*“We appreciate all the attention, but when your own people say you did a good job I get tears in my eyes,” said 15-time Stellar Award winning Smooth Jazz/Gospel pianist Ben Tankard about his nomination for a 50th NAACP Image Award.
Winners will be selected when it airs live on TV One from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Saturday March 30, 2019. Ben was nominated for his latest album release “Rise,” featuring Paul Jackson, Jr., Kirk Whalum and Marion Meadows.
Tankard’s “Rise” was released in late 2018 and aside from a nomination from the NAACP Image Awards the album reached #2 on Billboard’s Jazz Radio Chart. The project also features 1LV, Dejuan Williams, Kyle Schroeder, Unlisted Number and Neb Draknat. Ben Tankard is hailed as the “Godfather of Gospel Jazz”. He is a pianist, drummer, guitarist, percussionist and music producer. In 2018 he received the Stellar Awards’ “Hall of Fame” honor. He also has a reality show that has been airing on the Bravo Network, but will return on another network which Ben says is a more family oriented network.
“What I can say is it will be named “The Tankards’ or ‘Bigger Than Ever’,” Ben said about his reality show. “We finished season three with Bravo. We’re moving on …to a family oriented network, which I can’t tell you about yet. There was a comfort level with Bravo on CBS, but when God say do something… I was with Sony for 16 years and was scared to move out…but five years later I had the #1 record in the world of Jazz.”
Ben Tankard’s label Ben-Jamin is now distributed by Universal Music. He has worked with Gerald Albright, Fred Hammond, John P. Kee, Take 6 and Kelly Price – to name a few. He signed Yolanda Adams to his label when she was a 3rd grade teacher and credits her for bringing his music to a wider audience. To hear him play you realize why he is honored so much. His musical talent is unquestionably a gift from God. Once homeless Ben Tankard’s reality show “Thicker Than Ever: The Tankards” is very popular and shows the now wealthy Jazz mogul as a family man – husband and father. Ben and his wife Jewell started the Destiny Center Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 2002 – his father who was a minister and his mother a missionary.
My favorite selections of the “Rise” project include #1 “Rise”, the title track, which features Marion Meadows (sax) because it’s Smooth Jazz simplified and the combination of Ben’s keys and Marion’s sax playing gives it that rhythm that makes you want to “rise” to your feet. I also like #5 “Still Here”, featuring Dejuan Williams, because Ben’s key playing offers Praise & Worship in a Jazz format and I love the way the keys be hopping at the end, the superb guitar playing and the horns sound like honey bees. I like #6 “Afternoon Nap” featuring Kyle Schroeder (sax), because it starts with a Latin feel and ends with a Funky dance between the keys and the horn, which gives it that Jazz flavor. I like #8 a cover of Drake’s “PassionFruit,” because it’s an outstanding Smooth Jazz rendition of the track and I love the way the key playing takes off at the end. To end my list of favorites on the Ben Tankard “Rise” project is #9 “Unlisted Number,” featuring Unlisted Number, because of the drum roll in the beginning and throughout bringing back memories of my time serving in the military singing cadence as we marched – and we marched everywhere! www.BenTankard.org
SYNDICATED COLUMN: Eunice Moseley, has an estimated weekly readership of over ¼ million with The Pulse of Entertainment. She is also a Public Relations Strategist and Business Management Consultant at Freelance Associates, and is Promotions Director (at-large) for The Baltimore Times. www.ThePulseofEntertainment.com. EVENT: “Uplifting Minds II” Free Entertainment Conference annually in Baltimore (Saturday April 20, 2019) in partnership with Security Square Mall and The Baltimore Times and Los Angeles (October/TBD). Offering Entertainment Business panel and a talent showcase and competition (vocal, songwriting, dance and acting) with over $15,000 valued in prizes. www.UpliftingMinds2.com www.GoFundMe.com/Uplifting-Minds-II-Entertainment-Conference
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