Every now and then, amid the smooth jazz staples of sax, guitar and keyboards, comes an artist who dares to be different. One such performer is harpist Mariea Antoinette and another is violin player Brooke Alford.
Brooke released her debut album, ‘Expressions’ in 2007 and followed it with the EP ‘The Viosocalist’ five years later. Although never a performer to chase radio play that all changed in 2018 when she teamed with Bob Baldwin to deliver the single ‘Closer’ that clambered into the top fifty radio play chart. It is a track that (as a quiet storm radio edit) can now be found on Brooke’s latest CD, ‘Heaven On Earth’ that opens with another Bob Baldwin collaboration, the stunning title track.
‘Heaven On Earth’ the album has already been heavily trailed, first by the single ‘Shine’ that Brooke co-wrote with George Freeman and again with another Alford Freeman composition, the appropriately titled ‘New Day’. In August 2022 ‘On The Move’ became the third Alford Freeman creation to be released as a single while in terms of personal favorites ‘Feeling Love’ certainly gets the job done. It is a sophisticated and seductive number that finds Alford in the soulful company of vocalist Kelley Andre. Think Barry White, think the Love Unlimited and let the music take you there.
Elsewhere Alford enlists Grammy nominee Reggie Hines to co-write and produce both the ambient ‘Wanting More’ and ‘Cascade to the Congo’, an eclectic amalgam of sounds that is driven on to great effect by Hines on sax.
With eight original compositions ‘Heaven On Earth’ is very much all Brooke Alford’s own work yet she still finds space for a hip reimagining of the Michael Jackson hit ‘I Cant Stop Loving You’ that, (as a duet with Siedah Garrett) originally appeared on Jackson’s 1987 album ‘Bad’
‘Heaven On Earth’ is out now and comes recommended.