soul, funk, and disco successes in the 1970s as a solo artist. Barry White has many gold and platinum albums and singles, with worldwide sales of over 100 million albums. He also appeared on many television shows such as Soul Train, The Today Show, and even guest appearances on The Simpsons. Now Barry White is about to have a digital presence via the Penté Group, a leading developer of entertaining applications for mobile devices and social media based on entertainment personalities' licenses, today announced an exclusive digital media partnership with the estate of Barry White to create and develop mobile and social applications while controlling and maintaining barrywhite.com. The agreement will create a unique experience around Barry White who was known for his deep, seductive voice and sultry music.

"Penté Group has the experience and understanding of the music industry to know how best to develop and host creative web sites, mobile media applications and social networking for any artist," noted Jack Perry, Management, Barry White Estate. "Their idea of fun and entertaining mobile apps featuring Barry White will please every fan. Barry would have loved taking his legacy to the next level with the technology Penté can provide." Under the partnership, Penté Group will be developing a series of mobile and social applications for multiple platforms while controlling and maintaining a new web presence for Barry White and plans to roll out iPhone and Facebook platforms in 2011 and will likely add other popular platforms in the coming months. The applications will reflect Barry White's unique personality while leveraging his voice and music to create both novelty and fan driven applications.

JAZZ IN THE GARDENS ADDS ISLEY BROTHERS TO LINEUP

Jazz in the Gardens has announced a new addition to the star-studded line up to include The Isley Brothers featuring Ronald & Ernest Isley "Celebrating 50 Years Of Music" to the sixth annual music festival. The festival returns to Miami Gardens' SunLife Stadium, March 19 and 20, 2011for the 6th consecutive year. This highly anticipated performance marks the first time in over five years that The Isley Brothers have performed together. With a music catalogue spanning over 50 years including hits, "Twist & Shout," "It's Your Thing," "Summer Breeze" and "Between The Sheets," this performance is a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Elyse Murray, CEO of Elyse Group 7, Agent for The Isley Brothers, comments, "We wanted to preserve music history by reuniting The Isley Brothers featuring Ronald and Ernest Isley for the sake of the next generation. They are living, walking archival legends of all genres of music," says Murray. "Now everyone can see them making history at Jazz in the Gardens."

Saturday, March 19, 2011, Jazz in the Gardens attendees will be treated to electrifying performances by Ms. Lauryn Hill, Charlie Wilson, Al Jarreau, Lalah Hathaway and Bobby Brown/Johnny Gill/Ralph Tresvant aka "Heads of State." On Sunday, March 20, 2011 the line-up will feature R&B legends The Isley Brothers featuring Ronald & Ernest Isley, Gladys Knight, EnVogue, and Branford Marsalis. Joining the star-studded cast, and adding his unique and internationally renowned mixing skills, is Miami's own bright star, D.J. Irie, the official DJ for The Miami Heat and now Jazz in the Gardens.

http://www.jazzinthegardens.com/

ROBERT HURST – BOB YA HEAD & UNREHURST VOL. 2

Robert Hurst has delivered two released simultaneously - two new and very different CDs on his Bebob imprint—Bob Ya Head, an intriguing foray into world music and electronica (with Darryl “Munyungo” Jackson, Marcus Belgrave, and Karriem Riggins), and Unrehurst Vol. 2, a 2007 all-acoustic trio date recorded at Smoke in New York City (with Robert Glasper and Chris “Daddy” Dave). Robert Hurst was born in Detroit and took up bass as a young boy after seeing the Modern Jazz Quartet perform and meeting Percy Heath. Trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, a Detroit icon, was an early mentor for Hurst, who began working professionally with Belgrave at 15. After meeting drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts on a gig, Hurst was recommended by Tain to his boss, Wynton Marsalis, whose group the bassist joined after college and with whom he recorded seven albums for Columbia.

In 1989, Hurst began working with Branford Marsalis and remained for five years, again recording for Columbia. Hurst continued on with Branford to California to begin work on The Tonight Show. When Marsalis left leadership of the show’s band in 1994, Hurst stayed on for another six years. “It is so rewarding to finally be releasing this new music,” says the bassist. “It’s been quite a magical journey becoming the man and musician my audience has come to know. The majority of my fans identify me as a ‘straight-ahead’ jazz bass sideman, and while I love playing jazz and will always do so, I found it necessary as an artist to express my many other musical influences. I believe the one constant in jazz is ‘change.’ Each generation has broken the mold of the previous. With so much more of my music already written and even recorded, I look forward to all of my upcoming projects further addressing the notion of change and the evolution of our music.”

Hurst, who in 2008 became an Associate Professor of Music with tenure at the University of Michigan, worked on Bob Ya Head over a two-year period while commuting between Los Angeles and relocating to his native Michigan. He describes the music on his latest release as “the culmination of my experiences while working and living in L.A,” where he was based throughout the 1990s, as a founding member of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno’s Tonight Show Band. Also, while becoming an active studio musician on the Los Angeles music scene, he “got into world music and heard African musicians and musicians of all ethnicities.” Hurst’s electric and acoustic bass playing is featured on the Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen soundtracks, “and a lot of that music had an electronica-type vibe. Some of it sounds really acoustic, but it’s quite sampled and very high-tech.”

Due to record-breaking winter storms, Unrehurst Vol. 2 was recorded in New York without any rehearsal, but Hurst, pianist Robert Glasper, and drummer Chris Dave clicked from the moment they hit the bandstand and their empathy is evident from the adventurous performances on the new disc. Hurst describes Dave as “an underground, super funky cat.” Glasper, the bassist says, “is open to all kinds of music, and he’s extremely fearless. It’s the gamut of total restraint to total abandon.” Glasper was also featured on Unrehurst Vol. 1 (Bebob, 2001), with drummer Damion Reid.

The bassist debuted on record as a leader in 1993 with Robert Hurst Presents: Robert Hurst(DIW/Columbia), featuring Kenny Kirkland, Branford Marsalis, Marcus Belgrave, Ralph Jones, and Jeff “Tain” Watts. Most of the music on the disc was specifically written with this exact personnel in mind. The following year, Hurst released a trio session, "One for Namesake" (DIW/Columbia), with Kirkland and Elvin Jones.

In recent years, the bassist has recorded and toured extensively with Diana Krall and Chris Botti, and continues to do so. He’s maintained his long association with Jeff “Tain” Watts and will perform with the drummer’s band at the Jazz Standard in New York 1/18-23 and at the Detroit Institute of the Arts 2/11 (also featuring Geri Allen).

Hurst is planning his CD release show—at Detroit’s Virgil Carr Center 3/11—and is scheduling a series of spring and summer appearances across the nation. He’s also preparing a fall 2011 release of "Bob: A Palindrome" (on Bebob), a sextet session with Glasper, Belgrave, Branford Marsalis, Tain Watts, and Bennie Maupin. “Branford recently told me, ‘You’ve got to be brave to do what WE do,’” says Hurst. “I boldly agree and look forward to compiling a wealth of work which exemplifies such bravery!”

SOLOMON BURKE – HOLD ON TIGHT

Solomon Burke recorded his final album in October 2009 in Brussels, Belgium with the Dutch band De Dijk.  One year later, on October 10th, the "King of Rock 'n' Soul" died on his way to Amsterdam where he was to perform with De Dijk.  Now that masterful album, which was issued in Europe prior to his passing and reached platinum status, debuts in the U.S.  Hold On Tight (Verve Forecast), which will be released March 22, 2011, from Solomon Burke & De Dijk, marks the legendary singer's last musical testament.

Burke first met De Dijk when they shared a stage in the Netherlands in 2007.  The quintessential Dutch rock and soul band (eight members including a horn section) is considered to be one of the most important Dutch bands of the past 25 years but had never recorded in English.  But with their musical hero Burke taking on lead vocals and co-writing the music and lyrics of every song but "Text Me," they recorded an album in English for the first time.  Also featured is music icon and long-time friend of Burke, Jools Holland, on piano for "What A Woman."

Burke and De Dijk worked together on Hold On Tight at the ICP studios in Brussels for six days. The (originally Dutch) songs of De Dijk were translated in English and re-recorded with Burke for this special occasion including the band's hit songs like Hold On Tight (Hou me vast), What A Woman (Wat een vrouw), Good For Nothing (Nergens goed voor), Seventh Heaven (Zevende hemel), I Gotta Be With You (Ik kan het niet alleen), and My Rose Saved From The Street (Mijn van straat geredde roos).

In the mid-'60s, Burke scored a series of R&B and pop hits for Atlantic Records, including his signature R&B #1 "Got To Get You Off Of My Mind," R&B #2 "Tonight's The Night" and classic "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love."  Enormously influential not only with his music but also his stage presence, Burke always performed wearing a regal robe and sporting a crown.  In the 2000s, he enjoyed a revival of interest, in 2003 winning a Grammy for Don't Give Up On Me.  Two years earlier, he had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a fitting honor for a man who bridged gospel, blues and R&B, the very foundations of rock and roll.

Hold On Tight Tracklisting:
Hold On Tight
My Rose Saved From The Street
What A Woman
No One
More Beauty
I Gotta Be With You
Seventh Heaven
Good For Nothing
Text Me
Don't Despair
The Bend
Perfect Song

Musicians: De Dijk with Solomon Burke; Peter van Soest trumpet; Kim Kops keyboards; Huub van derLubbe vocals; Nico Arzbach guitar; Hans van der Lubbe bass; Roland Brunt sax; JB Meijers guitar

http://www.thekingsolomonburke.com/

FREDDIE HUBBARD – PINNACLE, LIVE AND UNRELEASED FROM KEYSTONE KORNER

Freddie Hubbard was, next to Miles Davis, the most dramatic and far-reaching brass player of the past 60 years. He died at age 70 in December 2008, leaving a legacy of some 100 recordings under his own name and with everyone from Wes Montgomery and Art Blakey to Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Oscar Peterson, Quincy Jones, Dexter Gordon, George Benson, Sarah Vaughan, Max Roach, Count Basie, Ornette Coleman and many others. Throughout the course of his luminous international career, Hubbard established a standard of pure sound that brass players aspire to today. Hubbard's explosive and lyrical virtuosity (first noted during a high school band performance in his hometown of Indianapolis) as well as his flow of brilliant, spontaneous ideas and determination to play loudest, hardest, fastest and most imaginatively, will never go out of style. Pinnacle comprises more than an hour of highest level performances by Hubbard on trumpet and flugelhorn, with pianist Billy Childs, bassist Larry Klein (better known now as Joni Mitchell's producer), saxophonists Hadley Caliman and David Schnitter, trombonist Phil Ranelin, and drummers Eddie Marshall and Sinclair Lott.

From the very start of Pinnacle, Live And Unreleased From Keystone Korner it's clear Hubbard and company came to Keystone Korner to play. "The Intrepid Fox," a memorable tune from Hubbard's 1970 hit album Red Clay, contains one of the trumpeter's signature solo strategies: He rises within a minute from intimate musings to sustained trills and an acrobatic upper register push, resolving it all in a post-climactic chorus replete with perfectly placed lip buzzes. "First Light," the title-track from Hubbard's 1971 album, is a swinging mid-tempo blues in which the trumpeter quickly shifts to double-time.

"One of Another Kind" was Hubbard's contribution to the repertoire of V.S.O.P., the mid '70s hard-bop quintet he co-led with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. "Happiness Is Now," which Hubbard introduced on his 1980 studio album Skagly, is one of his unusual tunes, and pairs languid melody with hip back-beat. "The Summer Knows," Michel Legrand's ballad for the soundtrack of the film Summer of '42, is graced with some of Hubbard's warmest, most relaxed feelings. It's followed by "Blues for Duane," which is inspired by Hubbard's son and portrays another dazzling, top octave trumpet solo.

Pinnacle concludes with Hubbard's only known recording of "Giant Steps," Coltrane's chord-racing composition, which has become a jazz standard, with its peculiar set of chord progressions and racing tempo. In eight choruses of variation stretching over four and a half minutes, Hubbard demonstrates complete mastery of the difficult line's fast-paced changes. Here and on "One of Another Kind" tenor saxophonist Caliman, who died in September 2010, solos with power to match Hubbard's own. Throughout all of Pinnacle, Hubbard enjoys solid support from his working ensemble, most especially grand- and electric-pianist Childs, who joined Hubbard's band shortly after his graduation from University of Southern California as a composition major. Childs has earned continued acclaim as an instrumentalist and music writer, receiving a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship in 2009. Drummers Eddie Marshall and Sinclair Lott share responsibilities for unfailing propulsive rhythms.

Though the world is poorer now that Freddie Hubbard is gone, it gets richer as previously unheard documentation of his art emerges for the public to savor. Pinnacle, Live and Unreleased: From Keystone Korner is an occasion for rejoicing in the thrills and beauty Freddie Hubbard could wring from his trumpet and flugelhorn. It is as the title suggests, music by a jazz giant in peak form.

http://www.resonancerecords.org/

YELLOWJACKETS - TIMELINE

New from jazz group Yellowjackets is their latest release – Timeline. In music, time flies, styles unstoppably evolve, and bands come and go. But there are also rare stable, forward-moving forces on the scene, one prime example in jazz being the Yellowjackets. As of 2011, this beloved eclectic, electro-acoustic jazz band that keyboardist Russell Ferrante and bassist Jimmy Haslip built celebrates the ripe young, deep age of 30, a milestone commemorated with another powerful and heartfelt album, fittingly named Timeline.

In fact, Timeline is a special occasion on more than just the 30th anniversary front, also being the first step in a new relationship with the respected jazz label Mack Avenue Records, and the first new album with an important alumnus back in the ranks, the dynamic and flexible drummer Will Kennedy. Kennedy, who worked with the group for ten years and appeared on half its discography to date, returns to the ranks after a dozen years away. He fits seamlessly into the band, alongside Ferrante, Haslip and the multi-talented saxophonist-composer Bob Mintzer, whose critical role in helping define the group's current sound goes back to 1991.

For longtime Yellowjackets fans, the new album arrives as a confirmation and extension of the high expectations for this band. For new listeners, it's an ideal introduction. Timeline is the band's 21st official recording not including special side projects and guest spots. The band's background gleams with various honors, including 17 Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards to show for their efforts - so far. As Haslip explains, "We get extremely engaged with every project and we try to elevate and open things up. That's always the goal with every project. I'm not saying we always succeed. But the focus is to always try to do something that is hopefully engaging. And being that Russell, myself and the guys in the band have a certain chemistry." He adds, with a laugh, "It's not easy to accomplish this after thirty years."

For this eleven-track song set, most of the material was penned by the prolific and inspired Mintzer and Ferrante, kicking off with Mintzer's bold, boppish but propulsively-grooving "Why is It" and the snaky, syncopated and aptly-named "Tenacity," which could also be an operative descriptor for the group's m.o. Ferrante's title track is a lovely and lyrical, anthem-like piece, its melody-a sweet but also artfully thickening plot--stated first on Haslip's fretless bass and expanding into saxophone and arrangement twists. It's as if the song's emotional grounding and searching qualities tell the tale of this band, to date.

Musically, the terrain on Timeline is characteristically diverse but also cohesive, melodically accessible and also gently experimental, in keeping with the Jackets' concept for three decades. Beautiful balladry, such as Ferrante's "Indivisible" and Mintzer's "My Soliloquy," intertwine with modern-day variations on traditional swing themes, on Mintzer's "Like Elvin" (also one of the songs featuring a new sound for the band, guest trumpeter John Diversa) and Ferrante's "Numerology." Kennedy's one composition, "Rosemary," explores an inventive rhythmic-melodic feel, with its lyrical balladic melody laying atop an exotic drum groove.

And roughly in the middle of it all comes the slinky-funky Ferrante-Haslip tune "Magnolia," originally written during the time of the 2008 album Lifecycle, but coming fully to light here. And as it happens, that song becomes a great vehicle for another strong historical linkage in the band's history, as guitarist Robben Ford makes a rare cameo on record, with a spicy wah-wah-fied guitar solo. This is Ford's first appearance on a Yellowjackets album since 1994's Run For Your Life, engaging in easy dialogue with the band he half-accidentally launched.

Yellowjackets, as a unit, was actually assembled for Ford's popular 1978 album Inside Story. Remembering back to the Inside Story project, Haslip laughs "I wasn't even thirty years old when we did that. I think I was 26 or 27. About a year later, in 1980 we got a deal with Warner, through Tommy Lipuma, to do an instrumental record! That was a really exciting moment, to actually realize that we had been signed by a major record label to do an instrumental project. Our first recording, Yellowjackets, was released in 1981."

And from those humble, auspicious and unforced beginnings grew the long and ongoing saga of one of jazz' most long-lasting bands. Another early blast of affirmation came after they received a Grammy nomination for that 1981 debut album. "We never thought that could happen," Haslip recalls. "We didn't win, but just having a nomination was certainly a boost, a shot in the arm. “Multiple chapters and subplots have wended through the band's history, including the presence of more R&B-geared alto saxophonist Marc Russo for most of the '80s, before Mintzer's jazzier voice shifted the stylistic balance. Drummers have included Peter Erskine, for a brief and unfortunately unrecorded incarnation, a happy decade long stretch with Marcus Baylor, and Kennedy, then, now and into the future.

All along, the band has mastered the art of being both accessible and adventurous, with strong grooves and melodies blended in with surprising twists. Calling them a "fusion" band doesn't do the project justice. Haslip comments, "I think it's just how we're wired. We are very passionate about the music, obviously, and I we love to listen to everything. It motivates us in many ways. And with that motivation, we are also creatively inspired to continue our progression." All in all, Timeline is another significant link in the strong historical chain of this band's story. Haslip notes that "We have a legacy that follows us around, going on thirty years now, which is self-propelled at this point and fuels our motivation and honorable intent to create music. But at the same time, it takes patience, hard work and nurturing.

http://www.yellowjackets.com/