Najee
Encyclopedia
Urban jazz
Urban jazz is the fusion of smooth jazz and R&B/hip-hop music. Urban jazz usually contains strong R&B percussion and bass lines. A few of the better known urban jazz artists are Boney James, Ronny Jordan, Nick Colionne, Wayman Tisdale, Najee, and Paul Jackson, Jr.Some of the more successful...
saxophonist and flautist.
He attended New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with George Russell and Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard was an American jazz pianist and composer who also played trumpet and saxophone, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and stride to free jazz...
.
He subsequently performed and recorded with singers including Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan , frequently known as the Queen of Funk, is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the frontwoman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. While still a member of the group in 1978, Khan embarked on a successful solo career...
, Freddie Jackson
Freddie Jackson
Frederick Anthony "Freddie" Jackson is an American soul singer. He was an important figure in R&B during the 1980s and early 1990s...
, Will Downing
Will Downing
Will Downing , is an American singer-songwriter and producer. Downing is known in the contemporary jazz and R&B music genres for his rich baritone vocals, and his interpretations of R&B and pop classics that stretch back to the early 1980s...
, Phil Perry
Phil Perry
Phil Perry is an American R&B singer, songwriter, musician and a former member of the soul group The Montclairs from 1971 to 1975.- Biography :...
, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, Patti Labelle
Patti LaBelle
Patricia Louise Holte-Edwards , better known under the stage name, Patti LaBelle, is a Grammy Award winning American singer, author and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry...
, Phyllis Hyman
Phyllis Hyman
Phyllis Linda Hyman was an American soul singer and actress.-Early years:Phyllis Hyman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and grew up in the St. Clair Village, the South Hills section of Pittsburgh...
and Jeffrey Osborne
Jeffrey Osborne
Jeffrey Linton Osborne is an American funk and R&B musician, songwriter, lyricist, and former lead singer of the band, L.T.D.-Early life and career:...
. He has recorded and performed with instrumentalists Marcus Miller
Marcus Miller
Marcus Miller is an American jazz composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Miller is best known as a bassist, working with trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Luther Vandross, and saxophonist David Sanborn, as well as maintaining a prolific solo career...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
, Larry Carlton
Larry Carlton
Larry Carlton is an American jazz, smooth jazz, jazz fusion, pop, and rock guitarist and singer. He has divided his recording time between solo recordings and session appearances with various well-known bands...
, Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
, Charles Earland
Charles Earland
Charles Earland was an American jazz composer, organist, and saxophonist in the soul jazz idiom.-Biography:...
, Paul Jackson Jr. and George Duke
George Duke
George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...
.
As a solo artist he came to prominence with "Najee's Theme" in 1986. His greatest hits album, The Best of Najee, was released in 1998.
Discography
- Najee's Theme (1986, EMI/Capitol)
- Day by Day (October 1988, Capitol)
- Tokyo Blue (February 1990, CapitolCapitol RecordsCapitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
) - Just an Illusion (June 1992, Capitol)
- Live At The Greek" with Stanley Clarke, Larry Carlton and Billy Cobham [July 1994 [Sony]]
- Share my World (October 1994, Capitol)
- Najee Plays Songs from the Key of Life: A Tribute To Stevie Wonder (November 1995, Capitol)
- Best of Najee (November 1998 Blue NoteBlue Note RecordsBlue Note Records is a jazz record label, established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis. Francis Wolff became involved shortly afterwards. It derives its name from the characteristic "blue notes" of jazz and the blues. At the end of the 1950s, and in the early 1960s, Blue Note headquarters...
/Capitol) - Morning Tenderness (November 1998, Polygram)
- Love Songs (2000)
- Embrace October (2003, Encoded Music)
- My Point of View (2005, Heads UpHeads Up InternationalHeads Up International is an independent jazz and contemporary instrumental label located in Cleveland, Ohio.Founded in 1990 by Dave Love, Heads Up International has gained international recognition for its contribution to the world of contemporary instrumental music...
) - Rising Sun (2007, Heads Up)
- Mind Over Matter (2009, Heads Up)
Billboard Charts
Najee's Theme- Top Contemporary Jazz Albums No. 1
- Top Jazz Albums No. 8
- Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 12
- The Billboard 200 No. 56
Day by Day
- Top Contemporary Jazz Albums No. 6
- Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 23
- The Billboard 200 No. 76
Tokyo Blue
- Top Contemporary Jazz Albums No. 1
- Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 17
- The Billboard 200 No. 63
Just an Illusion
- Top Contemporary Jazz Albums No. 5
- Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 25
- The Billboard 200 No. 107
Share My World
- Top Contemporary Jazz Albums No. 2
- Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 23
- The Billboard 200 No. 163
Songs from the Key of Life
- Top Contemporary Jazz Albums No. 6
- Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 67
Morning Tenderness
- Top Contemporary Jazz Albums No. 2
- Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 65
The Best of Najee
- Top Contemporary Jazz Albums No. 15
Love Songs
- Top Contemporary Jazz Albums No. 23
Embrace
- Top Contemporary Jazz Albums No. 7
- Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums No. 82
My Point of View
- Top Contemporary Jazz Album No. 1
"Rising Sun"
- Top Contemporary Jazz Album No. 1
"Mind Over Matter"
- Top Contemporary Jazz Album No. 2
- Billboard Jazz Album No.4
"Sweet Summer Nights"
Number 1 Smooth Jazz Song Billboard