Carol Albert - Tides of Change

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1993
Time: 43:37
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 99,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:40) 1. Fortune
(4:40) 2. Tides Oof Change (Inst.)
(4:00) 3. To the Sun
(4:18) 4. I still think about you
(4:17) 5. On my Way
(3:47) 6. Looking through the Horizon
(4:27) 7. Solitude
(4:11) 8. High Seas
(5:10) 9. Beyond Tomorrow
(5:03) 10. Tides of Change (Voc.)

After paving the way with a handful of popular radio singles over the past year, Billboard Artist, Carol Albert brings out a full array of rich jazz and global fusion artistry on her unique concept album FLY AWAY BUTTERFLY. The versatile Atlanta-based composer, keyboardist and vocalist takes the listener on deeply soulful, exotic journey that artfully blends spirited, jazzy piano melodies, dreamy vocals, punchy percussion textures and hypnotic ambiences featuring the soaring, inspirational twist on Al Jarreau’s classic song “One Way," a contemporary homage to one of her jazz heroes offering up the powerhouse saxophone of Sam Skelton. FLY AWAY BUTTERFLY will take your musical imagination to many beautiful destinations!.

A rural town like Hiram, Georgia may not seem a likely start or an international recording artist, but that is exactly where Carol Albert's music talent emerged. In early childhood, Carol loved nothing better than to share the piano bench with her beloved grandmother. "My grandmother lost an arm to cancer, so she played the bass with her left hand and taught me to play the treble with my right. She also composed songs in her sleep and taught them to me. In sharing her melodies, my grandmother imparted her love for me as well as her love of music." As her music appreciation grew, so did Carol's aptitude for classical piano. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Georgia State University, and then embarked on a career in which she has left her mark nationally and internationally.

Internationally, Carol has toured four separate times in Europe, performing in Sweden, Germany, France, England, Ireland and Spain. Her CD's have also been quite popular overseas. Innovative Communications, her German Record Label, named Carol's Tides of Change among their "Best of Instrumental Music." Along with Tides of Change, Carol has produced four other CDs: Love In Your Eyes, Christmas Impressions, Morning Music and Night Music. Her works showcase original compositions along with Carol's interpretations of selected popular music.

Carol's many performance venues have been in cities across the US; San Francisco, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia. Carol has provided entertainment for a variety of trade shows, corporations, organizations and public venues. Carol performed at the US Cable & Film Convention in Atlanta, NARM Convention in San Francisco and Southern Gardening Association Convention. Additionally, Carol has performed for numerous corporations such as the Masters Golf Tournament at Augusta National, Olympics Hospitality Suite for Nations Band/German House, Arthur Anderson, AT&T, BellSouth Cellular, Coca-Cola Executives, Dean Witter, Dow Chemical, Georgia Baptist Hospital, Hilton Managers Association, IBM, NASCAR Association, Motorola, ReMax Associates, Southern Nursing Association and SuperValue to name a few. Private organizations have hired her to perform for such events as Party honoring Henry Kissinger and Party for Muhammed Ali. A small sampling of her appearances in her home city of Atlanta, GA includes the JW Marriott, Marriott Marquis, Four Seasons, Capital City Country Club, Country Club of the South, Garbo's, Peachtree Plaza, Banks and Shane and SwissHotel. Additionally, Carol has enhanced the mood at weddings and other momentous occasions as well.

Formerly a staff accompanist for the Georgia State University Music Department, Agnes Scott College and the Atlanta Ballet, Carol uniquely draws from her classical training to create a blend of smooth, contemporary jazz and easy instrumental rhythms. Her Atlanta area concert appearances include the Fox Theatre Keyboard Colossus, Blue Sky Concert Series, Dogwood Festival, Georgia Music Festival, Piedmont Arts Festival, Dekalb College Concert Hall, Taste of Atlanta Festival, New Sout Music Showcase, WPBA TV Jazz Series and Good Day Atlanta. Carol has also performed for the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, WSB-TV's Walk for Hunger and WAVA TV5's Arthritis Telethon.

In 1991 she received an Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Achievement and Individual Excellence as a Composer for original theme music. Carol also took First Place for the Atlanta Songwriters Association's award in the Professional Category for Jazz. She is a professional member of N.A.R.A.S. (National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences) and ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers). Carol welcomes you to Contact her to learn specific details regarding her availability.
https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/carol-albert/

Awards:

Global Peace Song Award Winner, New Age Category Emmy nomination for Outstanding Achievement and Individual Excellence/Composer Atlanta Songwriter’s Association 1st and 3rd Place Professional Jazz Division NARAS Member 25 year Certificate

Tides of Change

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Carol Albert - Fly Away Butterfly

Styles: Vocal And Piano Jazz
Year: 2017
Time: 43:33
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Size: 100,3 MB
Art: Front

(4:09) 1. Fly Away Butterfly
(4:09) 2. Awakening
(4:23) 3. On My Way
(4:20) 4. Across The Sky
(4:28) 5. One Way
(3:59) 6. Mas Que Nada
(4:23) 7. Chasing Waterfalls
(5:24) 8. Never Thought It Would Be This Way
(4:09) 9. Transition
(4:09) 10. Fly Away Butterfly (Reprise)

Every so often, an artist comes along that makes you reimagine the possibilities of music. With Fly Away Butterfly
 Album, Carol Albert delivers a seminal and sizzling contribution to the artistic sphere, blending lively melodies with thoughtful and refined arrangements. Every song presents not just different sounds but soundscapes in which Carol invites us to inhabit and explore.

But this album is also one of healing, as Carol lost her husband in 2014, and she turned back to composing music after some years off from her Recording Career. After her “Christmas Mystique” production, she started on this work, tackling the personal issues she has faced and this time, head on. Throughout the opus, we hear, quite beautifully, about Carol’s stages of recovery and healing. And by so doing, she has given us something for each one of us to hold onto.

The title track “Fly Away Butterfly” evokes an ambient groove enlivened by joyful, even mirthful flutes, the soundtrack to a butterfly flying away, from this place to that. Indeed, the track is symbolic, as Carol’s voice is intimate and distant, the delicate balance of love and loss that we all must face during life. “Awakening” flows and builds with an ostinato groove, lilting flutes, and well-placed piano touches. The song is wrought with anticipation and playful exchanges that resolve to the tonic chord, a brilliant display of compositional prowess and acumen. In fact, an encounter with a Blue Morph butterfly in Costa Rica prompted her to write the tune. Perhaps unwittingly, Carol’s has given us a track for our times, to be “awakened” to the tension-and-release, call-and-response of life. That after the very worst times comes recovery and healing. And Carol’s album, listened from start to finish, can be part of a veritable music healing, enriching your soul with creative and artistic ferment.

“On My Way” is even more explicit, an anthem for our times. It’s a song of new beginnings. Her lyrics “On My Way/To a better day/I’ll spread my wings and fly away…” connote not just escapism but realism. In truth, sometimes you need an army of one to get the job done. You have to take things into your own hands. At least with Carol’s horn-drenched tune, you’ll have a musical accompaniment as you face towards the future. “Across the Sky” begins with a Coltrane-like incandescent solo with dreamy, even distant vocals. With her vocal performance, Carol has her audience hanging on every note with anticipation. “One Way” is a song about love and combines some of her favorite elements such as acoustic piano, nylon string guitar, and a hint of Latin percussion. The original version of “One Way” appears on Al Jarreau’s 1988 hit album Heart’s Horizon. “I have always loved the song and thought creating and performing a new arrangement of it would be the perfect celebration of his artistry and life”

In “Mas Que Nada,” the Latin rhythms pulse with fervor and give a stylistic panache to this track, as if you were listening at a dark-lit club with fire-red dancing. What’s more, Carol’s voice displays a richness and versatility of the highest order, with beautiful incantations and vocalizations. As an admirer of Latin music, Carol had me taken with this song. In a word, stunning.

“Waterfalls are all about that instant change in forward momentum, and can be powerful metaphors,” said Carol when describing the track “Chasing Waterfalls.” Her rolling piano propels the momentum of the song back-and-forth, ultimately advancing it without compunction so that we’re immersed, maybe even drenched in a sonic landscape of groove in the province of jam! “Never Thought It Would Be This Way” is a personal introspection into life when things turn out differently than expected. And ain’t that the truth.

The lyrics however aren’t bitter but bittersweet, informed by a life of love and loss. “Transition” brings us back into the ambient world with watercolor harmonies and kaleidoscopic timbres cascading throughout the number. It’s about moving into new realms. And with the last track “Fly Away Reprise,” Carol sends the message that there must be a final letting go. 

In this album, we hear it all, and we are better for it. Carol Albert has given us a musical testimonial borne out of the crucible of loss. We hear both resilience and grace in her music. By giving so much of herself in this music, we not only hear her, but she creates a space for us to join her on the road ahead. By Kabir Sehgal https://www.allaboutjazz.com/news/fly-away-butterfly-new-album-by-carol-albert/

Fly Away Butterfly

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Carol Albert - Stronger now

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:56
Size: 104,4 MB
Art: Front

(3:43) 1. Stronger Now
(4:20) 2. Love Again
(4:03) 3. Perfect Sunday
(4:24) 4. For The Moment
(4:25) 5. Femme Flight
(5:31) 6. Winter Rain
(3:55) 7. Sun’s Out
(4:39) 8. I am Fine
(4:23) 9. Moon On The Water
(5:27) 10. ‘Til We Meet Again

Jazz Pianist and vocalist Carol Albert has always Georgia in her mind, when she tours numerous countries worldwide. Her albums Love In Your Eyes (1992), Tides Of Change (1993), Christmas Impressions for the Piano (1995), Night Music (2006), Morning Music (2006), Christmas Mystique (2015), Fly Away Butterfly (2017) cover a broad spectrum ranging from easy listening, New Age, world music to smooth Jazz.

With her upcoming album Stronger Now (2020) she consolidates her position in the field of smooth jazz. Carol plays on this album piano, synth, keys, programming, bass, strings and more. She has written and arranged all songs. The well known guitarist and producer Paul Brown has made a significant contribution to this album as producer, arranger and mixer. He also performs guitar and percussion.

The following prolific musicians have added their personal accents: Lew Laing (drum programming, additional synths), Ben Babylon (strings and French horn arrangements), Sam Sims, Joseph Patrick Moore, Nathaniel Kearney, Roberto Vally (bass), Lil John Roberts (drums, percussion), Lee Thornberg (horn arrangement, flugel and valve trombone), Jay Williams, Gordon Campbell (drums), Curtis McCain (percussion), Ragan Whiteside (flute), Magdalena Chovancova (sax), Dennis Johnson (drum programming), Daniel Baraszu (acoustic guitar), Raheem Amlani (electric guitar).

The album opens with Stronger Now. With powerful keystrokes Carol dispels sorrow and worries and enchants the regained joy of life with her musical sunshine. Lew Laing provides the right background with a swaying rhythm and a sky full of strings. Love Again is the tonal embodiment of an emotional climax, which Carol also underlines vocally.

Perfect Sunday includes everything you imagine by a Sunday that means pure relaxation. Lee Thornberg's horns and Paul Brown's acoustic guitar add a cozy flavor to Carol's uplifting piano play. For The Moment has that special dreamy something, most of you know by Fleetwood Mac's Albatross, floating in space and time. The Latin tinged Femme Flight has impressed audience and credits alike as early single in 2018. Flutist Ragan Whiteside and saxophonist Magdalena Chovancova form together with Carol a musical triumvirate.

Winter Rain is a sonic mirror of the season that brings gloomy days and a subdued mood with it. Sun's Out, on the other hand, sets brighter things in the double sense of the word. I Am Fine is Carol's personal statement years after the lost of her husband. Encouragement and fragility unite in Carol's voice, which is sensitively accompanied by Paul Brown on the acoustic guitar.

Moon On The Water is similarly inspired to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. 'Til We Meet Again reveals something of Carol's faith and spirituality. She does not understand the lost as something final but sees hope for a reunification, which is also reflected in her music. Guitar virtuoso Daniel Baraszu accompanies Carol's piano interpretation with brilliant chords.

Carol Albert's new album Stronger Now has strong biographical traits and convinces in the power of the melodies. Carol does not follow the fashionable trend that prevails in smooth jazz, but remains true to herself and her style.
http://www.smooth-jazz.de/firstview/Albert/StrongerNow.htm

Stronger now

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Carol Albert - Magic Mirror

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2022
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 41:51
Size: 96,6 MB
Art: Front

(4:40) 1. Magic Mirror
(4:10) 2. Fire & Water
(3:42) 3. Paradigm Shift
(4:27) 4. Sol Ipanema
(4:26) 5. Gemini Sun
(4:09) 6. The Chase
(4:06) 7. Crashing
(3:59) 8. Sapporo Dream
(4:21) 9. Sometime
(3:46) 10. Angels Watching Over Me

When Carol Albert released her debut vocal and instrumental album Love in Your Eyes back in 1992, there’s no way the multi-talented pianist/composer could have known that 25-30 years down the road, she’d not only be a Billboard chart sensation, but that her elegant and soulful, dreamy and free flowing melodic piano style, combined with her passion for R&B grooves and sexy tropical Brazilian rhythms, would make her a spot on fit for the urban centric vibe that drives today’s smooth jazz.

Though she had released an album of solo piano covers (Morning Music) in 2006 and a lovely holiday album (Christmas Mystique) in 2015, Carol seemed to come out of nowhere in 2016 to launch the most prolific and radio friendly phase of her career with a burning cover of “Mas Que Nada” – the first single from her 2017 breakthrough album Fly Away Butterfly, which also included the Top 5 Billboard title track and her first charting single “One Way.” She’s been smooth jazz radio gold ever since, most recently scoring the Top 5 singles “Perfect Sunday” and “Stronger Now” (from her 2020 album Stronger Now) and “Fire & Water,” the funky, festive and exotic samba lead single from her extraordinary, stylistically eclectic (and provocatively titled!) new album Magic Mirror, which reached #4.

Among her other accolades, perhaps Carol’s most extraordinary achievement – and testament to her widespread impact and success – is having Spotify streaming totals all but unheard of among even the most popular of her smooth jazz peers. “Perfect Sunday” has racked up nearly 6.7 million streams on Spotify, with “Stronger Now” currently at 2.3 million.

No doubt, the success of “Fire & Water” is just the beginning of the many chart and streaming accolades coming Carol’s way with all the potential hits on Magic Mirror. But the multi-talented Atlanta based performer isn’t just about cranking out infectious hits. On her previous two albums and now this collection, she starts with personally meaningful themes and concepts that reflect her unique emotional journey – from deep sadness to personal empowerment, from desire to enlightenment and, to draw from some of her best known titles, soaring on “Femme Flight” (a SiriusXM Watercolors smash featuring flutist Ragan Whiteside and saxophonist Magdalena Chovancova) to the liberating feeling of “Perfect Sunday” and “Sun’s Out.”

Even on a multi-faceted album that has many potential hits and everything from sumptuous, hot and festive samba (“Fire & Water”) and bossa nova (the breezy and intoxicating/exotic “Sol Ipanema”) to a hard thumping, piano pounding, certifiable dance jam (“The Chase”), it’s indicative of her compositional depth that the tunes on Magic Mirror that resonate most are the ones least likely to be chosen as radio singles.

One of five tracks co-produced by Carol and her new collaborating partner, bassist and genre stalwart Roberto Vally, the Carol-composed “Gemini Sun” reminds me that Carol’s sensibilities harken back to what the genre was like in the early 90s, when a tune like this - gentle, dreamy, laid back, with old school atmospheres and a sweet, witty conversation with Whiteside’s flute could be a big hit. Its charm and whimsy reminds me of the vibe of one of my favorite albums of the time, Peter Kater’s Rooftops.

My other favorite is the similarly sweet and blissfully ethereal “Someday,” which flows gracefully as a piano-guitar conversation with Paul Brown, who produced the other five songs on the album. Like the closing tune that follows it, the symphonic new age influenced gem “Angels Watching Over Me,” it’s a master class in purposeful relaxation, literally transporting the listener’s heart mind and soul to simpler times where cares can effortlessly drift away for a few minutes.

Of note, “Sometime” was written by Carol, Brown, Vally and Tom Schumann (who adds strings), while “Angels…” was composed and arranged by Carol and co-produced and mixed by Vally. Even if the credits are distinctive, with Brown and Vally each adding their unique touches on their home instruments (Vally being particularly effective on bowed bass), in the end, both serve to illuminate the seamless flow of Carol’s rich artistry.

It was insightful to learn that the whole process of developing Magic Mirror began with Brown who had produced five songs on Stronger Now sending Carol the foundation of “Sometime” that he had worked up with Vally. Carol of course wanted to collaborate with Brown again, but her love of this track and realization of what Vally brought to it launched a conversation which led to her next great collaborations, all brought to life on the album.

Magic Mirror’s second and current radio single is “Paradigm Shift,” a spirited light funk tune that features Carol’s playful piano melody in dialogue with Brown’s snappy acoustic guitar, riding over a tight soulful groove as it heads towards the irrepressible hook. Another tune with obvious hit potential is the opening title track, a silky, seductive, increasingly grooving ballad (penned by Carol, Brown and guitarist Shane Theriot) featuring some of Carol’s most expressive playing and the beautiful sax passion of Greg Vail.

Other tracks include the digital only single “Crashing,” a hypnotic romantic ballad given a touch of dramatic flair with the additional strings of Ben Babylon, who adds similarly lush textures to the lighthearted, easy funk adventure Carol’s ivories take us on in the sharing of her delightful “Sopporo Dream.”

With most albums in the smooth jazz genre these days, if you hear the hits, you’ve pretty much experienced the whole thing. With Albert’s magnificent Magic Mirror, it’s truly the proverbial journey, best immersed in fully and experienced from start to finish over and over. It’s easily one of the genre’s best albums of 2022. By Jonathan Widran https://www.jwvibe.com/single-post/carol-albert-magic-mirror

Magic Mirror

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