Into Your Heart by Tom Schuman

09 Mar

Written by Norm Breest
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In the past ten years, the number of major and intermediate record companies have dwindled due to consolidation. That means that many performers who did release material on…

In the past ten years, the number of major and intermediate record companies have dwindled due to consolidation. That means that many performers who did release material on some of those labels have been eliminated. Twelve years ago, keyboardist Tom Schuman released his debut CD Extremities on one of those kind of labels. Since that time, many of his fans were wondering if he was going to release a CD of his recent music. Since the consolidated record companies did not come to him, his wife Yvonne got him to release newer material on his own. I wonder why those companies missed Schuman.

Tom Schuman's new release Into Your Heart shows just how versatile he is. The twelve tracks on the CD show how versatile a keyboardist Schuman is, showing strength and power in the uptempo numbers and emotion and control in the softer tracks. Schuman wrote all the material on the CD and his writing style shows how important it is to keep each track fresh throughout the piece.

On Into Your Heart, Schuman only uses a percussionist and a vocalist on a number of tracks. David Charles adds percussion on Quality Time, Shinjuku and Third Spirit and vocalist Dottie Jones brings feeling to Find a Way and Past Stories. Using supporting players sparingly is a good way for Schuman to show his versatility and to show perspective major record companies how they missed the boat by not signing him. Tom Schuman is a great writer, keyboardist, producer and arranger. It is the record companies loss.

Additional Info

Artist / Group Name: Tom Schuman
CD Title: Into Your Heart
Genre: Smooth Jazz
Year Released: 2002
Record Label: JazzBridge Music
Musicians: Tom Schuman (piano, keyboards), David Charles (percussion), Dottie Jones (vocals), Jacob Garcia (baby vocals)
Label Website: http://www.jazzbridge.com
Rating: Four Stars