Three smooth jazz greats are set to hit the shores of Kauai in late October in a benefit concert for the YWCA Women’s Shelter. The weekend of jazz will bring three great artists to the South Shore on Oct. 27,
Three smooth jazz greats are set to hit the shores of Kauai in late October in a benefit concert for the YWCA Women’s Shelter. The weekend of jazz will bring three great artists to the South Shore on Oct. 27, followed by a North Shore concert the next day, Oct. 28.
All this week bios of the artists will appear in the pages of The Garden Island.
Save the newspaper for those days with artists’ bios because starting Thursday, BB Choi of FM97 Radio will start giving away free CDs of the artists and tickets to the concerts.
Listen to FM 97 between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. beginning Thursday and if you are the designated caller and can answer a question based on the information contained in the bios, you can win a free CD or a set of tickets to the concert.
The first jazz musician to be profiled is Euge Groove.
Born Steven Eugene Grove, the saxophonist/songwriter took on his moniker full-time in 1999 after more than 200,000 downloads of his song “Romeo and Juliet” launched him to the top of the mp3.com charts.
He used the name Euge Groove (Euge – a nickname from his mother-in-law, and Groove – a common mispronunciation of his last name) to stand out from the more than 100,000 songs that the “head of its time” company had on its site. Not only did he catch the attention of fans, but he also caught the attention of Warner Brothers records.
His debut album immediately shot to the top of the Billboard charts, produced three top five radio singles, and landed him JazzTrax’s “breakthrough” artist of the year and a “best song” nod from the Oasis Smooth Jazz awards.
Since his Y2K debut, Euge has produced three more discs (currently two for EMI Music), landed nine straight Top-Five singles at radio (four number ones), and has remained on the Billboard Top 40 Contemporary Jazz album charts for the last 120 straight weeks.
His current release, “Just Feels Right” is one of the Top 5 selling saxophone albums of this past year.
Euge got his education at the famed University of Miami’s school of music, but got his “schooling” playing for bands like the Tower of Power, Huey Lewis and the News, Richard Marx, Joe Cocker, Tina Turner, and others. Euge was Tina’s saxman during her 2000 farewell tour, which was the highest grossing tour of the year.
Such “real life” training has helped shape Euge’s live show into one of the highest energy and in-demand acts in smooth jazz today.
Tomorrow, keyboardist Gregg Karukas will be featured.
