BFM Jazz Presents Steve Smith and Vital Information “Live! One Great Night” – Available Now

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Baron Browne, BFM Jazz, Composer, Drummer, Steve Smith, Tom Coster, Vinny Valentino

Steve Smith & Vital Information LIVE! ONE GREAT NIGHT -(CD+DVD)-30th Anniversary Tour (May 31-June 27)

Steve Smith and Vital Information, LIVE! One Great Night

LIVE! One Great Night – a CD + DVD set to be released May 29, 2012 on the BFM Jazz label – captures Vital Information in their natural habitat: A packed club with an audience of music lovers and the band in high gear, pulling out all the stops for the entire set. The all-star lineup of keyboardist Tom Coster (Santana/Gabor Szabo), bassist Baron Browne (Jean-Luc Ponty/Billy Cobham), guitarist Vinny Valentino (Bill Evans/Jimmy McGriff) and drummer Steve Smith (Journey/Hiromi /Steps Ahead) serve up a veritable banquet of sounds, from slamming funk and syncopated second-line grooves to seriously swinging, up-tempo B-3 burners, South Indian inspired jams and sizzling fuzoid romps. Steve Smith has this to say about Vital Information’s philosophy, “Our music allows for individual expression and re-invention. We thrive on swing, groove, and creativity. We want to surprise each other every night on the bandstand with new ideas and in the process keep our audience ‘in the moment’ with us.”

New Releases [Jazz] … for the Week of 7/19/2010

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George Brooks, Jazz, New Releases, Prasanna, Steve Smith

Greetings’ jazz aficionados, I’m back with an intricate canvas of what’s -cool- and maybe not so -cool- from a optimistic perspective we don’t usually find in the diet of the chromatic pop music culture. The origin of new music featured each week encompasses various branches of jazz, which exudes a wealth of complex and distinctive styles, insinuating textures, immaculate melodies, and relentless rhythms exalted by the definitive voices of creative artists serves up sounds to quench our immutable thirst for quality music.

Featured Album of the Week

Smith, Brooks & Prasanna

Steve-Smith–George-Brooks–Prasanna -\\- Raga Bop Trio – [Abstract Logix, 2010]

The music of the Raga Bop Trio is an organic blend of jazz, rock, funk, afro-Caribbean and Indian classical music. In this music there is the strong influence of western harmony and melody as well as U.S. style grooves and Euro-jazz atmospheric feels. From the Indian side, George Brooks brings his expertise in the north Indian Hindustani style and Prasanna – being from Chennai, India – is an expert in the south Indian Carnatic style.

I grew up with the U.S. jazz/groove concept and starting in 2002 I’ve incorporated north and south Indian rhythms into my playing. For me, the distinctive quality of the Raga Bop Trio is that the writing and playing employ a seamless amalgamation of all the individual components.