Jo Ann Daugherty - Bring Joy (2016)

From my heart and hands to your ears—I offer music intended to *Bring Joy* into your life, and into a world that we all know needs more joy. This music is about feeling and heart, sharing the vibe the three of us (plus friends on a few tracks!) have developed over the years as we’ve played these tunes together during our trio’s long run in Chicago.

The road to this record was not a straight one; as with most adventures, there were some interesting detours. My jazz-playing life has included some wonderful opportunities—playing the Chicago Jazz Festival as both a leader and sideman, appearing at our city’s finest clubs, performing in France, recording, traveling, living a life steeped in creative music. But I wasn’t about to say no when the opportunities came up to be conductor on the Jersey Boys national tour, to arrange and music-direct a couple of TV specials, and to play and conduct Motown the Musical, just to name a few diversions. In the meantime, some years flew by while I traveled in and out of the jazz scene here in Chicago. I remember telling recording engineer Craig Bauer that I’d be finishing this album up while on the road. He laughed and said something like, “Oh, really?” Translation: Fat chance. And he was right. Life intervened. More life, and more music, than I could have ever imagined, for which I am exceedingly grateful.

This album includes songs of Lorin’s and mine, plus compositions by titans I admire from wildly differing styles: Abdullah Ibrahim, Stevie Wonder, and Herbie Hancock, all of whose music is laced with enormous energy and light. How lucky we are to inhabit the universe at the same time as these artists.

My wish is that you encounter this music—while you sit down and relax, or while you do what needs to be done, or maybe even while dancing around a little—and be infused with joy, from us to you.