This new double album is my best work to date. It is always a pleasure to work with my dream team band. On African Skies we explore some of my original compositions–as well as compositions from some of my favorite musicians who compose.
Warren Wolf is so amazing here on this recording–you will truly enjoy his musicianship. Howard Wiley as always, brings his unique sound and chameleon like approach to music. Mike Olmos‘ sound and intensity is at tip top form. Matthew Clark–the only pianist I know that has studied music completely–is such a pleasure to work with on multiple styles of musics and the joyful beats we create together. Last but not least, a musical mentor of many–including me–John Shifflett earned some producer credit on this recording–as a bassist he was the glue that holds our sound together.
After the music was recorded, Dan Fieszli and I worked on making the mix of the recording transparent and true to each artists sound vision–although Dan did do a great job adding his touch of audio engineering wizardry to make the music jump out of the speakers.
Dan also mastered the music for digital downloads while I employed the famed jazz vinyl mastering genius George Horn to cut lacquers for me before sending African Skies to the Record Technology folks in southern California–the former recording studio industry capitol of the world.
Hristo Vitchev and I then worked on the graphic design which took us many attempts to get it right for African Skies–as we designed a graphic layout that I could live with for multiple future album releases. All part of the process for developing a record label brand and logo for Joyful Beat Records.
Are you planning to release a compact disk of this music?
Hey David,
I pressed some promo cds that I sent to jazz radio and press folks. There are 10 of the 19 tracks on this cd. If you send me a street address–I would put a cd in the mail addressed to you for $10 made payable to me through PayPal at
Best regards,
Jemal
Hello! I want to buy your African Skies album on vinyl! How can i do this? I live in Russia. And how much will the delivery cost? Waiting for an answer ! Sincerely, Alexander!
Hi Alexandr,
Thank you for you’re interest in our music. I have shipped music to Russia. The cost to ship from me to you is $35 (dollars). With the cost of the album being $22, that puts us at $57.
Believe it or not, the cost to ship one, two or three albums is approximately the same. If you purchase 3 copies of African Skies (at $66), I will ship two copies.
That way you can gift the second copy or try selling it to someone to recover some of the cost of the shipping.
Best regards,
Jemal
Hello Jemal! In general, I will transfer you $ 57 via PAY PAL. And you send me a vinyl album African Skies album! Delivery address can you get from my PAY PAL account? Or will I have to send you an address for delivery? And the tracking number will be? Waiting for an answer! Sincerely, Alexander!
Alexandr,
Okay, sounds good. Yes, when you pay through PayPal, I do normally see a shipping address of the customer. You can send me an email with full name and your shipping address if you would like me to ship the vinyl record to. You can email me this information at the same email that you pay through PayPal (listed below).
Please send PayPal money to :
I will take a picture of the tracking receipt once I put it in the mail, which would be the same business day you purchase the record.
Best regards,
Jemal