In the past year or two, a new wave of artists have been making their way into the smooth jazz charts, bringing with them their creative energy and fresh perspectives on the genre. To name a few, these artists include Vincent Ingala, Nicolas Cole, and Jonathan Fritzén, and it’s the latter artist I’d like to introduce to you today.

Towards the end of last year, Swedish-American keyboardist, producer and composer, Jonathan Fritzén released his fourth album as an artist on Nordic Night Records. Magical features eleven original tracks and a collection of impressive guests including Boney James, Jackiem Joyner, Paul Brown, Vincent Ingala, Malene Mortensen and Darren Rahn.

Magical covers a lot of ground with Fritzén’s eleven diverse compositions, hinting at everything from pop to smooth jazz to cinematic music and it more than exemplifies one of the new directions in which it seems contemporary jazz artists are heading. With Magical, Fritzén does an excellent job of composing music in the smooth jazz style. I was equally impressed with the film score style piece on the project, “Angels.”

Jonathan Fritzén was born in Stockholm, Sweden to a Swedish mother and American father. He got his start in music playing the drums, but then later added piano, bass, guitar, flute and vocals to his credit. His releases include Love Birds (2008), VIP (2009), Diamonds (2010) and Magical (2012). He has reached Number 1 on the Billboard charts with both “Diamonds” and “Magical.”

Get Magical on Amazon

Title: Magical
Artist: Jonathan Fritzén
Date: August 21, 2012
Genre: Smooth Jazz
Label: Nordic Night Records

Tracks:

01 Magical (feat Boney James)
02 Love Will Overcome (feat Jackiem Joyner)
03 Sweet Spot (feat Paul Brown)
04 Electric
05 Nostalgia
06 To the Top (feat Vincent Ingala)
07 Can’t Get You Out of My Mind (feat Malene Mortensen)
08 Turn Back Time
09 Nordic Night
10 Lullaby (feat Darren Rahn)
11 Angels

Get Magical on Amazon

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Published by Shannon Kennedy

Shannon Kennedy is a vocalist and saxophonist living in Southern California. She is author of "The Album Checklist" and the founder of Teen Jazz. She has been contributing articles to music magaizines and websites since 2004.