Kevin Toney

Piano Master KEVIN TONEY Celebrates 50th Year in Music with Expansive Concert Recording Documenting His Spirited Acoustic Legacy in Jazz

Album Features Daughter Dominique Toney, Azar Lawrence and Kamau Kenyatta

(PRODUCED BY KEVIN TONEY / EXECUTIVE CREATIVE PRODUCER – DON MIZELL)

Let it be stated – no shouted from the highest mountaintop – that the root source of piano virtuoso Kevin Toney’s dynamic musical artistry has ALWAYS been hardcore straight-ahead Jazz. As an A+ disciple of the Art Tatum’s, Oscar Peterson’s, McCoy Tyner's, Errol Garner’s, and Herbie Hancock’s of the idiom (as well as Detroit-born schoolmate of Geri Allen), Kevin Toney began his journey into the dexterous essence of Jazz absorbing the richness and excellence of its most exploratory players. Though as a child of the `60s, Kevin additionally enjoys and throttles the thrilling sounds of raw, unbridled Blues, Soul, and Rock ‘n Roll – and as a deeply spiritual man serves GOD in Gospel – Jazz is the music Toney has returned to time and time again to flex the freedoms and disciplines it offers in quantifiably equal measure.

This has never been brought into sharper focus than on his vibrant new concert CD, AN EVENING WITH KEVIN TONEY AND FRIENDS ~ JAZZ LEGACY. Recorded Live at the North Coast Repertory Theater in San Diego, the album indisputably places Toney within a setting and repertoire that solidifies his direct connection and lifelong dedication to America’s African American-rooted indigenous musical art form. Accompanying Toney are his daughter, singer-songwriter Dominique Toney, high school friend Kamau Kenyatta playing soprano sax on one selection, and the incomparable Azar Lawrence playing tenor sax on another selection.

“This record represents my highest pinnacle of musical expression to date,” Toney, a 2x Grammy© nominated and award-winning artist, exclaims. “I'm entirely uninhibited and freely pursue numerous musical avenues. The music covers a broad spectrum of elements - sometimes traditional, sometimes contemporary, yet always adventurous. I've wanted to make a live solo piano album for a long time. I also wanted to feature my daughter’s unique and highly exceptional vocal gifts. Together, we share great chemistry when performing.”

Bookending the album are quintessential solo piano renderings. First is his rapturous, tender (and humorous) exploration of Billy Strayhorn’s timeless gem “Lush Life.” Then there is a delicious romp through rascally ol’ Thomas “Fats” Waller’s flirty “Squeeze Me.” In between, Toney shares his compositional inspiration reveling in the singular joy of The Lord within a pair of numbers “Rejoice” (100,000 watts of toe-tappin’ sanctified soul) and “Happy Dance” (‘…and on the seventh day, GOD was sho’ nuff swingin’)!