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Smooth Players West SoulJazz Explosion

by Mark Johnson

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1.
Stella 08:22
2.
3.
4.
Summertime 07:59
5.
Exit 33 06:48
6.
Anthropology 04:54
7.
Equinox 11:51
8.

about

Recorded in performance for a very bored high school class.

Excuse me for a minute while I go and reflect...ahhh, I remember those days,
I remember the early days of smooth jazz like they were just yesterday,
when everyone was trying to "outsmooth" the next guy.
We didn't know we were making history: we were just trying to "smooth it out" as best as we could,
and as much as "the man" would let us get away with
ahhh yes.......
I remember fondly the Artist and Repertoire men of smooth jazz.
The "Suits" .
They knew just how to polish it to a fine sheen, get the rough edges off...
I can smell their Drakar cologne and hear their fancy imported watches ticking away if I close my eyes.
Every one of them wore a watch. It was important. Why? Because there was no time to waste, there were smooth jazz records to be made, baby! Hit smooth jazz records!
It was a revolution, our revolution. and it would be televised--on CD 101.9...
Flashback:::
Overheard, sometime in 1992, a studio somewhere in the New York area where a "smooth jazz" record was being made.
This, the voice of a smooth jazz producer working his magic ( as best as I can remember it):
"Smoother, baby, make it smoother! Make it so smooth that I almost don't even know you're there!
Yes! That's it!
Smoother than fine Italian Marble!
Smoother than a baby's rump!
I want you to make is so smooth that the floors of shiny, well lit corporate offices across the land become slippery with your smoothness!
It should sound like a fine Swedish massage lubricant.
But wait!
it shouldn't be too smooth;
Your smooth jazz should be ribbed for her pleasure...
Engineer! Press record!
Magic..."

Dave Johnson, Revised bio, for immediate release

Dave was born in Racine, Wisconsin to a human mother and a half man/ half mule father. He inherited the recessive mule allele from his father and was born a homozygous cross breed with his fathers long flowing tail, hooved foot and stubborness and his mothers nos. Many years of expensive and painful surgery followed. His physical therapist started him on the drums as part of his rehabilitation and young Dave took to them readily. Although the hoof and tail have long since been removed, Dave credits the kicking instinct and mule's quadriceps that he inherited from his father for his strong bass drum work. Since moving to NYC in 1990, Dave has played/recorded with Gloria Gaynor, Special EFX, George Jinda, The Fantasy Band, Melba Moore, Screaming Headless Torsos, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Ike Turner and Johnnie Johnson, among others, and has appeared on numerous TV shows both here and in Europe. Dave has been featured as an artist/clinician at the Treviso Rockin' Blues Festival in Treviso, Italy and, most recently, in Aspen, Colorado with the organization Jazz Aspen Snowmass. Dave is also active on the New York session scene. Session work includes jingles for the NBA, Nickelodean, 7-UP and Dial, ABC and Fox television, among others, and he also appears on the top-selling sample CD NYC Drumworks (Sampleheads). In between gigs with "name" people, Dave has schlepped his drums to play music of varying quality in places of varying respectability, near and far, upstairs and downstairs, over hill and dale, through secret tunnels, into the belly of salvaged ships, through kitchens, basements, back rooms and backwoods casinos, in blizzards and rainstorms, through deserts and fairways, for $10 with 104 degree fever, drunk, high on coke and crank, hungover, unshaven, unshowered, unkempt, wearing dirty underwear, wearing woman’s underwear, wearing no underwear and a bowtie made out of black duct tape, in drag, out of gas, time, luck, money and breath, on the lam, with a body in the trunk, over highways and byways, through grassless, dirty fields, sweating, panting, through freight elevators and into hospitals, corporate office suites, country clubs, barber shops, nail salons, plastic tents and empty swimming pools, for nobody but himself, for everybody but himself, to get laid and to get paid. And sometimes just for the fun of it.

Saxophonist Mark Johnson is originally from Rockford, Ill. Released 3 recordings on JVC Victor, Performed, recorded, arranged, composed, and produced with Special EFX, Fantasy Band, Larry Coryell, Walter Beasley, Henry Johnson, Roseanna Vitro, George Jinda, Debra Henson Conat, Chieli Minnuci, Gerald Veasley, Nelson Rangell, Bryan Savage, Johnny Kemp, James “Crab” Robinson, Loud Avis, Chris Bank, Alex Bugnon, Michael Urbaniak, Don Alias, NYC Percussion Works and countless others. Received a Masters degree in Electro Acoustic Composition and New Media Technology in 2005 and had his composition “A Lesson With Wendy” selected for performance at the 2004 SEAMUS National Conference.

Norbert Marius started taking piano lessons at the age of eight. After developing an interest in jazz and funk, he began playing upright and electric bass at the age of 14. He studied at the Bartok Bela Jazz Conservatory in Budapest, the Cologne Music Institute, earned numerous scholarships before graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1987. Since moving to New York City in 1988, Mr. Marius has performed with the Fifth Dimension, Melba Moore, Screaming Headless Torsos, and many others. He has toured the US, Europe and Japan. Besides being a bassist, Norbert is an active composer, and producer of dozens of instrumental and vocal tracks. norbertmarius.com

Performed at:
Montreux Jazz Festival
Sunfest
Barbados Jazz Fest
Montreal Jazz Festival
Quebec Jazz Festival
Waterfront Illinois Music Festival
Umbria Jazz Festival
Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka Japan
Tampere Jazz Festival

Performed with:
Screaming Headless Torsos
David Fiuczinski
The Fifth Dimension
Melba Moore
JoJo Mayer
Rodney Holmes
Jackie Terrasson
Bruce Ditmas
Donald Blackman
Jon Davis
Ed Cherry
Roy Merryweather
Gil Silverbird
Danilo Perez
Arturo Tappin
Mark Johnson
Delmar Brown
Bill Sims Jr.
Denzell Miller
Marlon Browden
Jerome Van Rossum
Victor Jones
John Lang (Mister Mister)

credits

released February 13, 2014

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Mark Johnson Carbondale, Colorado

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