Joyce Cooling

One of the Bay Area's premier guitarists and most popular performers for over a decade, Joyce Cooling's Playing It Cool is a dazzling showcase of her eclectic approach to music. Drawing upon a wide palette of influences ranging from acclaimed Brazilian guitarist/singer/songwriter Joćo Bosco to outstanding Texas bluesman Stevie Ray Vaughan, a typical Cooling performance usually combines jazz, pop, funk, and R&B with a smattering of worldbeat. Playing It Cool, her Heads Up International debut album, produced and co-arranged with her longtime musical partner, keyboardist Jay Wagner became a favorite of smooth jazz world enthusiasts. The first radio single, "South of Market," soared to number one in the country on both the Gavin Report's and Radio & Records' smooth jazz charts holding the position for five consecutive weeks. Cooling was nominated for the Gavin Smooth Jazz Artist of the Year, named the Jazz Trax Debut Artist of the Year, and was voted Best New Artist in the smooth jazz category of a Jazziz Readers Poll. Playing It Cool, which is an enhanced CD has several standout tracks: the chugging "Carrie" that sounds similar to a Paul Hardcastle track; the snappy "Coasting"; "Aint Life Grand" with an acoustic bass tone that has rumbling stride similar to the bass line on Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean"; with solid blocked piano chords and bluesy, Wes Montgomery-like guitar lines, "Before Dawn" is in the same vein; and Cooling takes a turn at vocals on "Simple Kind of Love," which has a Michael Franks flavor. Considering the great variety of music, her large family surrounded her back East in the New York City area, Cooling couldn't help but have such a wide love of different types of music. Her mother was a classical buff, one brother was a hard rocker, a cousin was...