Mindi Abair
Why is life less ordinary for saxophonist/vocalist/composer Mindi Abair? Ask her fans from around the world — there’s not much ordinary about her. On Life Less Ordinary, her playful and sophisticated third release from GRP Records, Mindi Abair catapults her supercharged mix of pop, soul and jazz, — with its stellar melodies, insinuating rhythms, sultry sax, and seductive vocals — into the realm of the extraordinary.
Her 2003 debut CD, It Just Happens That Way, debuted in the Top 5 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart and remained in the Top 10 for 19 consecutive weeks. The hit single “Lucy’s,” was #1 on the airplay charts for a record-breaking eight weeks and Abair was hailed for leading a new movement in contemporary music. Abair has not only set sonic trends, but has broken all the boundaries as she continues to define the less traditional future of jazz.
For Abair, named the Best New Artist at 2003’s National Smooth Jazz Awards, it’s been a wild few years, and her 2004 follow-up disc Come As You Are — which dug into deeper emotional and stylistic territory while spawning two more hit singles — kept the momentum jetting skyward. Her songs have been featured on everything from Aaron Spelling’s hit “Summerland” to a Women in Jazz feature at the Grammys to Panasonic’s Jumbotron in Times Square. But as gratifying as these landmark career achievements are, that’s not what inspired her to view 2005 as a year in which she lived a “life less ordinary”.
