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EDEN BRENT
Something Cool
Released: March 2003
Catalogue: RR040
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| Tracks
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- Midnight Train To Georgia
- I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water
- Send Me To The 'lectric Chair
- Ain't Nobody Gonna Be Your Lonely Fool
- I Can't Seem To Lose This Memory
- South Africa
- Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye
- Simple Geometry
- Something Cool
- Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
- We've Already Said Goodbye
Download mp3 of South Africa from SAmp3.com
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| Musicians
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- Eden Brent: vocals, piano
- Donnie Brown: electric bass
- Mike Dill: drums
- Chuck Lawson: double bass
- Kevin Lewis: alto saxophone
- Dawn Hopkins: engineering and mixing
- Brad Blackwood: mastering
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| Press Release: February 2006
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Eden Brent, blues songstress from Mississippi wins Blues Foundation International Blues Challenge 2006
Eden Brent first made South Africans look up from their TV dinners when she appeared on Valiant Swart's documentary on kykNET "Veertig dae deur die Delta." As a result of Valiant's visit to the Delta, Eden got invited to perform at the Aardklop Festival 2002. By popular demand thereafter she was also invited to perform at KKNK 2003. Eden can find her way blindfolded through a piano and she sings with the passion of smooth blue warmth with an almost bewitching energy. Her CD "Something Cool" was released by Rhythm Records in 2003 – exclusively in South Africa.
The 22nd Annual International Blues Challenge was held January 2006 in Memphis Tennessee. Eden Brent walked away with first prize: a remarkable achievement as 130 acts from 33 states in the US and 7 countries participated. Organized by the Blues Foundation, affiliated blues societies from around the world held local and regional blues challenges to determine the participants for the event.
When Eden sat to play in the finals, she discovered the electronic piano didn't work. Nonplussed, she simply walked over to an upright piano on the stage and began her set without a microphone or stool, winning the hearts of the audience.
"What's funny is that when I got to the event, I noticed this old honky tonk-looking upright. So I said, 'Oh good, we've got a real piano.' Then somebody said, 'No they're bringing one in, a digital model.' So I thought it was poetic justice that I ended up having to use the upright."
Her voice was a cross between Dinah Washington and Janis Joplin. This, combined with her unflappable attitude that the show must go on even though the keyboard died the minute she got on stage, was enough for this Greenville Miss to outperform the other acts.
"It was a combination of her whiskey-soaked voice, her solid piano playing and the fact that she didn't whine when there was a problem made her a winner for all of us," said noted blues musician Fruteland Jackson, one of the judges. "She got the job done. She was a trouper."
Read more at www.Blues.org
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| Review
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SA Rock Digest Issue #195, 24 March 2003
An album by a Mississippi songstress on the Digest? How come? Well, Eden Brent is currently in South Africa for her appearance with Valiant Swart on the "Rainbow Blues" show at the KKNK. And to sing about South Africa, the country she loves so much. Read on...
'Something Cool' is Eden Brent's debut CD, but hey, this gal she sure ain't no beginner. Eden Brent was born on 16 November 1965 in Greenville, Mississippi, but she had this cool piece of work recorded at Sounds Unreel Studio in Memphis, Tennessee and she also produced it. The gentlemen who made this piece of art possible with her, are Donnie Brown on electric bass, Mike Dill on drums, Chuck Lawson on double bass and Kevin Lewis on alto saxophone. Engineering and mixing went through Dawn Hopkins, while the mastering was & well & truly mastered by Brad Blackwood.
Eden first made people look up from their TV-dinners when she appeared on blues broer Valiant Swart's TV series, 'Veertig Dae Deur Die Delta'. The unsettling way she can find her way blindfolded through a piano, her sunny smile, her dance in the setting sun, her stunning voice - like the colour of nutmeg, and of course her gentle rapport with old Boogaloo Ames*, playing and singing alongside him on the piano while Valiant was strumming away on the guitar. A truly unforgettable scene.
So it's quite normal to want more from Eden. Lo and behold, here's 'Something Cool', a mix of slow deep intense blues, here and there a crisp jazzy beat, and honest words from deep within Eden's heart. Something rather astounding can be found in Track 6 - 'South Africa' - a song dedicated to the country she recently met, the people, her footprints through the land. It speaks to you. Other tracks from her heart are 'Ain't Gonna Be Your Lonely Fool', 'We've Already Said Goodbye', the frisky cool 'Simple Geometry', and 'I Can't Seem To Lose This Memory'. Lift your bourbon an' ice to many more tunes like these.
Eden also does her magic quite langourously with 'I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water' and the succulently slow 'Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out'. At the end of this one, she sends the piano out - first to thrash you, then smooth your trenchcoat, and finally she sets you off to Neverland with the blue voice that sees everything.
Yes, Eden beckons you closer - to come on the 'Midnight Train to Georgia'. But she'll bring you right back with 'Send Me To The 'lectric Chair'. And you'll stay in her world of smooth blue warmth and bewitching vocal cords - simply because you want to.
(Carina Laubscher)
*Eden dedicated this CD to her dear friend and mentor Boogaloo Ames, who died in February 2002.
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| Press Release
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A native of the Mississippi Delta, Eden Brent is known for rousing piano boogies and raspy vocal ballads. With her repertoire of hundreds of jazz and blues standards, Brent performs at festivals, nightclubs and special events throughout the Southern United States and around the globe.
Brent received her Bachelor of Music from the University of North Texas, but her sixteen-year partnership with the legendary pianist Abie "Boogaloo" Ames
(1918 – 2002) was her most intensive study of music and earned her the nickname, "Little Boogaloo."
She was awarded the Mississippi Arts Commission Folk Arts Apprenticeship in 1993 and is currently included in the Mississippi Artist Roster. She has performed on Capitol Hill, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the British Embassy in Washington; the Waldorf- Astoria and Symphony Space in New York City; and was featured at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. She has performed for international audiences in England, Austria, Switzerland and South Africa.
She stars in the documentary, Boogaloo & Eden: Sustaining the Sound, a co-production of Mississippi Educational Television and Cypress Bend Productions. The award-winning feature, which airs nationally on PBS affiliates, documents her long partnership with mentor Boogaloo Ames. She was introduced to South African television audiences in the 2002 KykNet documentary series, Forty Days In the Delta, and she appeared at Aardklop later in the year.
Brent performs at Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees in April and London's Dorchester Hotel in May.
Her debut release, Something Cool, is currently available on Rhythm Records.
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