Playing it Foward
Available on CD/Digital
#2 Billboard Smooth Jazz Most Added
#2 Groove Jazz Music Top 30 Most Added
Smooth Jazz Network Top 100.
"Contemporary jazz flutist Alexander Zonjic plays it forward on suped-up for his first album in over ten years drops October 9 “Motor City Sway” is one of Billboard’s most added singles and #2 on Groove Jazz Music Top 30 Most Added. Serving as the artistic director for nearly a dozen music festivals and concert series throughout Michigan ordinarily keeps contemporary jazz flutist Alexander Zonjic super busy from March through September in addition to maintaining his own active performance schedule. But with most of the events shelved this year due to coronavirus concerns, Zonjic was able to find time to finish his first album in more than ten years. “Playing It Forward,” his 13th album, will be released October 9 on his company’s Hi-Falutin Music label. GRAMMY-winning keyboardist Jeff Lorber produced the set with the exception of the first single, “Motor City Sway,” a throwback R&B groove inspired by Zonjic’s adopted home of Detroit, which was written and produced by Pieces of a Dream’s keyboardist James Lloyd. The single has been one of the most added songs on Billboard BDS chart two weeks in a row. Bud Harner Is working Radio. Zonjic very recently guested on Dave Koz Lounge and is shooting a video for the single to promote the album.
With a rich and varied range of contemporary jazz tracks featuring a diverse blend of musicians and producers from all over the country, Playing It Forward merges soulful expressions and technical artistry with tracks crafted by GRAMMY award-winning artist Jeff Lorber, including contributions
from Chuck Loeb, James Lloyd, Paul Jackson Jr., Michael Thompson, Evan Garr, and Justin Schultz.
“When we got into this pandemic, people really started to play it forward. For us, our connection with Detroit has always been this back-and-forth relationship and us finding ways to give back. We love the people of Detroit and do a lot of fundraisers for more than a dozen nonprofit organizations. My son and I came up with ‘Playing It Forward’ and I like the energy of it. It’s a very forward momentum record. There’s a lot of energy,” said Zonjic, a three-time Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards winner (including International Broadcaster of the Year) and a15-time Detroit Music Awards winner.
Indeed, “Playing It Forward” is a high-energy jazz, funk, fusion and soul collection featuring six original tunes, five of which were penned or co-penned by Lorber.
“The pandemic really changed things. This was a new experience for me because I normally don’t have the time to do focus groups and to research the stuff that I had to research because of all the other things we normally have going on with our various festivals and concert series this time of year. I asked a lot of questions. I interviewed a lot of big artists on my radio show that airs on Detroit’s 910AM Superstation and all of us had the same question, which was ‘Is this a good time to release a record?’ In my case, I worked so hard on it for so many years and spent so much money on making it that I wanted the fun of assembling a team to release it. I’ll admit that it’s been quite a learning curve, but I’ve really been enjoying it. I don’t plan to wait another ten years to do another album. I probably enjoyed the process of making this record as much as I do all the fun that comes from releasing it.” For more information, please visit http://www.zonjic.com.
Track List:
- Jazz Café [04:15]
- Benita [04:31]
- Hipster [03:58]
- Night Crawler [04:39]
- Motor City Sway [04:33]
- Playing it Forward [04:21]
- Musaic [04:36]
- Living in the Past [03:14]
- Nature Boy [04:29]
- Bottom Heat [04:02]
- Rolling in the Deep [04:00]
Credits:
Jamie Frada (Engineer), Jeff Lorber (Composer, Performer, Engineer, Producer), Alexander Zonjic (Arranger), Chuck Loeb (Soloist), Gary Novak (Performer), David Mann (Arranger, Performer), Paul Jackson Jr (Performer), Valdez Brantley (Composer), Michael Thompson (Performer), Evan Garr (Performer), David Mann (Performer, Arranger), Bob James (Composer), James Keith Lloyd (Composer, Producer, Engineer), Ian Scott Anderson (Composer), Justin Lee Schultz (Soloist), Randall Bowland (Performer), Eden Ahbez (Composer), Raul De Souza (Composer), Adele (Composer), Selected of God (Choir), Larry Callahan (Conductor, Arranger)
(P) 2020 Hi-Falutin’ Music
(C) 2020 Hi-Falutin’ Music