EoJ Tip: BWB - "Human Nature" - A Tribute to Michael Jackson is Out Now!
June 19, 2013 at 8:20 AM PRESS RELEASE
SUPERGROUP BWB FEATURING RICK BRAUN, KIRK WHALUM AND NORMAN BROWN REUNITES, CELEBRATES MICHAEL JACKSON ON NEW ALBUM
Individually, they are three titans of contemporary music: Rick Braun, the gifted trumpeter/flugelhornist with the golden voice; GRAMMY® Award-winning tenor saxophonist Kirk Whalum, the Memphis-born wunderkind who mixes Beale Street, gospel, the blues and bop; and Norman Brown, the GRAMMY®-winning guitarist who brings a Louisiana lilt to his Wes Montgomery/George Benson influenced six-string soulful strut. They came together eleven years ago as the supergroup known as BWB and their historic album Groovin', made them one of the most sought-after groups at that time.
This terrific triad reassembles with the June 18, 2013 release of Human Nature on Heads Up International, a division of Concord Music Group (international release dates may vary). This long-awaited sequel to their debut project spotlights BWB's stupendous reimaging of eleven selections made famous by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson.
"We made the first BWB record in 2002 when we were all on Warner Bros. Jazz," Braun says. "We did a world tour behind the record. And then we've all been off doing our own thing -- so this is really a reunion. We have an incredible amount of respect for each other: We phrase together. We complete each other's sentences, musically. We're really just a good bunch of guys making music, and grateful to be doing that."
"This is a fun collaboration," Brown says. "First of all, we really love each other. We've been good friends for the longest time. Rick is a very serious trumpet player; so is Kirk on his horn. And then we feed off each other and bring stuff to life that way. So it was Rick's idea to make these songs, to do the Michael Jackson songbook. So we just started picking our favorite ones. It was hard to narrow it down, but we narrowed it down to eleven tunes and we hope that we did him proud." BWB is augmented by keyboardist John Stoddart, bassist Braylon Lacey, drummer Khari Parker, percussionist Lenny Castro and organist Ralph Lofton.
Though Braun, Whalum and Brown are often labeled in the limiting category of "smooth jazz," the selections on this project prove beyond doubt that this recording was produced in the time-honored tradition of modern jazz musicians interpreting and elevating popular music, like Ahmad Jamal did with "Poinciana" and John Coltrane did with "My Favorite Things."
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