NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 31, 2014 – Nathan East made history this week as his eponymous debut solo album held the No. 1 position on the SmoothJazz.com Top 50 Album Chart for an unprecedented 25 weeks.
"I'm very proud Smooth Jazz radio stations have helped break the Nathan East project and hopefully our format is influencing other genres to pay attention to an artist that defies gravity and labels," said Sandy Shore, SmoothJazz.com president and founder. "Nathan East embodies the new paradigm of music on a global level and truly appeals to all popular music enthusiasts, which makes him highly playable on the air, and hugely successful to a wide audience."
Released March 25, 2014 on Yamaha Entertainment Group, Nathan East features collaborations with Eric Clapton ("Can't Find My Way Home"), Stevie Wonder ("Overjoyed"), Michael McDonald ("Moondance"), Sara Bareilles ("I Can Let Go Now"), Ray Parker Jr. ("Daft Funk"), Bob James and Chuck Loeb of Fourplay, David Paich of Toto and more.
"I'm thrilled by the global embrace of my first solo album," East said. "It is very much a reflection of the joy I feel when playing music with my friends. This collection of performances is a celebration of the many diverse musical relationships I have developed over the years. I'm extremely happy with the way it turned out."
SmoothJazz.com Radio launched in 2000 as the first Internet-only jazz radio station in the world. It features the Top 50 Album Chart, sanctioned by The Gavin Report in 2001. When Gavin closed its doors in 2002, the chart was recognized as the industry's leading Contemporary Jazz airplay chart.
"Everything good that is happening to this exceptional human being, including his residency at the top of our weekly Top 50 Chart, is the universe paying out in full for talent, creativity and integrity," said Shore.
Hailed as "a striking debut … blinding brilliance" (Bass Player), "bonafide jazz personified" (Smooth Jazz Ride) and "substance over flash" (Premier Guitar), Nathan East was co-produced by East and Yamaha Entertainment Group founder and vice president Chris Gero and hailed at No. 1 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.
"I'm ecstatic there's so much excitement around the Nathan East album," Gero said. "It's been a privilege to work with Nathan and I couldn't be more proud of him and his record-breaking accomplishment."
Nathan East features the first single, "Daft Funk," East's ode to the GRAMMY-winning album he helped record with Daft Punk. The song features legendary session guitarist Ray Parker Jr., Byron "Mr. Talkbox" Chambers on vocals and uses a talk box to channel the French funk auteurs.
"When I heard ‘Daft Funk' for the first time, my world spun off its axis for a moment," Shore said. "I knew that Nathan had managed to capture something extraordinarily relevant and fun with depth in this song."
The "Daft Funk" (radio version) official video can be seen exclusively until Aug. 11 on the homepage of SmoothJazz.com. The video was filmed in Los Angeles and directed by Asher Levin of The Dot Content.
The current single, "101 Eastbound," was just shipped to radio and is an infectious and funky new take on a song originally released more than 20 years ago by the world-renowned jazz quartet Fourplay on their self-titled Platinum-selling debut album. (East is a founding member). The song, written by East and his brother Marcel East, features Nathan East on vocals and on his signature Yamaha BBNE-2 five-string bass and Michael Thompson on guitar.
Additional musicians on "101 Eastbound" include Ray Parker, Jr. (guitar), Rafael Padilla (percussion), Chuck Findley (trumpet), Andy Martin (trombone), Tom Scott (saxophone), Jeff Babko (piano, keyboard), Joel Peskin (tenor and baritone saxophone) and the late Ricky Lawson on drums.
Nathan East includes three songs co-written by East, a mix of instrumental and vocal compositions and imaginative rearrangements of standards including "Sir Duke" and "Overjoyed" (the latter featuring Stevie Wonder on harmonica), "Moondance," "Yesterday" (accompanied on piano by East's 13-year-old son Noah East) and "America the Beautiful."
East is one of the most recorded musicians in history and has played on more than 2,000 songs recorded by Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, George Harrison, Quincy Jones, Lionel Richie, Beyoncé, Babyface, Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Kenny Loggins, Anita Baker, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Justin Timberlake, Bob Dylan, Celine Dion, Al Jarreau, Herbie Hancock and many more.
