It is the groove, it is the funk ….it is the new sound that everyone will be talking about. The New York City based band Leslie Casey & Company is about to break out with their first full length CD under the independent label Juni Records. The music is a combination of jazz, neo soul and old school Motown R&B. The sound is fresh and captivating and will surly grab its audience with its feet stomping sound.
The band was formed in 2007 by Leslie Casey, an accomplished singer from Pittsburgh, PA, who has been performing since the age of four. After winning several talent shows and making the rounds in Washington, DC, Leslie came to New York to take her singing career to another level. Her very first four song EP was aptly entitled "Take a Chance", and was released in March of 2007. This showcased Leslie’s soulful and powerful voice to sing different genres of music, from hip-stomping neo-soul to straight head jazz. The highly successful EP was played on internet radio in London, the Netherlands and the United States. Her sound has not only led her to a new audience it also led her to becoming the background vocalist to Jac & Jill a female contemporary pop group from Queens, NY and Shayla Edmonds in her Motown Revue.
With the success of the CD, Leslie was able cross paths with several talented musicians in the city that played with her at several venues. This included Cornelia Street Café, Smalls Jazz Club, The Annex, Mobay, Yippie Musuem, The River Room in Harlem, The Shrine, and Twin Jazz in Washington, DC. The band played a combination of R&B classics and jazz standards with an edger sound of their own. As the band began to play more venues, the next phase was to create original music that would set them apart from other bands in the city.
While performing, Leslie began to collaborate with her Musical director and sax player Casey Howard, a skillful and experienced musician, who has played with several diverse bands, including Moonspank and Kokolo. He has performed all over the world with such greats as Isaac Hayes, Taj Majal, Soulive, the Parliament, the Misfits and Ernie Watts. Casey’s performing was raw and energetic, the right balance for this up and coming band. Plus, his ability to take a song from another genre and arrange it to the Leslie Casey & Co sound was invaluable to the group.
From the beginning, Leslie and Casey had a mutual understanding where they thought the band should be and formed a professional partnership to make that happen. They found that with Leslie’s ability to write songs and Casey’s ability to arrange music, the two of them began to create the new music and retool the band for success. Along the way Casey was able to recruit exceptional musicians such as bass player Darren Lipper, drummer Ryan Fitch and keyboard player Nathan Kaplan to round out the new sound.
The CD which will be entitled "Let’s Play" will be out in August of 2009. It is being produced and engineered by Greg Saracino, one of the founders of the Rock band Moonspank, at his studios in Westchester, NY. The CD is going to showcase original music written by Leslie and a song written by Acoustic artist Bradlee Burtner. It will also include a few remakes that will have the band signature sound.
It is a CD that will certainly get the attention of the listening public. Watch out for this new and exciting band because you haven’t seen anything yet!
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