Sal Cracchiolo, trumpeter of Grammy Award Winning Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band has teamed up with singer, Melanie Jackson to incorporate a wonderful blend of jazz standards and originals done with a Latin touch.
Their CD "FLY", available at amazon.com and CDbaby.com, features well-known studio legend, Gary Foster on alto sax, Poncho Sanchez, on three cuts and a host of fantastic rhythm players such as Jose Papo Rodriguez on percussion, Joe Rotondi and Jim Szilagyi on piano, Rene Camacho and Putter Smith on bass, and Kendall Kay on drums. Larold Rebhun, sound engineer for the X-files and the Ghost Whisperer, also helped Sal and Melanie to produce this project.Sal and Melanie came together because of their love of jazz, Latin jazz, and Brazilian music. This music has been carefully chosen and crafted to create moods of love, laughter and fun - all served up just for jazz lovers. This CD was nominated for a Latin Grammy, under the Latin Jazz category in 2002.Sal has performed on numerous albums with the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band, jazz legend Bobby Shew, Brian Setzers Big Band, and many albums with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra backing Diana Krall, John Pizzarelli, Gladys Knight, Joss Stone, Jamiriquoi, and others. He has also toured worldwide with Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Poncho Sanchez, Brian Setzer, and Tom Jones . He has played with Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Cal Tjader, Stanley Turentine, Tito Puente, Mongo Santamaria, Arturo Sandoval, Eddie Harris, and Celia Cruz. He has performed for and with these artists at the Monterey, Playboy, Concord, and Nice Jazz Festivals plus many others throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, Mexico, South America and Japan. IMelanie was rated L.A.s fourth best local jazz act by Music Connection magazine in 1979. In 1980 she moved to New York and sang with various big bands, performing at The Cookery and Micheals Pub. Later she moved back to L.A. and headed for the studio, recording commercials and network promos NBC, Disney, CBS, Fox, Playboy and Warner Bros. She has toured as a background vocalist throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, South America and Japan, working with such acts as REO Speedwagon, Latin artist Jose Luis Rodriguez on CBS International, and Leonard Cohen.Sal and Melanie and performed for The King of Thailand, Pope John Paul II. They have played for the Playboy Jazz Festival, the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and have traveled as far as Tahiti to share there music.
In January 2006, Sal and Melanie flew to Bangkok, Thailand to perform for the American School of Bangkok in a tribute to the King of Thailand and to raise money for the tsunami victims.
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