Mazey’s solo project is now multi-‘Dimension’-al
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Kevin Mazey's COVID-19 music project has a follow up.
Mazey, longtime keyboard player for The Houseband and a musician who has played with Link and other acts since the 1980s, released "Dimension," a collection of mostly instrumental jazz-rock in 2021 that showcased his talents as a composer.
This project is now known as Kevin Mazey's Dimension, and the new release is "NRG."
"I’ve always composed my own music, but a lot of the time I would compose for the band I was in and for the format of the band," Mazey said.
"My compositions were geared towards those formats, but I was always writing things that were more me, leaning towards the jazz-rock style. It was time to express myself."
"Dimension" drew on material he'd written over several years, while the ones on "NRG" were composed post-"Dimension."
Mazey brought back some of the musicians from the last record. Michael Gismondi, his Houseband-mate and former member of the Michael Stanley Band, is on bass. Paul Wolf Christensen, who played with Mazey in Link and was a member of Michael Stanley & the Resonators for years, is on saxophone.
This time drum tracks were split between Roger Lewis and The Houseband's Carmen Speziale, and guitar parts came from Michael Baranski and Bill Warner, who also produced the record.
"Mop the Floor Rag" includes a banjo part by Gary Coole from Broken Reins. "Here and Now" features vocals by Avonlea Wensel, and it was co-written with Kirsti Manna, a YSU graduate and Nashville songwriter whose work has been recorded by Blake Shelton, Big & Rich and Tiffany.
The album features a range of styles and influences, from smooth jazz to ragtime to Latin influences.
"I think that this record maybe is a little bit more progressive, not so that it’s out of the reach of the typical jazz-rock type listener, but just a little bit more progressive," Mazey said.
That approach also influenced how the album was recorded.
"This time I wanted to go for a live drum feel," Mazey said. "On the last record, we did the drums via MIDI. We did live drums in the studio (for 'NRG'), and I thought that that was important this particular time around.
"The other thing I think I wanted to make sure that I had maybe a little bit more glossy sound. That’s hard to explain, but I think I just wanted it to be a very, very refined sound. I thought the last record sounded really good, but this particular one takes it a step further."
The full album is available through Mazey's website, kmdimension.com, for $15 on CD or USB card, a move driven by the fact that newer cars no longer have CD players.
He's taking a different approach with streaming, releasing a new single on the last Friday of each month.
"Hello There!" was the lead single.
"I hemmed and hawed between several ones," Mazey said. "I really liked the Latin feel of the song, and I also liked the fact that there was both a piano solo and a sax solo in the track. That sealed the deal for me."