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June 20th, 2010 Edition #576 Previously 
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Highlights
Hour One Not Lately - Maurice Johnson: Originally hailing from Milwaukee WI, early in his career Maurice Johnson relocated to Oklahoma City where in 1985 he formed the band After Five. The group enjoyed a 10-year stint. They shared the stage with the likes of George Benson and issued a cd in 1991 but eventually the project ran its course. All while new avenues were opening. As co-founder of D'Leco Acoustic Instruments, Johnson began building and marketing handcrafted guitars, while by 2003 he'd also authored three books that were nationally published. Additionally, Johnson developed Gigorama software a Windows based system for specifically musicians. Tonight is Johnson's debut under his own name and with hints of Benson and Wes Montgomery from it we've selected the hip stylings of Not Lately!! CD: Tonight (2010) Label: Jazz Drops Records Links: 
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| Highlights Hour Two | |
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Once in Barcelona - Andrea Razzauti: Born in Italy but now based in Hawaii, Andrea Razzauti follows his twin passions in music and painting. His father gave him his first guitar when he was 9 and by the time he reached his teens, Razzauti was opening for many well known bands and gaining notoriety all across Europe for the variety of styles that he played. In the 80s, Razzauti recognized the affinity between jazz and classical guitar and inspired by the likes of Villalobos, Wes Montgomery and George Benson, he began to connect the two in his compositions. He released his debut in the 90s and now the duality of his artistic expression is encapsulated in his latest release in Painting the Music. Produced by Grammy-winner Paul Brown, the cd musically describes some of his European ventures - our stop for today being the musically picturesque Once in Barcelona!! CD: Painting the Music (2009) Label: Blu Ara Enterprise Links: 
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Nouthra
Dona di Maortse - Alex Bugnon: After nine albums and a best of, Alex Bugnon knew it was time to return to some of his jazz roots. Born in Montreux Switzerland, home of the world famous jazz festival, on Going Home Bugnon "boldly explores … his first love." After spending four months in 2009 listening to some of his heroes, Bugnon composed all of the songs "quickly in the heat of inspiration." Eight tracks were recorded in two days with a pair of talented old friends in Victor Bailey on bass and Poogie Bell on drums. Sensing the need for horns on the tracks, Bugnon added Vincent Henry on sax, Greg Boyer on trombone, and Barry Danielian on trumpet & flugelhorn. From that effort, the first release on his own Xela Productions (Alex spelled backwards); we present Bugnon's superb adaptation of Nothra Dona di Maortse, a traditional Swiss classical chorale that he discovered a few years back at the father's funeral.
CD: Going Home (2010) Label: Xela Productions, Inc. Links:
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Dance
With Me - Jonathan Fritzén: To quote noted journalist and ASJA nominated Denis Poole of Smooth Jazz Therapy, "The key attribute of any truly successful artist is the ability to consistently write music of the quality that can shape a career. This doesn't always come easy but in the case of writer, producer and keyboard player Jonathan Fritzén he really has hit the ground running." The 2008 Love Birds debut hinted at Fritzén's tremendous potential, which was realized to a great extent with VIP, the highly polished follow-up. Named our own Café Jazz #7 album for 2009, the project peaked at #2 and lingered on the smoothjazz.com charts for over year. Now, new for June 2010, and at a pace of roughly an album a year, comes Fritzén's 3rd issue in Diamonds. Teaming with a few guest performers, not the least of which is Darren Rahn who mixed the album, Fritzén delivers a project that yours truly, the swami of smooth, fully predicts will sky-rocket the talented young Swede to smooth stardom!! CD: Diamonds (2010) Label: Nordic Night Records Links:
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| After Hours ~ Exclusive to our Site and Select Affiliates : | |
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More
of the Q2 Review: On this edition ... selections by Steve Oliver,
Velez Brothers, and Larry Carlton &Tak Matsumoto. Also appearing are
Professor RJ Ross and Freddy V while debut artists include Richard Bailey
and Terje Lie; all as part of a 13 track set. And to get things underway
we have something new from Jonathan Butler and his latest release!!
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