Soul of the City

“Soul of the City” is a music project, fiscally sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, presenting original contemporary jazz compositions about life in New York City. The jazz is a blend of sophisticated grooves, gritty sound and complex improvisation, a very urban soundscape that perfectly captures the spirit of the big city. The goal of the project is to provide a unique musical experience via a full-length Concept CD.

The target audiences are New Yorkers (who can relate to the stories/songs), contemporary jazz aficionados, bass players, and those interested in the process of creating a concept CD. The hope also is to give non-New Yorkers a taste of life in the city through a musical interpretation. The compositions were performed publicly before being recorded in front of a live studio audience at the Manhattan Studios in New York City. The CD contains a booklet describing the various songs and the scenes they represent.

The band consists of electric bass, drums, guitar, keyboards and tenor sax. The musicians are all members of the band PHX (formerly “Phoenix”) and have performed and recorded together for the past twenty years. The compositions, which will include a brief description, are as follows:

The first part of the project, a live performance of the album in its entirety, was completed on Saturday, April 12th, 2014, at the Cutting Room in New York City. The second part was the live recording, completed at the Manhattan Center Studios in NYC on Sunday, September 7th, 2014. Mixing and mastering of the album was completed at the end of November 2014. The stories were edited in the spring of 2015 and the packaging and layout was designed winter 2015 through spring 2016 with a preview concert at “Pink’s” in NYC in April of 2016. The CD was pressed at National Media Services in Virginia. and released on October 8th, 2016 with another concert at Pink’s in New York City.