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"Love and Beauty", a new CD where Boston's Stan Strickland steps front and center as featured vocalist, is now available on the Hawkline Records label. "Strickland is one of the best vocalists we have," says Eric Jackson, host of "Eric in the Evening," Boston's WGBH radio show. Yet this is the first recording to present Strickland's charismatic talent as singer, rather than as the sax and flute man whose gutsy sound and sparkling technique so many Boston listeners and fellow musicians have come to love and respect. Key "Stan Strickland" into any search engine, and you'll get plenty of hits for this busy musician, dancer, actor, teacher and recording artist. You'll find he's played horns with the likes of Yusef Lateef, Pharaoh Sanders, Herbie Mann, and the Boston Pops. He's toured in such far-flung places as Holland, Russia, India, New Zealand and the Caribbean. He's been featured, again as horn man, on recordings by Bob Moses, Marty Erlich, Mama Tongue, Webster Lewis and more. You'll also get lots of hits about Stan in his other guises. (And you'll wonder, can all these be about the same man? The answer is yes.) Stan holds regular teaching gigs at Berklee, Longy, Tufts and Express Yourself, a program for special needs kids. His one-man stage show, "Coming Up For Air - An Autojazzography", a collaboration with writer/director John Lipsky, just had its debut in March (2005) with Boston Playwright's Theatre at Boston University. And we could go on... Putting Stan's amazing voice before the public on CD was long overdue, says Hawkline president Tom Levin. Levin sees Strickland as carrying on a tradition launched by Louis Armstrong and furthered by such greats as Nat King Cole and Ray Charles, a tradition in which fine jazz instrumentalists carry over a certain musical punch and joy into the vocal realm. "I don't think it's any exaggeration, says Levin, "to say that Stan Strickland has a similar kind of warmth, vocal talent and connection with his audience." For this first vocal CD, Levin has chosen to emphasize Strickland's incredible range of style and vocal sound, with cuts like "But Beautiful" emphasizing his jazz artistry, to "The More I See You" adding loving elements of soul and funk to the mix. As Eric Jackson puts it, "...tune after tune invites the listener to move and dance." This release of Love and Beauty also offers plenty of fine Strickland horn work, with Stan on tenor, soprano sax, flute, and bass clarinet. Trumpeter Tiger Okoshi also weighs in on several cuts, including a sweetly lyrical "Over the Rainbow". The rest of the band includes Brad Hatfield on piano, Wes Wirth on bass, Jun Saito on drums, Danny Schwartz on percussion, Jim Bridges on guitar and Jeannie Gagne on background vocals on "Love and Beauty". Check out the artist's website: http://www.stanstrickland.net Track List: 1. Love and Beauty 2. Softly as in a Morning Sunrise 3. The More I See You 4. Shadow of Your Smile 5. The Song is You 6. God Bless the Child 7. But Beautiful 8. Teach Me Tonight 9. I Only Have Eyes for You 10. Over the Rainbow Other Genres:
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