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JOYCE COOLING: COOL & SMOOTH, BUT
WITH CHOPS
Joyce Cooling has been popular with the contemporary jazz crowd since her debut CD, Playing It Cool, and its accompanying hit single "South of Market" (as in Market Street, San Francisco) first hit the airwaves in 1997. It also earned her a reputation as a "smooth jazz" (whatever that is) artist who actually had chops and whose music didn't display the iron poor blood lack of energy so common to "smooth" artists. It was clear that Cooling could play the guitar, even if her recordings didn't display every ounce of her chops. Joyce grew up in New Jersey and New York, and, as one might expect, absorbed a wide variety of music during her formative years. The word 'eclectic' is overused, but how else can one describe someone whose CD collection "contains Ornette Coleman, Ahmad Jamal and Bill Evans, but it also contains James Brown, Maurice Ravel, Jimi Hendrix and Aerosmith as well as music from all over the world. I like R&B. I like folk. I like heavy metal and headbanger stuff. I like punk. I like rap. I just like good music." Arriving in San Francisco in the 1980s, Cooling began to learn keyboards
and percussion. She worked on singing and songwriting, but hearing recordings
by Wes Montgomery brought her to the guitar, which she learned to play
by ear. Later in the decade she met keyboardist and songwriting collaborator
Jay Wagner. The two found they were very compatible as songwriters, and
have worked together ever since. Cooling was playing straight-ahead jazz
at this time, sometimes playing on Wagner's gigs as well, where they experimented
with more Brazilian grooves and played Manila, Guadalajara, and Cartagena.
Joyce worked with a variety of jazz musicians, including Stan Getz, Joe
Henderson, Airto, and Charlie Byrd, demonstrating her jazz abilities beyond
the shadow of a doubt. In 1997 she signed with Heads Up records and recorded
her first disc. When her Heads Up contract expired in 2000, she was brought to Verve Music Group's GRP label. Here she began work, with Wagner, on her third disc, Third Wish. For this album, she and Wagner worked up a diverse mix of tunes, including Brazilian-flavored samba grooves, funky jams, and romantic ballads. Besides her regular touring group, Joyce also included musicians such as Tower of Power drummer David Garibaldi, percussionist Peter Michael Escovedo, and Brazilian percussionist Helcio Milito. One track, "Mm-Mm Good" features guest vocals by Al Jarreau. And cooling wrote and sings her own AOR hit single, "It'll Come Back to Me". But Cooling hasn't forgotten that she's a guitarist first and foremost. Her instrumental prowess is still on display over much of this CD, and that is what will probably keep fans coming back for more. Although some might be put off by the "smooth jazz" label and production of the album, there is substance here behind the pretty sounds. In Joyce's own words: "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." The title, by the way, refers to the three wishes usually granted the finder of a genie in a bottle. "When you get to your third wish, you go for the big one" says Cooling, "you really want to make it count. And I really wanted to make this CD count."
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