Kiki Ebsen "Cool Songs Vol. 1"
Richie McDonald "Slow Down"

Sonny Axell "Ready"

Axe

Sonny Axell is a pianist-singer born 1982 in St Etienne, France, to musician parents. He showed great interest in music from a very young age, starting piano lessons at age five, then attending the National Conservatoire Primary School. It is indeed a rare thing that a child, younger than ten, shows such interest in jazz, boogie, and getting albums by Erroll Garner, Duke Ellington, and even Stevie Wonder and Earth Wind & Fire to be played in his bedroom...

The Director of the Conservatoire advised Sonny's parents for him to also attend jazz lessons at the adjacent music school, creating a precedent as later on the two institutions would combine. He took a few singing classes, but finally decided to self teach, whilst accompanying himself on the piano.

The first proffessionel contracts soon followed and he would eventually meet other musicians with whom he would affirm his own personal style.

Incontestably influenced by rhythm'n'blues and Motown, he appeared at many jazz clubs and private events during the next ten years, notably the opening act of the Casino Ruhl in Nice as a trio.

He met Sugarblue in 2007 and accompanied him on tours. Things then moved fast and Sonny decided to start work on his very own project.

Sonny presented his compositions to Pigsound studio in Los Angeles who agreed to support him on the project. Thus it was at the Sound Studios in L.A. that the final recordings took place, an intense collaboration which allowed the album to be finished in the latter months of 2010.

Mainly influenced by Stevie Wonder and Quincy Jones, the album "Ready" has just been released, with a showcase in Monaco, to critical acclaim.

Thanks to Peter Holmstedt at Hemifran

Sonny Axell: Ready

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