Jarrard Anthony

Jarrard Anthony

    Official Biography (courtesy of Jarrard Anthony)
     
    To evolve, elevate, enrich, edify, encourage—these signifying words pepper singer/songwriter/producer and multi-instrumentalist Jarrard Anthony’s conversation whenever he describes his goals as a seeker, teacher, student, husband, father and artist. Each time the doer presses the curve of a guitar against his body or sits behind an ivory row, he is digging to unearth the stories and melodies of a shared humanity and spiritual source. Jarrard Anthony wants to connect. He wants listeners to experience the exchange of mutual energy, the transfer of love, knowledge, intimacy, and appreciation through music —the lifeblood of Anthony’s own healing brand of soul. His latest full-length project, Ready to Live, brings him closer to his goal of connection. 
     
    After a stint with R&B group, Personal Preference, at age 19, Anthony went solo, releasing the Central Virginia hit single “So D-vine.” His #2 UK charting, indie EP debut, The Dream (Thermite/Stonegroove), soon followed. Anthony’s early recording success overseas opened the doors for relationships with famed producers Nate Smith, Bob Baldwin, Nolan Doran, and Joe McMinn, who worked with Anthony on the 2004 critically acclaimed LP, Don’t Sleep…Just Dream. An international “Don’t Sleep…Just Dream” tour followed, taking Anthony on global stages and rejecting several major label deals, earning him the moniker, “Mr. Independent.” Over the next five years, Mr. Independent launched a label (JAP Music & Entertainment Group), landed distribution with Bungalo/Universal, appeared in numerous magazines (VIBE, Black Beat, Blues & Soul), and shared stages with Silk, Monica, Cam’ron, Amerie, The O’Jays, L.L. Cool J, Howard Hewitt, Lyfe Jennings, Anthony Hamilton, The Gap Band and Pieces of A Dream, among others—artists as varied in their genres and approach as Anthony was becoming in his own. Genre-hopping and hybrid-blending jazz, classic soul, urban R&B, electro- and acoustic soul, Anthony released the Urban Music Award nominated S.ynergistic E.nergy X.change (The Movement), the acoustic Diary of a Messenger, and concluded an 11-year run with a 2009 Decade of Dreams compilation, garnering a minor radio hit with “Damn Sista” and a 2009 SoulTracks Readers’ Choice Awards nomination for Male Vocalist of the Year. That same year, Anthony retired from the industry to focus on family, marriage, and spiritual development. 

    Still, unable to resist the call to express the glowing energies surrounding his life and love in his season, Anthony begin to put pen to paper over the next two years, hugging his guitar’s familiar body once more in preparation for new birth, for Ready to Live.
     
     Soon Anthony’s first album’s producer, composer and drummer Nate Smith (Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley), was back behind the boards co-creating the doo wop harmonies of “Something Like Love,” the stepper’s R&B of “Cloud 10”, and the true-to-life hip hop of “Never See Her Again.” Indie star, Darien joined Anthony in a rare male duet over a bossa nova groove for his tropical ode to love, “All Around the World.” Enter talented Virginia newcomer Patrice Covington and jazz legend Lonnie Liston Smith on Anthony’s flirty, woodwind laden “I Love U,” a tribute to fellow Virginian Weldon Irvine. Together, Smith and Anthony travel over a wide terrain of stories and layered musical genres—from house to jazz to ‘70s soul—without ever losing Anthony’s trademark smooth soul vibe. Its harmonious results reflect the joy and balance Anthony finally achieved in spirit, love and life, ready to share again, Ready to Live. 

    For booking information contact: fiona@thebloomeffect.com
     
    On Japmeg Records distributed by NIA/.Eone