Joyce Cooling
| Joyce Cooling | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 31, 1969 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Smooth jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, singer, songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Labels | Heads Up, Verve, Narada Jazz |
| Associated acts | Jay Wagner, Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, Mark Murphy, Al Jarreau, Charlie Byrd |
| Website | www |
Joyce Cooling is an American jazz guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter based in San Francisco. Cooling has performed with Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, Mark Murphy, Al Jarreau, and Charlie Byrd among others.
Cooling was born into a musical family. Her mother, a music teacher, was a classical music aficionado.
After moving to California from New York in the early 1980s, Cooling began sitting in on the percussion classes of master Ghanaian drummer, C. K. Ladzekpo. Integrating the polyrhythms of West African music with her passion for melody and harmony, Cooling focused her attention on the guitar and proceeded to teach herself to play by ear.
Cooling met keyboardist/ producer Jay Wagner on San Francisco's Brazilian jazz circuit. Wagner was an original member of the popular San Francisco-based group Viva Brasil. Cooling joined Viva Brasil on a part-time basis in 1988 as a guitarist and background vocalist.
Cooling's and Wagner's immediate chemistry and shared passion for songwriting resulted in their first collaboration - the 1989 independently produced and released album, Cameo, which featured the other members of Viva Brasil at that time.
Together, Cooling and Wagner formed their own band in 1990 and continued performing and recording for the next six years. By 1996 they had completed their second self-produced album, Person2Person. While making its rounds to record companies, the album came to the attention of independent label, Heads Up International, who signed the duo to a two-record deal. They added four additional tracks and renamed the album Playing It Cool. The album was released internationally in the fall of 1997. Cooling's second Heads Up album, Keeping It Cool, was released in the spring of 1999. In 2000, Cooling and Wagner signed with GRP/Verve Music Group and released their fourth album, Third Wish on September 11, 2001. In October 2001, Cooling recorded "The Christmas Song" with Lee Ritenour for the 2001 GRP holiday compilation, Making Spirits Bright. In 2004 Cooling and Wagner released their fifth album, This Girl's Got To Play, on Narada Records.
Cooling's sixth album, Revolving Door, was released as Narada Jazz merged with the Blue Note label in 2006. Although Cooling had been a long-time member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Revolving Door signaled Cooling's official involvement with NAMI as a national advocate for the organization. Joyce has performed at NAMI national and regional events across the country and Cooling and Wagner donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of their albums to NAMI.
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Wikipedia