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OCTOBER 30 2011 - The latest edition of Jazzed and Blue: Profiles in Blues and Jazz is now available for download at Rockwired.com and features exclusive interviews with DUKES OF HAZZARD star TOM WOPAT, legendary Motown songwriter Marilyn Mcleod and acclaimed singer-songwriter Barbara Martin. The Gathering was recorded almost entirely in one day in early December in Nashville, TN. The singer has always wanted to record there and work with some of the city’s top musicians. Her new association with VANGUARD allowed her to achieve that dream. “I knew when the label approached me it was time to do something I always wanted to do,” Schuur says, “and the way it came together seems like magic.”  The album sessions started at 9 a.m. on December 6th, 2010, and by late afternoon all ten songs had been completed. Produced by Music City veteran Steve Buckingham, almost all the recording was done totally live, and most of the finished versions on the album are first takes.  Other songs on The Gathering include “Why Can't He Be You,” “Beneath Still Waters,” “Don't Touch Me,” “Till I Get It Right,” “Am I That Easy To Forget,” and “Nobody Wins.” Vocalist/Pianist Diane ‘Deedles’ Schuur has built a stellar career by embracing and exploring nearly every corner of the 20th century American musical landscape.  Her expressive and powerful vocal deliveries have placed her amongst jazz greats such as Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.  Schuur has performed in some of the most prestigious venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and twice at the White House.

While pianist Gilson Schachnik and drummer Mauricio Zottarelli were both born in the state of Sao Paulo, it wasn’t until they landed in Boston that Brazilian music seized their imagination.Reared on hard rock, European classical music, blues, funk and jazz, they independently found their way to Berklee College of Music, earning scholarships to study at the prestigious institution. After swimming in a sea of Brazilianness, moving to the United States provided a sudden, jarring perspective shift, and a reappraisal of their relationship to their musical birthright. Their captivating new album Mozik reflects their deep engagement with Brazilian rhythms and forms, filtered through their love of the early fusion of Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock. The CD will be released October 28, 2011 on Mozik Records. Recorded in Boston with the support of a faculty grant from Berklee, the album features a fascinating international cast of US-based musicians, including Brazilian guitarist Gustavo Assis-Brasil, Russian flutist Yulia Musayelyan and Argentine bassist Fernando Huergo. The quintet navigates the intricate grooves with such precision and power it sounds like a working ensemble, though some of the musicians had never played together before.

Formed in 2009 in Albuquerque, N.M., Red Hot & Red is history’s premier all Native American Jazz trio - following the steps of the Redhouse family - the First Native American Family of Jazz, and past Native Jazz musicians like Illinois Jacquet, Jim Pepper, and Oscar Pettiford to name a few. A New Mexico native of Laguna Pueblo heritage, pianist Steve Figueroa has been an integral part of the Albuquerque music scene for over 20 years. His primary focus is Jazz and Afro-Cuban music, but he is adept at many different styles and has performed with a variety of groups and artists, including Tetragon, Ritmo Caliente, The New Shtetl Band, Sparx, Lorenzo Antonio, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Clark Terry, Frank Morgan and Doug Lawrence, among others. Isleta Pueblo’s Rob "Milo" Jaramillo, has been an in-demand bassist in the New Mexico area for over 20 years. Equally adept at performing on either the acoustic or electric bass, he is also known for being one of the most versatile and eclectic bassists on the local scene - as comfortable playing Jazz as he is playing Latin, R&B, Rock, World Music, and Reggae styles. Drummer Louie Speaking Eagle, a Zacatec Indian ceremonial leader, is an international Jazz artist and music educator. He has performed with pianists Dino Fiumara Jr., founder of Jazz for Peace Rick Dellaratta, Japanese pianist Yoshi Sato, as well as with legendary bassist John Heard, with whom he recorded a 2005 concert in El Paso, Tx. Due to perform and record a follow up CD with John Heard in 2012, Speaking Eagle will release his first official CD as a solo artist in 2011.

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