NEW YORK, NY. (Top40 Charts/ KOCH Records) - Producer/artist/arranger/composer and keyboardist
Jason Miles will release his second tribute to jazz and soul saxophonist Grover Washington. "2 Grover With Love" will be released on August 19th, 2008 and is the highly anticipated follow up to 2000's heartfelt tribute, "To Grover With Love," which sold over 100,000 CDs.
2009 marks the 10th anniversary of Grover Washington's death, and this album pays tribute to the great legacy of Washington and his incredible compositions of the '70s and '80s.
Miles says, "I started listening to 'Come Morning,' the follow up to 'Winelight,' and started to love those songs. I then listened to 'Strawberry Moon,' and realized that I was on one of the songs on the CD, 'Summer Nights,' written by Marcus Miller. I knew at that point that there was definitely another Grover project to do, but it had to be done a certain way."
"2 Grover With Love" is an homage to the CTI records style of music, basing great songs with inspired playing by top artists. Miles decided to cut the record live in the studio, just as Washington did on many of his albums. Miles enlisted the talents of Chuck Loeb on guitar, Gerald Veasley on bass, Buddy Williams on drums, and Ralph Macdonald on percussion. "2 Grover With Love" also features Maysa (singing an inspiring version of "Mr. Magic"), Najee, Andy Snitzer, Kim Waters, Jay Beckenstein, Dean Brown and Dominic Farrinacci. After only one day of rehearsal, the album was recorded live at Bennett studios in New Jersey.
The result is an innovative, contemporary jazz look at the '70s and '80s versions of Grover's great legacy.
Miles has crafted music for Miles Davis, Luther Vandross, Marcus Miller, Gato Barbieri, David Sanborn, Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan, The Crusaders, Michael Brecker and many others. He has also produced ambitious musical tributes to both Weather Report ("Celebrating the Music of Weather Report") and Ivan Lins ("A Love Affair, The Music of Ivan Lins"). He has received four Grammy nominations as a producer, and his album, "A Love Affair..." garnered musician Sting a Best Male Pop Vocal for the track, "She Walks This Earth." "A Love Affair..." also featured Grover Washington's last studio performance.
Recently, Jason has produced Suzy Bogguss's new CD, "Sweet Danger," which has garnered great critical acclaim. His latest projects have been Soul Summit Live at The Berks Jazz Festival and Global Noize, his genre-bending project with DJ Logic. He also produced the CD "Enjoy" by KOCH Recording artist The Bjorkestra.
Jason has been playing more live concerts to bring his concepts to the live stage. He has performed 2 major shows at the last 5 Berks Jazz Festivals and has also performed in many other venues including an appearance at 2007 Casablanca Jazz Festival, Rehoboth Beach, Tri C Jazz. He will tour this summer in conjunction with the release of "2 Grover With Love."
Jason Miles continues to be one of music's true renaissance and visionaries moving into the 21st century.
The tracklisting of "2 Grover With Love":
1. Summer Nights
2. Bright Moments
3. Making Love To You
4. Mr. Magic
5. Strawberry Moon
6. Moonstreams
7. Reaching Out
8. Reed Seed
9. The Saddest Thing
10. Stolen Moments
11. To Grover With Love
