What Are You Waiting For? Colored Waiting Room Single Drops Friday!

Denise King

It’s here!  This week on Friday, January 20 we will release the first single from the CD The Colored Waiting Room!  This event will be a free download for a limited time only.  Let’s call it Free Follow Friday. The song is an arrangement of Oliver Nelson’s classic piece “Stolen Moments.”  My version features the delectable and infectious vocals of Denise King, a singer with an international presence in the jazz world. The track reimagines the song as a funky–spunky showcase in which jazz and neo-soul-like qualities collide.

DK in Action at Le Cochon Noir Jazz Club, Philadelphia

I met Denise shortly after I moved to Philadelphia in 1998.  As I familiarized myself with the jazz scene her name was mentioned over and over as one of city’s unique forces.  When I first heard her—well, all I could say was wow! With a vocal arsenal that includes sonic and spiritual references to everyone from Dinah Washington, Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, and Joe Williams (yes, I said it, she can belt a blues like nobody’s business), she has as much range as anyone around.   Her wide knowledge of repertoire spans blues, jazz, R&B and gospel.  And her stage presence—a mix of disarming charm and grab you by the nap of your neck stomp and romp—rivets her audiences from set to set and gig after gig.

DK and Jamal Parker, Le Cochon Noir Jazz Club owner, during her 2011 Toy Drive

It was a great pleasure to contribute some piano tracks and arrangements to her CD Fever a few years ago.  With this work she throws me back a solid with her stellar, sultry, and understated riff on “Stolen Moments.”  Think a combination of world traveler and the round-the-way girl. When you hear this piece—a song that moves her a little outside the zone that her many fans around the world have come to expect—you’ll understand why she was recently nominated this past year in the category of Best Jazz Vocalist in Europe. Her chart-topping new release No Tricks features some of her original compositions and was recorded in Paris. Ms. King, a tireless promoter of good jazz and strong community, also has a weekly radio show on WPEB 88.1.

And that’s not all.

Honoree F. Jeffers Spends a Few Moments in the Colored Waiting Room

Poet and Professor Honoree Jeffers came by the Colored Waiting Room and contributed a little something more to ponder.  Her words, a meditation titled “Stolen Moments” as well, responds artistically to what she hears as the sentiment embodying the song, the performance, and the singer making the artifice tick.  The author of three books of poetry and the writer of the popular blog Phyllis Re-mastered, she brings it short and sweet, laying down the laws of love grown-up style: “I like to steal sometimes. But I do give back, willingly.  And I want, but I never tell. No one has to know.  That’s what makes us grown.”  You see? Like that: smooth, whispered, assured.   Her riff on the single will appear on all my social media the day the single drops. Stay tuned for Denise King’s and Honoree Jeffers’ great contributions to The Colored Waiting Room CD project. What are you waiting for?  Take a quick look for what you’ll experience, and we’ll see you on JANUARY 2o!