Welcome to another episode of the Smooth Groovers Licensed Review.

We’re back together again!

You can listen to the Podcast from i-tunes, Podfeed or by clicking on the play button below:

In this Episode’s Newies section we feature:

Katharine McPhee
Katharine Hope McPhee is an American pop singer and actress who was the runner-up to Taylor Hicks on the fifth season of American Idol in 2006. She lists Whitney Houston and Brian McKnight as her favorite artists - Matching some of our fav’s too!
Please check out her video here.

Vesta (featuring Vanessa Williams too) - from the new CD entitled, ‘Overjoyed a celebration of Stevie Wonder’

Bliss- In our view a tremendous feel good factor song. Blissful Music are Lucinda Drayton and Andrew Blissett. Together they make up one of the most exciting and creative musical partnerships in the uk today. Lucinda and Andy wrote the number one Hit ‘The Real Thing’ with Toni Di Bart in 1994. Their own debut album ‘Suicidal Angel’ received Radio One airplay and a four star Q review. Recently Sinead O’Connor covered the well loved Blissful song ‘A Hundred Thousand Angels’ from their best selling album of the same name. Blissful Music’s current albums sell all over the world with little press or publicity. The quality of their work ensures that it spreads by word of mouth as more and more people find out about them.

For the featured Myspace Artist section we are honored to feature:

Aziza with Do Re Mi. Please visit her at her Myspace site.
Aziza’s influences include: Tania Maria, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Earth, Wind & Fire. Aziza calls her style of original compositions JAZZSOETRY which is as the word implies, the combination of jazz, soul and poetry. Aziza has worked with great artists like Ahmad Jamal, Tommy Turrentine. Marlena Shaw, Marvin Hamlisch, Freda Payne, Whoopi Goldberg, Gloris Gaynor and the God father of Soul James Brown - & many others. Aziza’s cd entitled ‘Jazzsoetry’ is currently available at CDbaby.com and a link is provided on her myspace page and website.

Rhonda Thomas - Just A Phase. Please visit her at her Myspace account.
Rhonda’s influences include: Sarah Vaughan, Al Jarreau, Richard Bona, Phyllis Hyman, Take 6, Melonie Daniels, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, Joe Sample, Miles Davis, Parliment / Funkadelic, A Tribe Called Quest, Common, Mint Condition, Billie Holiday and Incognito. This track is from Rhonda’s CD Breath New Life. Please visit her website from where you are only a couple of mouse clicks away from reading some wonderful comments by Isaac Hayes, for whom she has been peforming back up vocals for several years. It was a real pleasure it was to meet Rhonda at the recent Isaac Hayes concert in London.

Rhonda has also performed with other great artists including Roy Ayers , Luther Vandross and Incognito. Rhonda is also a member of the band Jiva.

This month’s featured artist is Chris Botti.

Our Desert Island Groove is from Noel McCoy .
It is a wonderful choice sung by Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack

Here is a recent version / interpretation with Roberta Flack…

This Episode’s Oldies are from:

Freeez
Fourplay (see also: http://www.fourplayjazz.com )
Ray Obeido
The Jacksons and
Greg Adams

Many Thanks to all those that have purchased merchandise to keep the podcast going!
(The link in the sidebar will lead you to our online store)

Thanks also to everyone who has written to us, your encouragement is deeply appreciated and valued.

Love, Doctor, Professor & Master…

Popularity: 42% [?]

Welcome to another episode of the Smooth Groovers Review.

We are grateful for all the positive comments and encouragement we get from our listeners and feel honoured (UK Spelling!) that you spend time with us simply enjoying the music.

You can listen to the Podcast from i-tunes, Podfeed or by clicking on the play button below:

This week, Doctor Groove is taking a break and Professor Smooth has produced an OLDIES SPECIAL and is riding the smooth train on his own! In addition, Thanks to the small but much appreciated contribution from Mrs Smooth and the two micro smoothies right at the end.

The Professor’s favourites for this show include:

Natural High from their CD ‘Pacific’ . This CD also has the track ‘Freeway’ which was featured in an earlier Season 2 podcast.

Pat Metheny Group from the Excellent CD, We live here - and you can read on http//:www.patmetheney.com. This 1994 recording marks one of the closest collaborations with keyboard player Lyle Mays with nearly all the tracks being composed by Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays. The CD was released in 1995.

Chaka Khan - Eight Grammy award winner and one hell of a powerful voice. This great song is from Chaka’s sixth solo album released in 1984, which also included the title track ‘I Feel For You’.

George Duke from the classic 1979 album, A Brazilian Love Affair. As George says on http://www.georgeduke.com, ‘A personal favourite… a labour of love’. George asked his record company, Epic to allow the band to visit Brazil and record an album with some of the great local musicians from the area. The result speaks for itself – a highly recommended album.

Paprika Soul - A wonderful ‘feel good’ track from Their 2002 CD, Into The Light. This appears to be their second album . We found no website for this band but listen to the show and we point to where you can find out more.

Fattburger, visit them at: http://fattburger.com
Excellent Smooth Jazz from this band who has been releasing CDs since 1986. This track comes from their 1998 CD entitled, Sugar.

Acoustic Alchemy. Another feelgood track taking Smooth Jazz straight to the heart, by a band at the heart of smooth jazz. Visit them at: http://www.acoustic-alchemy.net

808 State, visit them at http://www.808state.com
A great Dancy instrumental from 1991. The band name is derived from the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the band members’ “state of mind”

Gladys Knight and the Pips. A great Soul number from 1977 and a pop hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
This track appears on the album, Still Together and was co-produced by Van Mcoy, remember the Hustle?

Greg Adams. A smooth instrumental gem by the trumpeter, arranger, composer and producer well known for his work with the band Tower of Power. Visit http://www.gregadamsmusic.com

Joyce Cooling. From the album, Keeping Cool released in 1999 visit http://www.joycecooling.com
Also checkout her current album ‘Revolving Door’ and her support for NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) http://www.nami.org

Temptations. Written by Motown songwriters Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. This masterpiece of soul music has a large instrumental content. The use of orchestras in soul music has always been something I’ve really enjoyed.
Fan Website: http://www.thetemptations.com
Otis Williams website: http://www.otiswilliams.net

Peter White. Ending the show with an artist who has been making excellent solo albums since the early nineties. This track from the cd ‘Promenade’ is a Smooth Jazz classic. Checkout http://www.peterwhite.com

Thanks to the Doc for his brief voice message to the Professor played at the end.

Until next time - Take care - The Prof (this time…!)

PS The Doc has installed a link on the right hand side column of our site for you to get Smooth Groovers Gear - Helping us to keep the podcast alive!

Popularity: 47% [?]

Welcome to another exciting episode of the licensed Smooth Groovers Review.

Wow! Early for another week!

You can listen to the Podcast from i-tunes, Podfeed or by clicking on the play button below:

This week our newies include:

Jeff Golub, please visit him at: http://www.jeffgolub.com & http://www.myspace.com/jeffgolub

Jeff is a great contemporary jazz guitarist with 6 solo albums, and 3 CD’s as the leader of the instrumental band “Avenue Blue” . This is the title track from this ace new CD Grand Central. Jeff’s Influences include Eric Clapton Wes Montgomery Jimi Hendrix BB, Albert and Freddie King.

Beyoncé - From her newish CD entitled, B’Day - The track features some great Spanish guitar and she is accompanied by Alejandro Fernández.. Visit her at:
http://www.beyonceonline.com and http://www.myspace.com/beyonce

Beyoncé is an American R&B singer, songwriter, producer, actress, dancer, fashion designer, and model. She was also was part of the hugely successful Group, ‘Destiny’s Child’, reported as being the world’s best-selling female group of all time. In addition, Beyonce has won at least 10 Grammy awards. This track has a great summer feel - no matter where you are!

Akon from his CD entitled Konvicted, visit him at: http://www.akononline.com and http://www.myspace.com/akon

This track in our view combines a reggae beat with some nice smooth beats. It is also his new single. It reminds the Doc of great hits from 3rd World and Inner Circle

Akon is a hip hop and R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer born in America, he grew up in Senegal. His rise to fame starts with his single ‘Locked Up’ in 2004 from his debut album ‘Trouble’. His second album, ‘Konvicted’, earned him a Grammy nomination for the single ‘Smack That’. He has had 18 Billboard Hot 100 songs to his credit and is the only artist to ever accomplished the feat of holding both the number one and two spots simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 charts twice.

In our Myspace Artist Review we feature:

Ernesto – Held, recommended by DJ come of age and featured on their site http://www.myspace.com/djcomeofage2 and
http://www.myspace.com/findtheform

This track is from an album entitled, ‘Find The Form’. Check out the remix competition at their Myspace account.

Ernesto is otherwise known as Jonatan Bäckelie, and he is from Sweden.

Greg Chambers - Here With. Visit him at: http://www.gregchambersmusic.com and http://www.myspace.com/gregchambersmusic

Greg’s influences include: Dave Koz, Michael Lington, Warren Hill, Eric Marienthal, David Sanborn, Steve Cole, and Gerald Albright. Born into a musical family in California, Greg started on the saxophone aged 9. His debut smooth jazz album, ‘City Lights’, has received praise from fellow saxophonists, listeners, promoters, and record executives. It has made its way into Internet radio playlists and podcasts (both in the US and outside including the Smoothgroovers Review in our first season. His 2006 CD, ‘City lights’ is still available and this track ‘Here With You is brand new.

This week’s Featured Artist is Issac Hayes (http://www.issachayes.com)

Soul and funk singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, arranger, and actor from America. He is best known as one of the creative forces behind Stax Records, both an in-house songwriter/producer and a recording artist.

Issac has also written scores for several motion pictures as well. His best known is the 1971 film Shaft. Issac Hayes received an Academy Award for Best Original Song and two Grammy Awards. Hayes received a third Grammy for his 1971 album Black Moses. In 1992, Hayes was crowned an honorary king of Ghana’s Ada district thanks to his humanitarian and development efforts.

From His Website you can download his free e-book ‘The Way to Happiness’, available in 90 languages.

This week’s Desert Island Groove is from Rhonda Thomas. Rhonda has been supporting and touring with Issac Hayes for the last 10 years and we met her outside the London Issac Hayes gig on 3rd August 2007. It was a great pleasure.

Please visit her at: http://www.rhonvocals.com and http://www.myspace.com/rhondathomas
We strongly recommend her new CD, ‘Breathe new life’

We close the show with our Oldies that include:

Sydney Youngblood
The Players Association
Torcuato Mariano, visit him at: http://torcuatomariano.com

The final track is from the fantastically talented Ashford and Simpson.
Check them out at: http://www.myspace.com/ashfordandsimpson

Until next time…

Get the Gear!In order to help support the cause (costs et al) of our podcast and share with the world, we hope our collective passion and love for the Smooth Groovers show; we have teamed up with Café press.com and now have Smooth Groovers Merchandise. We’d love you to get a mug, T-Shirt, bumper sticker or even a cuddly bear!

Many Thanks in advance for your purchase through Cafepress.

All the best from Doc, Master and Professor.

Popularity: 57% [?]

Welcome to another exciting episode of the licensed Smooth Groovers Review.

We are back for another week and early so that you can enjoy the sounds sooner!

You can listen to the Podcast from i-tunes, Podfeed or by clicking on the play button below:

For this week’s Newies we feature:

PRINCE – An interesting debate has been raging the UK, re: the free give away of his new CD. It is estimated that nearly 3 million people picked up a copy of the Sunday newspaper that carried the free Prince CD, on July 15th. The Music industry was appeared to be not happy with this (well that is our impression), including, online sellers, CD shops, and even his UK label. CD giveaways have been fairly common in the UK in recent years, but usually they comprise of oldies, compilations or rare content - not commonly found in the shops. This Prince giveaway of a new release could be a fresh idea.

Acoustic Alchemy (AA) from their new CD - This Way - AA are a British smooth jazz outfit and have been producing amazing sounds since the early 80s. Originally fronted by acoustic guitarists Nick Webb and Simon James they are currently fronted by Greg Carmichael and Miles Gilderdale. This track also features Rick Braun.

Lee Ritenour from his new CD Smoke and Mirrors – We feature a brilliant track originally released back in the Eighties and now refreshed for the 21st century.

This week’s Featured Myspace Artist Review

We feature

No Limits - Poludnie Upalne - visit: http://www.myspace.com/nolimitsgroup and http://www.nolimits.org.pl/

No Limits are from Poland. ‘Poludnie Upalne’ means ‘Heaty Noon’ and it was written by a Polish poet, Leopold Staff (1878-1957)

Tara Caballero - Tara Caballero visit: http://www.myspace.com/taracaballeromusic and http://www.myspace.com/djcomeofage2

The new album is entitled ‘Tara Caballero: The Essence of Me’. It is available only as a digital download and may be found at the Podsafe Music Network.

This track has a great feel of intrigue to it and we consider it ideal to form part of a soundtrack to a spy movie. It appears to be a collaboration with Djcomeofage .

Cacao Choiua – Berimbau. This is a project involving two members of No Limits: Maciek Dombrowski and Agnieszka the No Limits singer.

Our Featured Artist is Lee Ritenour

Guitarist Lee has been recording for nearly 30 years. He is also a producer and contributes to other artists records. Lee has also been part of Fourplay.

Our Thanks to Garrry for his Desert Island Groove, i.e: Randy Crawford

Garry said that he never get tired of this track. ‘It is quite simply beautiful’. Visit: http://www.myspace.com/randycrawfordoneday and http://www.myspace.com/randycrawfordandjoesample

Randy has been on the music scene since the 70s and shot to fame in the UK as the singer of the Crusaders hit ‘Street life’. Great memories come flooding back of an incredible Crusaders concert in 1979 when the then Hammersmith Odeon venue in West London became totally electrified as Randy started to sing Street life whilst emerging on stage.

The featured song appears on the 1998 CD, ‘Every Kind of Mood: Randy, Randi, Randee’. Some of our Randy Crawford’s favourites include:

You might need somebody, Rainy night in Georgia, Last Night at Danceland and a really smooth chill-out cover of George Benson’s: Give Me The Night.

We close the show with our oldies:

Ronnie Jordan from Ronnie’s CD entitled - A Brighter Day. Visit: http://www.ronnyjordan.com/

Ronny Jordan is a Guitarist from London. The Album - A Brighter Day was released in 2000 and was nominated for a Grammy award in the Best Contemporary Jazz Album category. Other awards include: The MOBO Best Jazz Act Award as well as Gibson Guitar Best Jazz Guitarist Award. Ronny Jordan is currently putting the finishing touches to his next release which is expected in September 2007.

Beyonce, featuring Luther Vandross - From the CD Dangerously in Love by Beyonce. Visit: http://www.beyonceonline.com/

Dangerously In Love was Beyonce’s solo debut album released in 2003. It was great to hear Luther’s voice on this excellent song which we first heard on Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway’s album ‘Blue Lights In The Basement’ from 1977. The latter track became a hit in 1978 on both sides of the Atlantic. NB The Players Association also had a great instrumental version of this track too.

Skip Mahoney - An excellent soulful and totally danceable 12″ single. Visit: http://skipmahoneythecasuals.com

Deodato – visit: http://www.eumirdeodato.com/

Brazilian-born talented multi-instrumentalist Eumir Deodato has had 16 platinum records as an artist, arranger or producer with over 25 million records sold in the US alone. He has been involved with over 450 albums. Artists that have covered his songs include: George Benson, Lee Ritenour, Sarah Vaughan and The Emotions. Deodato is well remembered for his excellent version of a Strauss classic more commonly known as the theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Well that is it for another passion and fun packed podcast.

Get the Gear!

In order to help support the cause (costs et al) of our podcast and share with the world, we hope your love for the Smooth Groovers show; we have teamed up with Café press.com and now have Smooth Groovers Merchandise. We’d love you to get a mug, T-Shirt, bumper sticker or even a cuddly bear! We Thank you in advance for your purchase.

Thanks in advance for your purchase through Cafepress.

All the best from Doc, Master and Professor.

Popularity: 44% [?]