2/25/24

The new Paul Colombo Group record "Mabrouka" has just completed recording and is being mixed/mastered, and will be sent to get some cd's made and also sent to the streaming services and radio stations. We have recorded 10 songs in two blocks of sessions - two days in January 2023 and two days in February 2024.

The first record, “Rio Crystal”, was #1 in Downloads and #1 in Streams on mpe.com, an international poll, in April 2021. That record still gets thousands of streams every year. We are thrilled and thankful that the music is still being heard all over the world every day. We also received many glowing written reviews and plays on radio stations internationally. “Jazzweek” reports on radio play and we were in the top 200 and on the charts for 5 months. There was a lot of good will put out there from our first record that continues to this day.

“Mabrouka”, which means “blessed”, continues the path established from our first record and moves us ahead. The same band is featured on four tracks - besides myself on guitar, Ron Thomas is on keys, Andy Alonso on electric bass, and Chris Lōser is on drums. These are the January 2023 recordings. Also, Tom Strohman played fantastic flute on the track “JB”. The February 2024 sessions had the trio of myself, Ron, and Chris but added upright bassist Steve Meashey. Of the ten songs on this record, nine are written by me and the other is a Beatles cover. The original songs take us further along the road of different jazz styles - straight ahead, ballads, funk and a jazz waltz. On this record we have added free jazz and pop/jazz/funk. The song “JB” is on the more pop side of jazz and is hopeful for radio play with Tom's incredible flute playing and an orchestration. This is one end of the many varied sounds on the record. The title track “Mabrouka” is a Latin/African fusion styled track with an uptempo feel and a great groove courtesy of Chris and Steve. Ron bookends the jazz waltz track “Ali” with incredible improvised choruses that are beautifully conceived and played. I never could have thought how this track would end up when I wrote it. And that is just a few of the songs…

I have totally paid for the first record and the recordings and mixing/mastering done to this point of the second record by myself. I am here to ask you to help me take this to the finish line financially. I am asking you for $5000. This will go towards the graphic art work fees, finishing, duplicating, and, most importantly, the promotion of “Mabrouka”. I would like to make this record have such an impact that it will go top 100, top 50, top 10!, on “Jazzweek” and allow us to play on larger concert stages wherever they may be. This music and band can play at the highest levels - we are all full time, experienced, professional musicians. The live band, which includes Andy, Chris, myself, and Kirk Reese on keyboards, brings this music to life when we're on the stage. The scope of this music has no bounds - we're all excited and ready for the next stage and challenges that lie ahead. We feel really good about what we're doing. Promotion is the key - getting this music out there and having the right people open the doors for us to move through. And I am asking you to be part of this project and help us reach this next level. Thank you so much for any consideration!