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MP3 Collaboration - Because of You
10 MP3 Songs in this album (55:05) !
Related styles: JAZZ: Progressive Jazz, URBAN/R&B: Smooth Soul
People who are interested in Fourplay Kirk Whalum Yellowjackets should consider this download.
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Kenneth Dickerson
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COLLABORATION
Talented, Dynamic, Excellent, The members of the musical group Collaboration personify a sense of purpose and vision that will propel them into the realm of success and stardom. If you’re looking for the same old tired and whiny saxophone driven sound too prevalent in this smooth jazz driven era, then look elsewhere. This group has put the “soul” back into jazz with its sexy and supple sound.
Drummer Kenneth Dickerson and saxophonist Tracy Cutler founded this awesome band while they were students at Cardozo High School in Washington, DC. Originally formed to perform for a single event at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, they found that theirs was a pervasive and powerful sound that couldn’t be denied. After graduating high school Dickerson and Cutler continued to study and hone their craft at the University of the District of Columbia majoring in jazz studies.
Band members include: keyboardist Glenn Douglas (past winner of the DC Talent Search competition for instrumental soloist) who calls Billy Preston and Joe Sample his musical influences; lead guitar player Lee Egdecomb whose style is influenced by Wes Montgomery; bass player Yusef Chisolm who calls Marcus Miller his inspiration and lead vocalist Lori Williams, whose influences are Anita Baker, Rachelle Farrell and Dianne Reeves.
Collaboration has shared the stage with some of the biggest names in the music industry including Peabo Bryson, the Manhattans, Pieces of a Dream, Betty Carter, Lee Ritenour, Stanley Turrentine, War, Layla Hathaway, Norman Brown and the late great Phyllis Hyman. They awed crowds at the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars, Democratic National Convention, The Presidential Inaugural Ball (1997), National Urban League, The Capital City Jazz Festival, The Jazz Company at Walt Disney World and the Darryl Green Youth Life Foundation Gala.
They have also served as backup band for singer Miles Jaye. These impresarios have also been featured on Black Entertainment Television’s Bet On Jazz Series as an up and coming new talent. BET also featured Collaboration along with Vesta Williams in a national television advertisement. Unafraid to cross into all facets of the music industry, this versatile group has done broadcast music production including writing themes for Video Soul, Unreal, Caribbean Rhythm, BET Talk, BET Tonight, Comic View and Lead Story, also producing a World Music CD and a Jazz CD project for BET. Performing a mixed repertoire of jazz, R&B, popular, traditional and inspirational music, these emerging titans of music choose not to limit themselves to any one form of music so that they can accommodate a variety of audiences. Recently, Collaboration has added The Retirement Living Channel to it’s list of television music production credits
From the pleasingly contemplative sounds of the piano on the song “The COLORS OF FALL” to the sultry ocean swept melody of “Spiritual Union”, their current CD, BECAUSE OF YOU quiets the yearning for soulful sexy music and elicits visions of peace and harmony. So enjoy the tranquility of the “soul” in your music. Enjoy COLLABORATION.
Collaboration
In the ever-growing subgenre of smooth jazz, it’s always so very invigorating and encouraging to happen upon a group such as Washington, D.C.’s own Collaboration, a band founded by drummer Kenneth Dickerson and saxophonist Tracy Cutler and comprised entirely of teachers and school administrators. Here’s a very polished group of musicians that has a firm handle on the essence of contemporary jazz in a way that is instantly obvious with Because of You.
Collaboration, whose influences include such luminaries as Billy Preston, Joe Sample, Wes Montgomery, and Marcus Miller, just to name a few, has shared the stage with the likes of Peabo Bryson, the Manhattans, Pieces of a Dream, Betty Carter, Lee Ritenour, Stanley Turrentine, War, Layla Hathaway, Norman Brown, and the late great Phyllis Hyman. They have wowed crowds at the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars, the Democratic National Convention, the 1997 Presidential Inaugural Ball, the National Urban League, the Capital City Jazz Festival, The Jazz Company at Walt Disney World, and the Darryl Green Youth Life Foundation Gala. The group has also been featured on Black Entertainment Television’s Bet On Jazz Series as an up and coming new talent. Quite the resume, to say the least.
Some tunes of note (and there are many!) are “My Funny Valentine,” a tight piece with very deliberate and polished vocals by one Lori Williams, whose intonations and style can easily remind one of Anita Baker, “The Colors of Fall,” which has that soft and unimposing, unassuming Caribbean touch. The piano and sax have flair that shapes and drives the smooth, moderate tempo of the tune very nicely. Yes, its title is very telling, as the tune is ideal for walking in the park, through leaves strewn all about, during a cool Fall afternoon, ; #3, boasting a very solid backbeat and superior upfront sax work. The guitar solo also offers careful, well-conceived riffs without being “too much” or selfish; the title cut, which is a very romantic caress whose intention is obviously to set that mood that seems to whisper, “Sweetheart, for the moment, for this moment, everything is perfect with us.” You’ll find that same caress in “In Your Sexy Kind of Way.” This group does well in that “lovers’ light.”
Should one wish to deviate from the soft and mellow, try on the group’s rendition of the classic “Summertime.” Very upbeat, rhythmic, and “electric.” Here again, we’re treated to the seductive vocals of Lori Williams. Another beauty is “Just Friends,” with its Kim Waters/Walter Beasley “Let’s just love love” feel. The finale “Spiritual Union” is simply a collection of pure, aural enticements. It’s magnetic and soft “sway” provides just the peacefulness for which all spirits undoubtedly yearn at some point.
This is music for lovers, without question. Of course, someone who just wants to be softly caressed into oblivion by soothing, quality jazz will welcome this gem, as well. Collaboration. The name works well for a group that obviously believes in working together to achieve the melodic experience witnessed here. Another must-have album for serious smooth jazz aficionados. The album is a couple of years old now, and the group is currently working on its follow-up offering, to be released in June 2008. I strongly suspect that it will prove to have been well worth the wait.
Review of Collaboration
In the ever-growing subgenre of smooth jazz, it’s always so very invigorating and encouraging to happen upon a group such as Washington, D.C.’s own Collaboration, a band founded by drummer Kenneth Dickerson and saxophonist Tracy Cutler and comprised entirely of teachers and school administrators. Here’s a very polished group of musicians that has a firm handle on the essence of contemporary jazz in a way that is instantly obvious with Because of You.
Collaboration, whose influences include such luminaries as Billy Preston, Joe Sample, Wes Montgomery, and Marcus Miller, just to name a few, has shared the stage with the likes of Peabo Bryson, the Manhattans, Pieces of a Dream, Betty Carter, Lee Ritenour, Stanley Turrentine, War, Layla Hathaway, Norman Brown, and the late great Phyllis Hyman. They have wowed crowds at the Lou Rawls Parade of Stars, the Democratic National Convention, the 1997 Presidential Inaugural Ball, the National Urban League, the Capital City Jazz Festival, The Jazz Company at Walt Disney World, and the Darryl Green Youth Life Foundation Gala. The group has also been featured on Black Entertainment Television’s Bet On Jazz Series as an up and coming new talent. Quite the resume, to say the least.
Some tunes of note (and there are many!) are “My Funny Valentine,” a tight piece with very deliberate and polished vocals by one Lori Williams, whose intonations and style can easily remind one of Anita Baker, “The Colors of Fall,” which has that soft and unimposing, unassuming Caribbean touch. The piano and sax have flair that shapes and drives the smooth, moderate tempo of the tune very nicely. Yes, its title is very telling, as the tune is ideal for walking in the park, through leaves strewn all about, during a cool Fall afternoon, ; #3, boasting a very solid backbeat and superior upfront sax work. The guitar solo also offers careful, well-conceived riffs without being “too much” or selfish; the title cut, which is a very romantic caress whose intention is obviously to set that mood that seems to whisper, “Sweetheart, for the moment, for this moment, everything is perfect with us.” You’ll find that same caress in “In Your Sexy Kind of Way.” This group does well in that “lovers’ light.”
Should one wish to deviate from the soft and mellow, try on the group’s rendition of the classic “Summertime.” Very upbeat, rhythmic, and “electric.” Here again, we’re treated to the seductive vocals of Lori Williams. Another beauty is “Just Friends,” with its Kim Waters/Walter Beasley “Let’s just love love” feel. The finale “Spiritual Union” is simply a collection of pure, aural enticements. It’s magnetic and soft “sway” provides just the peacefulness for which all spirits undoubtedly yearn at some point.
This is music for lovers, without question. Of course, someone who just wants to be softly caressed into oblivion by soothing, quality jazz will welcome this gem, as well. Collaboration. The name works well for a group that obviously believes in working together to achieve the melodic experience witnessed here. Another must-have album for serious smooth jazz aficionados. The album is a couple of years old now, and the group is currently working on its follow-up offering, to be released in June 2008. I strongly suspect that it will prove to have been well worth the wait.
Article on Collaboration
D.C. Area Music Teachers “Collaborate” Through R&B and Jazz
By Edith Billups
WI Staff Writer
Thursday, January 11, 2007
By day, five D.C. area music teachers go to their respective day jobs, grading papers and teaching music to local students, ranging from elementary to high school age. On weekends and holidays, they toss aside their lesson plans and become the R&B and jazz group Collaboration that has been heating up area clubs and local events for more than 20 years.
Founded by drummer Kenny Dickerson, assistant principal at Woodrow Wilson Senior High
School in Northwest, and Hyattsville (Md.) Elementary School teacher and saxophonist Tracey Cutler, Collaboration was formed while the pair was still at Cardozo Senior High School in Northwest.
“Tracey and I have been friends since elementary school, and went to Banneker [Senior High School] before going to Cardozo,” said Dickerson. “At Cardozo, we founded the group with a couple of cats from Duke Ellington [School of the Arts], and that’s how we became Collaboration.”
Rounding out the lineup are keyboardist Glen Douglas and vocalist Lori Williams, both teachers at Wilson, and bassist Yusef Chisholm, a teacher at Hardy Middle School in Northwest. Three band members – Dickerson, Cutler and Chisholm – had the opportunity to train under the late trombonist Calvin Jones, head of the jazz department at the University of the District of Columbia.
The members of the group recently performed at a hotel in McLean, Va., with a repertoire ranging from R&B and straight-ahead jazz to fusion and a little funk. According to Douglas, who is currently studying at UDC, “I think the band has stayed together so long because we love and respect each other. We’re like family. We’ve been able to blend the music and make our own voice.”
As several family members and friends prepared to celebrate Chisholm’s birthday with a huge birthday cake, the band members reminisced about their years as friends and musicians. Williams, a Hampton University graduate and fan favorite, started singing with the group as a teenager, “initially sneaking into clubs to catch the guys perform. They would let me sing one song, and I moved up from a groupie. I’m now 40 and we’re still together.”
“We’re all educators who … use our associations to build a bridge with the various schools,” she said. “In our schools, we also are able to incorporate a lot of our own music and teach it to our students. As colleagues, we also help each other out in terms of partnering with the various schools.”
Dickerson believes that the “key to life is to add human values. Through Collaboration, our goal as educators is to make an impact on music and education in our local schools and then throughout the world.”
To learn more about the band, visit https://www.tradebit.comlaboration
Through Jazz, Reaching Students
By Omar Fekeiki
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 12, 2007; Page DZ03
Collaboration is the name of the band. The music is jazz.
The group''s history goes back 30 years, and the members share a passion for music and friendship. They moonlight as a band, and they work as teachers and school administrators in public schools in the Washington area.
Ladies and gentlemen, Tracey Cutler on saxophone. He teaches instrumental music at Hyattsville Middle School. Kenneth Dickerson, the assistant principal at Woodrow Wilson Senior High School, on drums. Glenn Douglas, who teaches jazz at Wilson, on keyboards. On the bass guitar, Yusef Chisholm, the instrumental music teacher at Hardy Middle School. Vocals come courtesy of his wife, Lori Williams-Chisholm, who teaches at Wilson. And on guitars, Leland Edgecombe, a professor of architecture at the University of the District of Columbia and Prince George''s Community College.
They have been collaborating for most of their lives.
Cutler and Dickerson have been best friends since elementary school. They went to junior and senior high together, and they both graduated from the University of the District of Columbia. They met Douglas in junior high, and they spent their spare time practicing music together.
"We did it as much because we were friends more than just to form a band," Cutler, 48, said.
They grew up in the District, in neighborhoods where drug dealers and crime ruled at night.
Worried that the streets would curse their futures, and motivated by their music teachers, they harmonized as a way to escape. Unlike many of their classmates, they retreated to the basements in their houses and played up a storm.
"Our streets were mean," Cutler said. "It was crazy. It was very easy to get caught in the streets."
A few years later, recognizing the positive impact of music on their lives, they decided to present their work to the public: Their collaboration morphed into Collaboration.
They were in high school when they gave their first public performance in 1977. Today, they have fans in several states.
In the early 1970s, when the band was still in the making, they played many genres of music. But it was jazz that stuck.
Douglas, 48, recalled the turning point in 1975, when jazz legend Billy Taylor performed at Roosevelt Senior High School, where Douglas was a student.
"When I was playing before, I felt that there was another side of music that I wasn''t touching," he said. After he listened to Taylor perform, he said that he knew what was missing, "it was definitely jazz."
Now, they travel around the country performing four or five times a month. Often they appear at one another''s schools, "to expose our students to good music."
The benefits are twofold: "It lets the students know that we are not only teachers who give grades. We are trying to pass this to other generations," Dickerson said.
Chisholm, 45, believes so strongly that music has the power to change destinies that he has reached into his pocket to buy guitars and give them to students who can''t afford them. "Because music saved my life, I believe it can save other lives," he said.
The band members view their music as an obligation as well as a pleasure.
"We can''t be selfish," Cutler said. "You have to lend yourself to society. We want the music to reach people and change things. Through creating an atmosphere that is relaxing and peaceful, we take away the anxiety of the place we live in. It creates a glimmer of hope for young people."
In 1994, Dickerson was named teacher of the year for his outstanding achievement in music. It came with a $50,000 award in cash and equipment, which he said they are still using to teach students.
The years of hard work have paid off at school, too. The band mates have noticed the effect of music in students'' performance in school and in their careers after graduation. Music disciplines students and strengthens their personality, Dickerson said. "One common fact with all the students is that they are all productive citizens.
"The discipline they''ve got from music have made them better," he said. "It made us better."
Sometimes people asked the teachers whether it was wise to walk the path of music and make educating the audience their main task. But they do not doubt their mission.
"The true success to us is about helping other people," Dickerson, 48, said. In the future, "people are going to talk about your contribution and what you did for them."
The group will perform Sunday at the Islander Caribbean Restaurant and Lounge, 1201 U St. NW.
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