 Carol was recently interviewed by the Atlanta Music Grapevine (Melanie Siewert). You can read the article directly on their website. Be sure to subscribe to the Atlanta Music Grapevine. We are reposting the interview below. Artist Spotlight: Carol Albert Flies Into The Future Everyone loves a comeback story and Carol Albert is just that. She has been a part of the Atlanta jazz music scene on and off for the past 25 years, but with her new album she is seeing renewed success. Music has always been an important part of Carol Albert’s life. A native of Hiram, GA, she grew up in a musical family. They would gather around the piano and play and sing together. Her father played the fiddle and her grandmother the piano. Carol started playing the piano around the age of 5 alongside her grandmother. “I initially began playing with my grandmother who had had her right arm amputated due to cancer. She would show me the right-hand parts, and I would play while she played the left-hand parts.” Carol was active in music from playing piano and singing with the church choir and in the chorus at school. As a child, Carol says “my fantasy was to play on the concert stage.” Carol studied classical music in college and has been in the music industry on and off for the past 25 years with significant success. Carol’s influences range from Bach to Stevie Wonder, Al Jareau, Billy Joel, and Elton John.  "I am very proud of getting my album finished...to have it finished and so well received has been great!" After graduating from college, she began playing a wide variety of music in bars, clubs and hotels. Baldwin Piano added her to their Artist Roster list alongside Billy Joel, Bruce Hornsby as well as many other distinguished artists. She also played with a number of bands around Atlanta – including playing multiple events during the Atlanta Olympics. She landed a record deal with a German company and recorded two albums. She toured Europe on solo tours on four occasions and also played on a cruise ship around Europe. While Carol has a beautiful voice, it is her piano and composition that distinguishes her from others in the space. She has written and played across multiple genres. Carol states “I write a lot of different kinds of music. My current album best suits the Smooth Jazz genre format, but some of the pieces from the album also fall into instrumental music categories such as Ambient Chill, New Age Instrumental or Easy Listening. Some of my older works were marketed as New Age, Adult Contemporary, as well as Jazz.” When Carol sits down to write something new, she starts at her acoustic piano and begins developing a melody, often recording it on her iPhone. “Most of the time, I get ideas and capture them, and then I take the pieces and put them together. Or sometimes, it just flows. It’s seamless from beginning to end and I write the whole thing.” Once she has a basic melody, she moves on to embellish the melody with other instruments and synthesizer effects. For several years, Carol took a sabbatical from writing to focus on other parts of her life. After a few years away, she was invited to a Grammy® event where she connected with an old friend, Trammell Starks, and they began discussing putting out a Christmas album. They had begun selecting music and were planning to begin recording when Carol’s husband passed away. Carol had to step away for a time to deal with his passing, but she began writing again. “I wanted to use my music for healing and as a way to re-kindle my love of writing and producing.”  In late 2017, Carol released a new album, Fly Away Butterfly. The first single, “Fly Away Butterfly”, charted at #5 on the Billboard Smooth Jazz chart in early 2018, and her second single “Chasing Waterfalls” is currently climbing its way up the chart at #15. The album seems to reflect Carol’s transition into a new part of her life and the songs have deep emotions of both sorrow and joyfulness in the music and lyrics making the listener feel that the journey is just beginning. The combination of Carol’s voice, the arrangements and instrumentation of the music feels like climbing to the top of a mountain and seeing the other side. Carol was joined on this album by another leading Atlanta jazz musician, Sam Skelton. “Sam played every wind instrument on this album. He played the flute, all the saxophones soprano, alto, tenor, baritone – he plays it all. I am really fortunate to be surrounded by a very talented group of musicians and they have been very important to my success. I worked with Trammell Starks for production in his studio. He was very instrumental to my getting back into music after my break. He co-produced my last two albums; his talent and skills were critical to this project. I am very proud of getting my album finished. It was something that I had given up on, so to have it finished and so well received has been great!” "I write a lot of different kinds of music. My current album best suits the Smooth Jazz genre format, but some of the pieces fall into categories such as Ambient Chill, New Age Instrumental or Easy Listening. Some older works were marketed as New Age, Adult Contemporary, as well as Jazz." In the world of smooth jazz, Carol is a bit of a ground breaker. She recalls a time when she would attend conferences and be one of the only women in the room. “There is also an assumption in this space that if you are a female, you are a singer.” She says that “in some ways we have come a long way since then, but there are still few women in this space that are not purely singers. From that perspective, there is still a lot of opportunity for women beyond singing.” Carol has many project and plans in her pipeline. She will be performing in Las Vegas in April 2019 at the Smith Center at Myron’s Cabaret Jazz as well as shows in other cities being planned. She has a new album in development for release in 2019. She is also working on some collaborations with other artists. Today, you can find Carol writing songs, teaching music and playing a solo residence at Chateau Elan. Carol has assembled a group that will join her in performances of her new material, including Sam Skelton, Wayne Viar, Dan Baraszu and Joe Reda. She is excited about their upcoming performance at City Winery on July 15, where they will be playing both her new music and some of her older material. With all of the projects, performances, and recording she has underway, it is obvious that Carol is flying high again into her future.  Interview by Melanie Siewert courtesy of Atlanta Music Grapevine
Carol recently talked with WSJR Radio - listen to this interview below
Listen to the newly posted Carol interview with DJ Ray Bee Browne c/o of BrowneHill Radio.
Carol was interviewed by Rodney Arbona at the Grammy Red Carpet Party. Paulding native worked past personal loss to Billboard music charts By Tom Spigolon Jan 10, 2018 - Marietta Daily Journal   Carol Albert is on a roll. The Hiram native and longtime classical and jazz musician is on the Billboard music charts with her new Brazilian-influenced, smooth jazz release “Fly Away Butterfly.” The single “Fly Away Butterfly” entered 2018 in the top 10 of the Billboard Smooth Jazz chart. It also is at No. 4 on the Smooth Jazz Network Top 20 chart and was listed in the RadioWave Monitor at No. 1 Position for three weeks. She said she is surprised by the response to the song, which is featured in metro Atlanta on such stations as WCLK-FM 91.9. “I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet,” she said of its Billboard chart position. Three singles, “On My Way,” “One Way” and “Fly Away Butterfly” from the album charted on all major Smooth Jazz music charts in 2017. “One Way,” which is Albert’s take on an Al Jarreau hit, placed in the top 100 of the Groove Jazz chart for 2017. The Paulding County High School graduate said she used the word “butterfly” in the name of her latest CD after the winged insect became a symbol of hope to her after the 2014 death of her husband from a heart attack as he competed in a triathlon. “I did have a time of extreme difficulty with the loss of my husband and I think it’s important for people to hear that at any age you can pursue dreams you may have always had, that it’s never too late to pursue those dreams,” Albert said. In a Facebook post, she said, “I just wanted to share that it’s possible to reach a place you’d given up on years ago. “It’s possible to keep going when your life has crashed, it’s possible to be successful after you had given up, it’s possible to reach deep inside yourself and bring out your best work when you have felt there’s nothing left to give,” she said. Albert took up the piano and keyboards at the age of 5. She said she honed her craft by playing keyboards during church services in Paulding County and by accompanying her grandmother, who had lost an arm to cancer. “When I grew up, Atlanta was really far away,” she recalled. After studying classical music with Paulding piano teacher Kathy Tibbitts, Albert went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in music from Georgia State University. She worked as a staff accompanist at Georgia State, as well as at Agnes Scott College, Decatur School of Ballet and the Atlanta Ballet. However, Albert gravitated toward smooth jazz and new age because of her appreciation for such artists as jazz guitarist Michael Franks and Astrud Gilberto, whose “Girl from Ipanema” was a 1960s classic of the genre. She said she now favors performing music considered to be smooth jazz rather than the classic and progressive jazz of players like Chick Corea or Wynton Marsalis. The new CD “takes the listener on deeply soulful, exotic journey that artfully blends spirited, jazzy piano melodies, dreamy vocals, punchy percussion textures and hypnotic ambiences,” according to publicity from the artist. Her video for “Mas Que Nada” is on YouTube. The song is a remake of the 1966 hit song by Sergio Medes and Brasil 66. Smooth Jazz Network, which is a collective of jazz-oriented radio stations nationwide, nominated her for its “Best New Artist” award for 2017. She said the nomination is the biggest music industry recognition ars for her as a recording artist in many years. She received an Emmy Award nomination in 1991 for Outstanding Achievement and Individual Excellence for composing the music for the seven-part PBS Series “The Well-Placed Weed.” Albert also was a winner in the New Age Music category of the Global Peace Song Awards of 2016. She also celebrated being on the first round ballot of the Grammy Awards in the Contemporary Instrumental category both in 2016 and 2017. "Fly Away Butterfly” is Albert’s seventh release of music classified as either easy listening or smooth jazz. The first two CDs were released in the early 1990s by a German label, and the remainder in the U.S. — including two Christmas-themed releases — on small or independent labels. “Carol Of The Bells” from her 2015 “Christmas Mystique” release charted on Billboard as a most-added song in December 2016. SiriusXM’s Watercolors channel radio stations worldwide played the song during the 2016 and 2017 holiday seasons, she said. Albert noted music distribution and delivery methods have changed dramatically since her first CD release. The most common way to find her new CD is on Amazon and CD Baby or through her web site carolbertmusic.com, she said. A resident of Suwanee, she often tours Europe and South America when she is not composing music or teaching music. She is a regular performer at the Chateau Elan resort in northeast Georgia and performed at music festivals in Suwanee and the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Sandy Springs in the past year.  Here's a direct link to the article on the Marietta Daily Journal website
Repost from "The Current Hub" - archived post - By Tripp Liles, Editor. Carol Albert is featured in the Current Hub (a Wellstar Publication). Click the below images to read the Profile Interview on Carol.    Easy, Breezy on a Butterfly’s WingsInterview by Debbie Burke. Archived here  Highly listenable and chill, Carol Albert’s voice evokes light and air. Perfect that her standout CD is so visually oriented: images of butterfly wings, waterfalls and the sky. When did you first know you wanted to be a musician? I have always played the piano since I was around 5 years old. It never was a conscious decision to be a musician; it just evolved. I studied classical music until I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music from Georgia State. I decided not to teach school and started playing pop music. It’s astounding to learn your grandmother composed in her sleep. You too? Yes, just last week I was dreaming a song and I wanted to get up and write it down but I was having too much fun listening to it. I thought I’d remember it but I didn’t. Sometimes I can remember them and write them down. What was your musical foundation like from GSU and how did it prepare you to go into the industry? I studied classical piano and also orchestration, arranging, harmony, scoring and writing for chorus. All these are skills I have used in my writing, just not in a classical context. It also gave me the courage to perform and work hard. It was a difficult degree to get especially since I had a baby while I was still finishing school. It taught me a lot about being focused and productive with my time, and learning balance. Are you primarily a pianist or singer? I grew up singing and playing the organ in church and went to voice schools in the South learning how to shape notes and harmonies. I would not classify myself as a power lead vocalist but I blend my vocals and piano.  What inspired “Fly Away Butterfly”?
The butterfly became a symbol of hope to me after I lost my husband in 2014 to a heart attack during a triathlon. I kept seeing butterflies after he passed. They became a spiritual symbol to me. I went on a trip to Costa Rica and was hiking high up in the mountains and a blue morph butterfly landed on me. It wasn’t until a year later that I started seeing blue butterflies in everything like books, pictures, you name it. I looked for the meaning behind this and found they’re symbolic of new beginnings, change and awakening, as well as being good luck and a spiritual messenger . I was working on the track that I named “Fly Away Butterfly” and it just felt totally right, especially when I had Sam Skelton add the flute part that became the butterfly flying. I named the album “Fly Away Butterfly” because it made sense; all these pieces fit with this theme of movement and change. Was “Mas Que Nada” fun to record? “Mas Que Nada” was a blast!! It was the first track I put out as a single. I wanted to record a joyful, fun tune and the Olympics were taking place [in Brazil] so I decided on this song, especially since I used to sing it while I was touring in Europe. Talk about your personnel. They all live in Atlanta and are exceptional. I couldn’t have had a higher quality team to add character to each of my pieces. My Brazilian friends, guitarist Sander Pinheiro, bassist Chocolate Costa, and world-renowned percussionist Rafael Pereira gave an authentic sound for “Mas Que Nada.” My background vocalists helped the party get started with the fun voices of Alfreda Gerald, Cheryl Rogers and Tony Hightower. Darren English, a trumpet player from South Africa, gave a killer performance on “Mas Que Nada” and “Awakening.” I asked Brazilian voice coach Valeria Washington to help with my enunciation for authenticity. On other tracks, Sam Skelton, on flute and saxophone, rivals any other recording artist out there; Chris Blackwell killed every guitar track he played; Sam Sims played bass for “On My Way” and “Never Thought It Would Be This Way.” Joe Reda played “Across the Sky” and “Chasing Waterfalls,” I played key bass on “Fly Away Butterfly” and Trammell Starks is on bass on “One Way.” Several drummers added tracks: Scott Meeder, Wayne Viar, Rafael Pereira. Trammell Starks pulled everything together and made sense in the studio like a chef baking a cake. I co-produced the album with Trammell, working on arrangements, programming and developing the tracks, but he was the captain of the ship. All the ingredients were there for what I believe is a very heartfelt artistic work. What themes inspire you when you compose? Many things. I saw a young girl in Germany who was lying on the steps of a church with addiction issues and I wrote one of my favorite songs about her called “Sasha”: “The street is a lonely place for a girl as young as you.” I hope to get someone famous to sing it one day. I write songs about people, my children, nature, abstract ideas and emotions like love, sadness, disappointment and joy, and spiritual themes such as in “Dreamer” which won a Peace Song Award. Your favorite venue? The Fox Theatre [Atlanta]. A place you’ve always wanted to perform? Carnegie Hall. How do you take care of your voice? Honey and lemon with green tea. How would you describe your sound? I have a light voice that emulates South American voices like Astrud Gilberto. Your 1991 Emmy nomination was for the theme of what show? I think it was actually a PBS Show “The Well-Placed Weed” by Ryan Gainey. I did several shows for PBS Channel 30 during that time. What is the most challenging part of touring? Being away from home and all that’s familiar to you. It’s hard work but I make every day a sightseeing adventure. I make the most of it. Did you picture a specific location when you wrote “Morning Music”? I pictured a meadow with dew on the grass and the sun coming up while I was drinking my coffee. Was it a meaningful experience to play the Augusta golf course since they only began to allow women in 2012? I played a big hospitality event and I didn’t really think about any of the politics because there were so many people who wanted to have fun and party. Current projects? I’m working on new compositions. Some possibly for a new album, one for a good friend that I want her to sing on her own album. I want to write a symphony and I also want to score some of my originals for teaching purposes for piano students to perform. Future plans? To keep working until I can’t any more. Other comments? I am the happiest when I am in the pure state of writing a new piece, hearing parts and weaving the pieces together, dreaming of ideas to add the next morning, fitting it together like a puzzle. I love that place. For more information, visit www.carolalbertmusic.com. Photo courtesy of and with permission of the artist. (c) Debbie Burke 2017 Check out the wonderful interview from WVSU (Samford University). Listen here    The new single release by Carol Albert, "Mas Que Nada," has achieved critical acclaim. The recent Global Peace Song Award winner says a jazz musician is like a marathon runner who needs to stay the course in order to win. Here she chats about her own musical path to success, and offers readers tips on how to elevate their own jazz journeys.
All About Jazz: Please tell us how you decided to record your very engaging "Mas Que Nada." Is it a single from an upcoming album? Carol Albert: I performed "Mas Que Nada" in Europe in the '90s while working on cruise ships, and since it is such an upbeat, happy song, the audience always enjoyed it. Recently, after going through some personal hard times, I happened to hear the song again and suggested it to Trammell Starks, owner of Studiomagic in Atlanta. I even hired a Portuguese vocal coach in order to make sure I was singing the lyrics correctly. The result is a song that makes me feel happy every time I hear it. Yes, "Mas Que Nada" will be included on my next album, to be released in 2017. AAJ: How are you promoting your latest music? CA: Based on recommendations from other jazz musicians, I hired a great radio promoter. We are still in the process of our campaign. "Mas Que Nada" got the most added for two weeks in a row on the Billboard charts. We placed a couple of ads, with one just coming out now on Smooth Jazz Network. We did as much as we could to promote the single, even with a small budget. In addition, we are going to promote my Christmas album (Christmas Mystique) more this year. If you are not with a label, it's a one-stop shop, and you have to wear many hats. In my opinion, you have to get out of the box and do things differently. As an independent artist, what works for me may not work for the next person. You really do have to think on your feet. I do not have a very meticulous plan, and maybe I should. My goal at this point is to reinvent myself, get exposure, and get my name out there. AAJ: Some researchers have said that 90% of all digital music sales are lost to online piracy, which, of course, can make it cost prohibitive to even try to make a living in today's music business. How do you avoid the piracy issue? Are there steps you take to try to prevent crooks out there from stealing your music? CA: That is a question for someone who has more specific information than I do. I do the best I can, but I am in the same boat as everyone else. It is hard to stop piracy of your music. I don't think anyone has the answer for it. AAJ: Do you gig often, and does performing help you with sales? Is performing the main way you earn a living in music? Do you use the services of a booking agent, or do you book your own gigs? CA: I do perform frequently; I have a steady gig every Friday and Saturday night, where I sell my CDs and keep my chops up. I test out my new compositions on a live audience. Playing out is necessary, and I get creative on how to find ways to perform. I am always thinking, how can I make money in music? It is not always about recording. You have to be flexible, and think of various ways to succeed. I am fortunate to be able to say that I make 100% of my income from music. In the past, I have used booking agents while traveling in Europe. At this point, I am not using one. AAJ: How important is social media for album sales? Which of the various social media sites help your career the most? CA: I have been experimenting with Facebook for business by boosting posts. I just started doing it, but I have seen some pretty good results. I am still learning about social media and how it can benefit my music. I prefer Facebook over the other social media sites because it enables me to establish relationships and to build support networks between colleagues and other music makers. AAJ: Do you agree that jazz artists need to stand out from the crowd with their own style in order to gain mass recognition? If so, then how do you feel you stand out from other musicians in jazz? CA: Yes, I think that there has to be something special about the artist. The more authentic you can be, using whatever you have as your strength, can help you to succeed. For instance, I am not a straight ahead jazz player. The thing that sets me apart is that I blend elements of my classical training with different jazzy elements. I am able to use my arranging background to make songs sound special and different. AAJ: What do you feel are the biggest challenges jazz musicians face right now? CA: One challenge is to be a professional musician and make 100% of your income from music. Your income might come from teaching, or maybe from performing at corporate party gigs, playing in a mega church, and so on. Some players I know in Atlanta have other day jobs as well, but they keep going with their jazz. All the while, you have to keep up your chops as a musician. You have to love playing and keep that feeling alive in yourself.
Listen to the latest interview with Carol Albert on Hybrid Jazz
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