THE LOST AMERICAN JAZZBOOK VOLUME II

featuring tammi brown

TAXONOMY OF PLEASURE

Albert Greenberg and Tammi Brown with guest artists Mads Tolling and Stanley Jordan

Albert Greenberg is the creator and principal composer of the award-winning Lost American JazzBook. JazzBook’s latest CD, Taxonomy of Pleasure features jazz and gospel singer Tammi Brown and special guests guitarist Stanley Jordan and violinist Mads Tolling.

Multi Grammy-winning producer Kabir Sehgal writes, “the tradition of jazz became the soundtrack of the 20th century – an era beset by world wars and the systemic scourge of Jim Crow. Not unlike our troubled time.” (Greenberg) believes that this music can be both a communal force and a prophetic voice—bringing people together from many traditions to form a more “improvisational union”.

Tammi Brown has performed with Quincy Jones, Alan Parsons, Bobby McFerrin, Stanley Jordan, Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Choir and Tom Schuman of Spyro Gyra. She is the new voice of The Lost American JazzBook, a concert of original songs written in the style of the American art song tradition—the jazz standard. JazzBook was winner of Jazz Vocal Album of the Year from the Independent Music Awards in 2018.

Kabir says of Tammi: “Tammi Brown has a storied career as a performer, equally comfortable with soulful gospel as with modern, forward-pushing jazz. Her refined phrasing and powerful voice have an almost hypnotic effect as she inhabits each song and mesmerizes with fresh renderings.”

Special guest Stanley Jordan is the consummate guitarist, traversing styles and genres from Miles to Hendrix to Bartók. His unique style of "tapping" on guitar opened a whole new world of musical possibilities.

Mads Tolling is a two-time Grammy-winning violinist, and is considered to be one of the finest jazz violinists in the world today. Mads was part of the JazzBook vol 1 ensemble and returns to bring his singular expressive vision to the music.

Albert Greenberg collaborated with pianist Dan Zemelman, to create The Lost American JazzBook and its second CD, Taxonomy of Pleasure, featuring seven songs with original lyrics and music, one standard, and one Bob Dylan tune. The Lost American JazzBook is according to Greenberg, “a revisioning of the “American art song tradition” - the jazz standard - inspired by everyone from Billy Strayhorn to Thelonious Monk to Antonio Carlos Jobim.

live performance excerpts

Original Music and Lyrics by Albert Greenberg & Dan Zemelman

THE LOST AMERICAN JAZZBOOK is a project of Black Swan Arts and Media