Joss Stone

Joss Stone: Water For Your Soul “Water For Your Soul is about finding your own fulfilment, doing what you really want to do,” explains Joss Stone. “For me, it’s music. But water for your soul can be anything. Some people like food, some people like to dance, some like to travel. Music is necessary for me - it feeds my soul, the same way water feeds a flower. It’s also about being brave and letting go.” Prepare to be amazed and delighted by Joss Stone. The free spirited English soul singer has been on an incredible journey, metaphorical and literal, artistic and geographic, absorbing influences and making music. Water For Your Soul is the fruit of her travels in sound, demonstrating how the teen soul prodigy has blossomed into an artist of style and substance. It is an album that pulses with the liquid groove of reggae, dazzles with the mix and match sonic adventure of hip hop, shimmers with the exotic sounds of world music and delivers the emotional belt of R’n’B.  “It’s really a combination of all the things I like,” explains Joss. “I’ll always have that bluesy, soul thing because it is in my voice. But these are new songs for me to sing, which is exciting.” The album has been four years in gestation, the product of world travels, emotional adventures, and smoky jams with reggae royalty. A core musical strand can be traced back to LA sessions for Dave Stewart and Mick Jagger project Superheavy, on which Stone collaborated with Jamaican superstar Damien Marley. “At night, Damien and I would hang out. Wherever he goes he gets a studio, just to have the freedom to play and create a vibe. It’s like a party every day, warm Guinness and a ridiculous amount of weed.” In a hidden complex beneath the legendary Sunset Marquee, Stone recorded for a Marley solo project and jammed with his band, writing some new songs, Love Me and Wake Up. “I’ve always loved reggae and Damien gave me the confidence to go through that door. I’m not Jamaican, and I don’t speak patois but listening to Damien and his mates, this language is so gorgeous, and it’s got a melody to it and it helped me to put things together that fit that style of music.” Joss continued her reggae education back home with legendary British based veteran Dennis Bovell, with whom she co-wrote The Answer. “He’s like a reggae encyclopaedia. And he can really sing. His pitch and range is massive. He’s funny too, a great person to work with.” But while Joss and her long term musical collaborator Jonathan Shorten embraced reggae influences, it was just one element of an ever expanding musical picture. “I like music and I’m not particularly obsessed with one style over any other. I just like listening to it and then becoming a part of it.” Another key collaborator was Mercury award winning British-Indian producer-composer Nitin Sawhney. “We became friends, I drop into his radio show and we’ve collaborated on things. His influence has been quite important. He has such a wealth of knowledge about the music of different countries, he’s really helped me to execute ideas I would get on my travels.” Because travel is at the heart of Water For Your Soul, emotionally as well as musically. Away from the glare of showbusiness, Joss has nurtured her inner hippie, quietly dropping out from the pop scene to travel Europe for months in a beat up camper van with a boyfriend. “I just took what I had and off I went. There was a real sense of freedom, like this is life, it tastes good.” Many of the songs are rooted in those experiences on the road, working on a boat in Spain, spending a month broken down outside a bar in France, living in a forest, making new friends, moving on. Songs span the break-up of one love affair (Let Me Breathe) and the beginning of another (Stuck On You). “If there is a theme to the album, it springs out of conversations, arguments, ideas about ways of living in the world. It’s about shaking off all the crap and getting up and realising that hey you’re alive today, so move on.” In 2014, after years of dreaming and planning, Joss began her Total World Tour, with the aim of performing in every country on the planet, collaborating with local indigenous musicians. She has visited Morocco, Dubai, South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Australia, New Zealand and this year is touring South America with planned visits to North Africa and Eastern Europe. Gigs have ranged from stadium concerts to club shows and acoustic jamming sessions, while she has also been taking the opportunity to work with local charities and learn about humanitarian and environmental issues. “Musically, it kind of feeds me. And all these encounters and conversations lead to different things.” Most of the songs for Water For Your Soul had been written and demoed before Joss’s Total World Tour began but widening horizons convinced her to completely rethink and recut the record. “There was a different energy and it was exciting.” The sound expanded to include Indian tabla, Bengali lute,  Bansuri flute, African and Asian percussion, plus gospel choirs, New Orleans horns and full orchestra. After various experiments, abandoned and revisited sessions, the final album was more or less completed in a ten day frenzy, with strings being recorded in London, percussion in Hawaii and Joss pulling it together at her own Home Grown Studios in Devon. “So now we have an album with lots of different sounds on it,” she says, brightly. “It’s not massively, scarily different, because soul and hip hop are such a big part of what I do. But it’s a little departure, a bit of an adventure.” At 27, Stone has been in music half her life. She won BBC talent show Star For A Night aged 13, signed to a major label at 15, and released her debut album, The Soul Sessions, aged 16. She has sold over 12 million albums worldwide, her American success paving the way for a new generation of British female soul singers. And yet, in many ways, Stone is still an unknown quantity with maverick tendencies, steadfastly refusing to conform to the industries idea of a beautiful, blonde pop star. “I have pissed a few people off,” she acknowledges. “If you go outside the box that people expect you to be in, it can make some people a uncomfortable.  But, hey ho. I don’t choose to be careful. I try not to let criticism or negativity even come into my mind.” Water For Your Soul is her seventh album and will be released on Joss’s own Stone’d label, which she set up after her deal with EMI ended in 2011. Her idealistic approach shines through her new album. “Some people play music to pay their bills, some have a story to tell, some people make music to become famous. Every reason is valid, because it’s your own personal reason, and once you’ve figured it out, you know where you’re going. The reason I do it is because it fills me up. It’s like a drug to me. It’s like it tastes good and it smells good and it’s warm. If I’m walking down the street and I hear a busker playing, it makes my day better. And I guess I’m addicted to having that in my life. And that’s why I do it, to share that feeling with other people.” 

Toast

TOAST is the No. 1 Tribute in the world to the 70’s hit band, BREAD!    With a surprising fidelity rarely heard from a live tribute band, their sound is often described as “spot on” to the original recordings.  Audiences everywhere rave about closely their live performances sound like the cherished records they listened to back in the day.    “BREAD VIRTUALLY INVENTED soft rock in the early Seventies, and the group’s biggest hits — ‘Make It With You,’ ‘If,’ ‘Baby I’m-a Want You’ and ‘Everything I Own’ — remain staples on lite-rock radio.”– Rolling Stone    Over their career, Bread scored 13 hits on Billboard’s Top 100!!  The two surviving members of Bread (David Gates & Robb Royer) are happily retired and enjoying their time with family and the fruits of their musical careers.  Enter TOAST – The Ultimate Bread Experience who does everything possible to keep the legacy of Bread alive.    TOAST presents a “feel-good” show that includes all of Bread’s top hits and brings all the memories flooding back quickly which makes their concert truly “rise” to the top as one of the favorite concerts of audiences everywhere!

The Black Jacket Symphony Presents Pink Floyd's The Wall

Glenn Miller Orchestra

Russ Taff & Steve Taylor

Hailed by Billboard magazine as “the single most electrifying voice in Christian music,” Russ Taff has garnered 6 GRAMMY® Awards, 16 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, and was Inducted into the Gospel Music Association (GMA) Hall of Fame an unprecedented three times— as a soloist, and as a member of The Imperials as well as the Gaither Vocal Band. Award-winning albums include Medals, Russ Taff, and Under Their Influence featuring the classic singles “We Will Stand,” “I Cry,” “Not Gonna Bow” and “Farther On.”. Taff’s lyrics, co-written with his wife Tori, authentically chronicle his deeply personal spiritual path. The 2018 documentary “Russ Taff: I Still Believe” saw a nationwide release in over 700 theaters and chronicled his journey growing up in an abusive household, creative success, and finally his victory over alcoholism. Russ’s career has spanned over four decades and touched millions of lives, and his recent interview with Mark Laita on his acclaimed YouTube channel ‘Soft White Underbelly’ as well as his new album "Cover Story" has introduced Russ’s story to an even wider audience.

Black Violin

To most people, jazz, hip-hop, funk, and classical are musical genres. But to revolutionary music group Black Violin, they're nothing but ingredients.Combining a daunting array of musical styles and influences to produce a signature sound that is not quite maestro, not quite emcee, this group of two classically trained violinists and their DJ is redefining the music world-one string at a time. With influences ranging from Shostakovich and Bach to Nas and Jay-Z, Black Violin breaks all the rules, blending the classical with the modern to create something rare-a sound that nobody has ever heard, but that everybody wants to feel.When the members of Black Violin first learned to play their signature instruments-Wil B at the viola 14 years old and Kev Marcus the violin at the tender age of 9-neither could have foreseen that it would become their livelihood, though it was already becoming their passion. The two Florida natives first met while attending the Dillard High School of Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, a school whose exceptional music programs served to nurture their already budding talents.But it was not until the two were exposed to the work of legendary violinist Stuff Smith that the seeds that would one day become Black Violin were truly planted. Smith, born in Portsmouth, Ohio in 1909, was one of preeminent jazz violinists of the swing era, who went onto perform with names like Alphonse Trent, Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Sun Ra throughout a long and storied career. His final album and most soulful, entitled "Black Violin," so inspired and influenced the young Kev Marcus and Wil B that they would eventually name their band in honor of the man who had shown them that there were no limits to what the violin could do.After graduating from high school, both Wil and Kev were granted full music scholarships to college, Florida State and Florida International University respectively. It was at FIU that Kev first encountered the group's future manager, Sam G, with whom he and Wil soon formed a production company: DKNEX. Now they had a platform for their dream, and the talent and inspiration to back it up. Black Violin was born.Once formed, the group wasted no time in making a name for itself, starting with the rigorous touring that would become a trademark of the group. Black Violin was making ripples in the music industry, but it wasn't long before these ripples became waves. In 2004, the group joined superstar Alicia Keys on stage at the Billboard Music awards, delivering a performance that made the tastemakers and music enthusiasts of America sit up and take notice. Not long after, in 2005, the group was awarded the coveted title of Apollo Legend by the esteemed Apollo theatre in Harlem, effectively confirming what many were beginning to suspect-Black Violin was on its way to the top.The next step in BV's journey came in the form of Mike Shinoda, lead singer of legendary rock act Linkin Park, who had had his eye on the two virtuosos for a while. Impressed by their imaginative composition and finely tuned musicianship, he invited them along on a world tour with his hip-hop side project, Fort Minor. Finally granted the worldwide platform their talents deserved, the members of Black Violin now introduced their own brand of genius to audiences across the globe. In addition to Shinoda, BV has worked with musicians as diverse as P.Diddy, Kanye West, Fifty Cent, Aerosmith, Tom Petty, Aretha Franklin and the Eagles-among many others.  But Black Violin is only getting started. The group recently released its eponymous debut album-a record whose top notch production and musical cohesion make it feel like the work of seasoned veterans rather than industry upstarts, as many patrons of the iTunes store and Amazon.com are discovering for themselves. The group continues to tour far and wide, opening for hip hop mainstays like Fat Joe, Akon, and the Wu-Tang Clan in locations as diverse, as Prague, Dubai, and South Africa. The group's rising fame has also made it a highly desired act for celebrity events-Black Violin just recently provided the music at both Minister Lois Farrakhan's 75th birthday and at NFL star Santana Moss's wedding.  But beyond all the glitz and glamour, the members of Black Violin just want to give children the same opportunities that they had. With school music programs being culled all across the country, Kev and Wil are concerned that urban youth will not have the benefit of music as a positive alternative to other, more destructive pursuits. With this in mind, they have embarked upon a campaign of social change-using youth orchestras and reinvigorated music programs to show children and teens that they are capable of expressing themselves in ways they have never dreamed.In an age where music is coming to be more and more defined by the labels given to it, Black Violin shows that music does not exist within a box, but rather exists in another space-one as open and unrestrained as the minds that produce it.

Tommy Emmanuel

Hailed as “one of the best acoustic guitarists in the world” by NPR’s World Cafe, Tommy Emmanuel got his start at the age of six, when he first began touring his native Australia with his family’s band. As a teenager, he earned a reputation as a highly sought after sideman and session player, and by his early twenties, Emmanuel was playing on chart-topping hits and performing with acts like Air Supply and Men at Work. Inspired in part by his hero, Chet Atkins (who would later become a friend, mentor, and collaborator), Emmanuel stepped out on his own as a solo artist in 1979, releasing the first in a string of acclaimed instrumental albums that would make him an unlikely celebrity in his home country and beyond. In the decades that followed, he would go on to headline everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to Carnegie Hall; tour with luminaries like Eric Clapton and John Denver; win a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement; perform for a televised audience of more than two billion at the Sydney Olympics; and collaborate with a who’s who of fellow guitar greats, including Les Paul, Mark Knopfler, Joe Walsh, Richard Thompson, Jason Isbell, and Billy Strings. Recorded in just four days, Emmanuel’s latest album, Living In The Light, stands as the most daring—and most rewarding—collection in the globetrotting fingerpicker’s remarkable catalog, fusing his pop, jazz, classical, and roots influences into a virtuosic masterwork as exhilarating as it is intimate.

Sierra Hull