Nicholas Brancker, began his musical career at the age of three when he was given a toy piano by his parents. He began playing songs from the radio and record player. Nicholas' natural ability was then honed with formal training. He went on to graduate from the University of the West Indies where he majored in philosophy . While at University he continued his passion for music and landed a gig touring with Raf Robertson where he met Eddy Grant. This led to touring most of Europe and the Middle East. Upon returning to Barbados Nicholas opened his own recording studio, where he pro-duced local acts like Square One and Krossfyah, while catapulting into the international spotlight by receiving a Grammy nomination for a jazz piece on flutist Sherrie Winston's album "Love Is". Nicholas went on to work with many notable artists such as Roberta Flack, Cyndi Lauper, Simply Red, and Shabba Ranks. Nicholas' debut al-bum," In Contempt" is definitely a showcase of his musicianship, songwrit-ing skill, and production wizardry.

"...as smooth and as potent as a Caribbean cream liquor..." ( New York Daily News)

Eddie Bullen, started performing at the age seven. It was considered a serious undertaking in his household. Eddie practiced the organ while his brother Johnny honed his skills on drums. The then twelve year-old Eddie and brother commenced a busy tour of the hotel circuit in Grenada, where the Bullens were born and brought up. . Eddie frequently found himself playing in jam sessions, at his father's music store, with musicians like, the legendary Les Paul, Raf Robertson, Kingsley Et-tiene, pianist Clive Zander and interna-tional vacationing musicians that were looking for somewhere to jam. Those sessions gave me international experi-ence without leaving the islandÓ, Eddie says . Since his move to Toronto in 1980, Eddie has received a Juno award for producing Liberty Silver's hit, "Lost Somewhere Inside Your Love", a Juno Award nomination for Sway's, "Hands Up" theme music for Club Med's highly successful TV commercial as well as arranged the theme song for the 1996 Canadian Gala for the Atlanta Summer Olympics. Eddie has also worked alongside artists like Canadian Jazz singer Salome Bey, Dan Hill and Miske, a songwriter on Michael Jack-son's Invincible album, along with a host of others. Eddie also has a studio where he spends most of his time, composing, arranging, producing, and working with artists like Deborah Cox, Byron Lee, 11:30, Oleta Adams, Demo Cates, Bill Sharpe, Michelle Wright, Maestro, David Tyson, Andrea Lewis, Eric Mercury, Anslem Douglas writer of the hit song, "Who let the Dogs Out", Alex Walker and Glenn Lewis. While producing albums Eddie managed to produce two albums of his own, "Nocturnal Affair" in 1996, a Smooth Jazz recording, featuring Glenn Lewis, Demo Cates, Colleen Allen, Luis Mario Ochoa, Neville Pe-ters, Ben Heywood, and "Make It Real", which features Maurice Gordon, Rich Brown, Phil Dwyer, Hilario Duran and Tony Zorzi.

Wilson Laurencin was born in England to West Indian parents and moved to Canada with his family when he was eleven years old . Growing up Wilson was influenced by many artists like Chick Corea and Weather Report and Clive Zander. Not limiting himself to any specific genre of music madeWilson's appreciation diverse spanning to include Jazz, R & B, Calypso, Rock and Pop Music. Wilson studied drumming, at the Drummers collective in New York City, where he was exposed to some of the best talent in the world. Wilson was aware of talent around him and took full advantage of the opportu-nity. Wilson has worked with many great talents like Ben E. King, The Phi-losopher Kings, John Patitucci, The Dream Warriors, Deborah Cox, The Mighty Sparrow, Rich Little, Dave Koz, Burton Cummings, Richard Marx, and Len.

Currently, you'll see Wilson nightly on Canada's number one late night talk show, "Open Mike" with Mike Bullard, as the drummer for "Open Mike" House Band.

www.bigbeatmusic.com • wilson@bigbeatmusic.com

"I think Arturo is destined to be regarded as a true musical giant..." (Monty Alexander)

Arturo Tappin, the saxophon-ist in the group, began his musical ca-reer, with formal training at Berklee College of Music. Described as a cross between the Teddy Pendergrass and Kenny G, Arturo is definitely the smoothest, sexiest horn man the Carib-bean has to offer. Influenced by the roots culture, Arturo made headway with his roots-reggae Jazz fusion album, for his debut recording and increased the hype with a repeat performance on his second album entitled, "Java", both licensed by Pooneer Record in Japan. His dynamic live performances and his reputation for putting on explosive shows led him to perform at the Edin-burgh Festival, Soho Jazz Festival, Mi-ami AT&T Caribbean Jazz Festival, St. Lucia, Antigua, Curacao, St.Vincent, Grenada and Barbados Jazz Festivals, Arturo continued his live performance schedule at Bob Marley's Birthday Bash, James Bond Film Festival in Ja-maica, and Trinidad's Independence Day celebration in Miami. Besides touring Jazz festivals the world over, Arturo has performed at social engage-ments as well including a performance for past United States President, Mr. Bill Clinton.

Arturo has played and recorded with many artists including Red Rod-ney, Milt Hilton, Monty Alexander, Ernest Ranglin, Jacky Terrason, Roberta Flack, Courtney Pine, Al Hare-wood, Roy Haynes, Ellis Marsalis, Oliver Jones, Doc Cheatham, Pete King, Matuaburuka, The Wailers Band, Third World, Mikey Benner, Dennis Bovell, Sandra Cross, Luther Francois, Bongo Herman and Dean Frasier. Arturo attributes much of his success to a former tutor at Berkelee College of Music, Bill Pierce, uncle Elombe Mot-tley, and his parents for their constant love and support.

It's no wonder NEWA is so pungent artistically. The collaboration of these acclaimed Caribbean musi-cians add dimension to the world of smooth Jazz.

The self entitled album, features the Smooth Jazz, with all the complexity needed to spark interest and delight. From the mid tempo to fast, from in your face to the more relaxed composi-tions, there is something there for eve-ryone. There are nine originals to sat-isfy your every mood, incorporating elements from R&B , Latin, Calypso, Funk, Soul and even Rock. NEWA the album also includes a groove based version of Dave Brubeck's "Take Five". The album in it's entirety embody the charisma and fortitude necessary to pro-pel this group to great heights.

When asked about the direction of the group and what impact they would hope to make on their audience. The response was surprising, "We hope to bring jazz out of the closet and into the light,". A reference made to Jazz in-dustry . "Many people are Jazz curious but don't have a vehicle." Eddie says. We hope to entice the traditional en-thusiast as well as incorporate the new jazz fan. It is that interest that will close the gap between Jazz and the mainstream. Keeping that in mind this group is de-termined to make smooth Jazz that much NEWA. -Patrice Benn