Boz Scaggs Prepares Jazz Concert DVD
August 19, 2003 - If you are a big Boz Scaggs fan and would like to be part of musical history there are two concerts you may want to check out later this month. Scaggs two night stand at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall will be taped for a TV special and subsequent DVD. The first show on the 26th will feature Scaggs performing his entire new album "But Beautiful - Standards: Volume 1." The next night the singer will perform all the other highlights of his long career including selected tunes from his smash "Silk Degrees" album from 1976 right up to his Smooth Jazz "Dig" CD from 2001. Scaggs plans to take a short break before launching into another short tour in September and October. "But Beautiful" Scaggs Jazz standards album is currently charting on Smooth Jazz Now's top 25 chart.

October 2003
2-5 - New York, NY - Joe's Pub
7 - Red Bank, NJ - Count Basie Theatre
8 - Glenside, PA - Keswick Theatre
9 - Harrisburg, PA - Whitaker Center
10 - Atlantic City, NJ - Trump Taj Mahal
12-14 - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club
17 - West Palm Beach, FL - Carefree Theatre
18 - Tampa, FL - Tampa Theatre
19 - Melbourne, FL - Maxwell C. King Center

Aug. 6, 2003 - Grammy Award winner Boz Scaggs is on the road with a few concert dates supporting his "But Beautiful - Standards Volume 1" album. The tour kicked off in Las Vegas last week and includes gigs in Arizona and California. Scaggs' back up band includes pianist/arranger Paul Nagel, saxophonist Eric Crystal, bassist John Shifflett and drummer Jason Lewis. "But Beautiful" is Scaggs' follow-up to 2001's "Dig." "I thought it might be interesting to rework some of my songs with a more progressive treatment," he said in a statement. "Things opened up so nicely in rehearsal; I suggested we do a standard. We did the show, we liked it, the audience liked it, and that's where it all began."

June 13, 2003 - Some say Boz Scaggs was doing Smooth Jazz a long time before the term was ever invented. Die hard fans remember his bluesy days with an early incarnation of The Steve Miller Band but most remember Scaggs from his 1976 Pop/Jazz album "Silk Degrees." The album produced three top 40 hits including "Lowdown" which reached #3 on the charts. This weekend Scaggs will headline the 25th annual Playboy Jazz Festival and present his great body of work leading up to his new Jazz standards album "But Beautiful." The singer seems aware of the plethora of standards albums on the market but says he, like everyone else was sold on the strength of the songs. Scaggs told the L.A. Times "It began a few years ago, when I sang 'My Funny Valentine' as part of an acoustic set I was asked to do for a benefit. When I saw the reception I got, it piqued my imagination to look further into standards." As for his connection with Playboy Jazz? "My first jazz album," he says, "was the 'Playboy Jazz [Allstars Album, Vol. 2]' of 1958. I guess I was in the seventh or eighth grade at that time. I don't know where I got the record, but it had the winners and the runners-up. Gerry Mulligan, can't remember who else, but I could probably still hum every solo from every winner in every category." This year's festival has its most diverse line-up in years with traditional favorites like Dave Brubeck plus Smooth acts like Scaggs and Boney James. The event will also feature world performers like Afro-Cuban jazz of conga master Poncho Sanchez and Cuban Salsa singer Issac Delgado.

 

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