Joyce Grant - Surrounded by Blue (2020)

This cd brings together the soulful vocal stylings of jazz/blues singer Joyce Grant with producer Doug McKeehan to present a musical journey through a range of songs that showcase Joyce's versatility and artistry in making a diverse playlist her own. Like Duke Ellington said, there are two types of music, good and bad, and this cd is about making the case that 'good' music is not dependent on genre. Sometimes jazzy, sometimes bluesy, a latin feel here, a gospel feel there, always soulful, this album is a stylistic bouquet that trusts the listener to not be stuck in a box, that a music lover does not need labels ti appreciate when something good is being presented. From re-imagining well know classics like "Cry Me A River" and "Help" to introducing original one day to be classics such as "Surrounded By Blue" and "Green Samba", this is an album that will hold up to repeated listenings.

Joyce Grant, the great-great-niece of famed ragtime composer Scott Joplin, determined at an early age that she was going to be a singer and songwriter. Born in Texarkana, Arkansas, the town where Scott Joplin was raised, Grant moved to Oakland, California as a child, where she started singing with the North Oakland Baptist Church Youth Choir. She spent her elementary and high school days performing in choir and musical theater. A mezzo-so prano with a voice like dark honey, Grant has been singing jazz in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 20 years For the past 10 years she has been the lead vocalist for City Swing, an 18-piece big band based out of San Francisco, and is a frequent participant in the West Coast Ragtime festival. As a songwriter she has put lyrics to several of Scott Joplin’s pieces and released the CD In The Morning (co-produced with Doug McKeehan , 2010), a collection of original songs ranging in style from jazz to blues to R&B. She currently lives in Vallejo, CA and performs regularly throughout the Bay Area, bringing her sensitive and powerful vocal interpretations to appreciative audiences that keep coming back for more.

Producer Doug McKeehan grew up in northeast Ohio and began playing the piano at a young age, first playing classical, then moving over to Beatles, Stones and Motown cover bands in junior high school. As a senior in high school he began listening to and performing jazz. Right after high school graduation, with the help of a local radio station manager, Doug was playing a steady engagement with his trio five nights a week. He continued his classical training at Oberlin College with master's studies at Kent State University. He has been playing jazz in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 30 years at such venues as Yoshi’s, Herbst Theater, the Great American Music Hall, and Grace Cathedral. Composing credits include several musical theater and independent film pieces, theme music for the NBC series "Anything for Love", and original music performed live for the Diablo Ballet’s production “Jazz Fever”. He is a long standing member of the award-winning world fusion group Ancient Future and as a producer has found a niche in the ‘world music’ genre, as well as for his own group, Air Craft. Doug has worked with Joyce Grant over the past 15 years and co-produced her 2010 cd, In the Morning.