Painted Heart Music in Albion is still celebrating their newest jazz CD, Generations: A Legacy of Jazz, which was released in March.
“It’s a great project,” Paul Hosford said. “It has brought three generations of our family together.” Hosford had always wanted to record his father’s original music, but never had the time. Then his father, Frank, entered a nursing home. “And I realized that if I didn’t do it soon, I might not get it done at all.” Hosford explained. And so they figured a way to record the original songs, without his father ever leaving the nursing home. “We bought him an electronic keyboard that could hookup to a laptop computer, and we would take it to his room in the nursing home,” Hosford said. “So he would play his parts, and we would record them on the computer, and then we would drag everything back here, and I could add the string bass, drums guitar, and then I could add other instruments to it.” Then the third generation asked to join. “We sat down and he said ‘Dad, I would like to play the vibraphone with you and grandpa.’ And I was delighted because here was the third generation joining with us.” Thomas, who was thirteen at the time, joined in and is featured on all fourteen of the original jazz tracks. “Growing up with it made me realize that I like this,” Thomas said. “And that I want to play music, play jazz music, and especially with my father and grandfather.” Frank Hosford passed away before he could see the release of the CD. “His spirit definitely lives on with this,” Paul Hosford said. “And I know he was just as happy as I was that Thomas was taking up the family musical tradition.” Two of the songs on the CD have been featured as downloads of the day on a website called all about jazz. “Not only were we able to capture this music, we were able to do a good enough job of it, that the jazz world has taken note and there is people out there who actually like it.” The CD came out in March and Painted Heart Music is Celebrating their 30th year this year. They plan to put out another CD of their favorite songs. Their music can be purchased at paintedheartmusic.com. |