Joyce Cooling Listen to & Buy "Third Wish" "It's really the people that make what we do possible", she says, "and I've always considered the musician-listener connection to be a symbiotic relationship in a sense – we depend upon one another.   Smooth Jazz with a brain.

Sometimes, all it takes is one incredible song for a renowned local performer to become an overnight national sensation.

Bay Area jazz fans had known and loved Joyce Cooling as one of the region's most dynamic and popular guitarists for years when her San Francisco inspired hit single, "South of Market", and her debut CD, Playing It Cool, took the contemporary jazz world by storm in 1997. Both soared to #1 on the Gavin Report and Radio & Records NAC/smooth jazz charts and remained there for five consecutive weeks as the accolades came streaming in. Cooling was a nominee for Gavin's Smooth Jazz Artist of the Year, was named Best New Talent (Smooth Jazz) in the Jazziz Reader's Poll and was an easy choice for Artist of the Year by the nationally syndicated radio show, Jazz Trax.

If Joyce Coolings latest release, "Third Wish", expresses any type of musical philosophy, it is the belief that commercial appeal and creativity are not mutually exclusive. "I don't want to record music that will never awaken any taste buds or make the listener feel anything. That would make me very uncomfortable. I would just get out of the business altogether before I would record music that made me feel unfulfilled. Thankfully, I'm nowhere near feeling that way."

With "Third Wish", Cooling wanted to provide contemporary-jazz that was accessible and groove-oriented but not without substance and creativity. And there's no doubt that she has accomplished her goal; even though the set has the makings of a major contemporary/smooth jazz hit, it also has meat on its bones. If Third Wish is smooth jazz, it's smooth jazz with a brain.

Source: www.joycecooling.com

 Featured Artists      Kirk Whalum         Brian Culbertson          Nestor Torres           Joyce Cooling