The success of the single “Rise Up” indicates smooth jazz fans will find Darryl Alexander’s new album worth the wait.

The Youngstown native, who now lives in Boardman, has been getting airplay on terrestrial and internet radio stations with “Rise Up.” It peaked at #9 on smoothjazz.com’s Streaming 100 chart, and it remains in the top 100 two months later.

Alexander, primarily a drummer and percussionist who also plays keyboards, is joined on the song by Pittsburgh’s Kenny Blake on saxophone, Cleveland’s Pete Tokar (an engineer and producer who’s worked with Gerald Levert, The O’Jays, Teddy Pendergrass and others) on piano and Kent’s Wilbur Krebs on bass.

“It has very good, melodic acoustic piano, and I think that, mixed with Kenny Blake’s sax, (connected with listeners),” Alexander said. “He (Blake) does some real sultry stuff and then some more avant garde, esoteric stuff with underlying R&B-ish, hip hop colors within it. I just think it’s a good mixture and really resonates with a lot of people for a lot of different reasons.”

Those aren’t the only guests who appear on the record. Saxophone player Jackiem Joyner, who’s had eight top five singles on Billboard’s Smooth Jazz chart (including three #1s) was featured on the first single, “Seen It Before.” Jeff Kashiwa, who played saxophone for years with The Rippingtons, can be heard on several tracks.

Local players include Warren native Alton Merrell and Youngstown’s Jeff Green and Fred Ervin, who recently died.

Alexander said he follows the same philosophy as Miles Davis by surrounding himself with great musicians.

“I’m just very, very open to their creativity and what they bring,” he said. “Just knowing that they’re going to do something that you didn’t plan but more often than not, it’s going to come out very, very good. I’ve been blessed and fortunate to be able to work with this caliber of musicians.”

The full-length album, titled “Morning Calls,” should be available on CD and for streaming in late January or February.

“With the title, the thought is, when we wake up in the morning and our feet touch the ground, it’s an opportunity to really do some meaningful things that day, whether it’s our communities or our families,” Alexander said. “When we rise, when morning calls, in terms of the course of our day, let’s go for the positive and not for the negative.”

If it hadn’t been for COVID-19, the album might have risen several years ago. The record was about 70% finished when the pandemic started. When he was able to get back to recording, Alexander revisited the songs on “Morning Calls” with fresh ears. Many still sounded great to him; others he tweaked and changed.

One of the songs he’s looking forward to people hearing is “Sunset at Seven.”

“It’s a bossa nova,” Alexander said “It features Alton Merrell on it and Kenny Blake. I’m really excited about that because it’s a little different. I’ve done bossa before, but just their interplay on it, I’m really excited about that one.”