BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//www.yoshis.com/oakland//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.10.5// X-WR-CALNAME:www.yoshis.com/oakland X-WR-CALDESC:www.yoshis.com/oakland X-WR-TIMEZONE:US/Pacific BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20130620T033053CEST-51118vxe1a@www.yoshis.com/oakland DTSTAMP:20130620T010653Z DESCRIPTION:\n\n\n\nHe was once hailed as the &ldquo\;new voice of ghetto s oul.&rdquo\; No more. Avant can now be hailed as the &ldquo\;new voice of modern soul.&rdquo\; The proof is in the listening as the singer prepare s to release his sixth album&mdash\;and first&mdash\;on Verve Forecast: & ldquo\;The Letter&rdquo\; (Dec. 7).\n\n&ldquo\;A letter is what you write to people to tell them what&rsquo\;s going on in your life\,&rdquo\; says Avant. &ldquo\;This album is a letter from me to my fans about what&rsqu o\;s going on in my life\, what&rsquo\;s going through my head and my str uggles as a man.&rdquo\;\n\nSimmering with radio-friendly yet relatable in trospections about romance/love\, commitment and other realities of life\ , &ldquo\;The Letter&rdquo\; finds singer/songwriter Avant ready to ascen d into music&rsquo\;s mainstream ranks&mdash\;joining such predecessors a s Maxwell\, Marvin Gaye\, and D&rsquo\;Angelo. Guiding Avant on that jour ney is a contingent of established and emerging producers from the R&\ ;B/hip-hop realm. Among them: The Pentagon\, whose members Damon Thomas\, Eric Dawkins and Antonio Dixon have collectively crafted hits for Mary J . Blige\, Fantasia\, Babyface and Usher\; Mike City\, whose credits inclu de Usher\, Jamie Foxx\, Brandy and Carl Thomas\; Marshall Leathers\, form erly of the Architects\, who has worked with India.Arie and Missy Elliott and Kajun\, fresh off the top 5 R&\;B hit &ldquo\;Sex Room&rdquo\; by Ludacris featuring Trey Songz.\n\nAvant\, who also co-wrote and co-produc ed several &ldquo\;Letter&rdquo\; tracks\, has revitalized his music with out sacrificing his primary sound: &ldquo\;love ballads and mood records in the vein of Kenny &ldquo\;Babyface&rdquo\; Edmonds\, Luther Vandross a nd R. Kelly. &ldquo\;These guys\,&rdquo\; says Avant\, &ldquo\;gave me the drive to write and sing about the way relationships should go.&rdquo\; Acknowledging the career-evolving fear factor artists face with each new album\, Avant notes\, &ldquo\;You don&rsquo\;t want to let your fans down\ , but you don&rsquo\;t want to come off like you&rsquo\;re trying to be s omeone else. At the same time\, you want to stay relevant without soundin g boring. For me\, it&rsquo\;s about giving people great music. And I fee l I&rsquo\;ve got that niche.&rdquo\;\n\nAt the forefront of accomplishing the singer&rsquo\;s current mission is the lead single &ldquo\;Kiss Good bye.&rdquo\; Introduced by a driving piano riff\, &ldquo\;Kiss Goodbye&rd quo\; settles into an atmospheric\, mid-tempo groove that provides the me lodic backdrop to the song&rsquo\;s cautious message: don&rsquo\;t ever ta ke a romantic relationship for granted. &ldquo\;See you done got a lot of passes/Sick of waiting on you to change\,&rdquo\; sings Avant. &ldquo\;Y ou won&rsquo\;t know it\, it&rsquo\;s a perfect disguise/She won&rsquo\;t show it\, but lips don&rsquo\;t lie &hellip\;/It&rsquo\;s OK if she said she was out with her girls and you know it&rsquo\;s a lie/But if she kis sed him\, that&rsquo\;s your kiss goodbye.&rdquo\; In a nutshell\, the son g doubles as the male equivalent to Beyoncé\;&rsquo\;s own cautiona ry tale broken down on the hit single &ldquo\;Irreplaceable.&rdquo\;\n\n& ldquo\;I&rsquo\;m out to raise caution to the fellas\,&rdquo\; explains Av ant about the inspiration behind &ldquo\;Kiss Goodbye\,&rdquo\; produced by The Pentagon. &ldquo\;We&rsquo\;ve been used to talking our way out an d through situations. But now we have to show more action.&rdquo\;\n\nAva nt draws on his inner Marvin Gaye as he skillfully works his way through &ldquo\;Hot 16\,&rdquo\; a mood-setting number about an anticipated romant ic liaison. &ldquo\;We&rsquo\;re about to make a masterpiece &hellip\; so mething to remember\,&rdquo\; he smoothly croons. The mood shifts on &ldq uo\;Where Did We Go?\,&rdquo\; a commentary on the day-to-day stresses th at can cause the demise of a relationship. Avant isn&rsquo\;t afraid to b are his emotions as he laments his and his lady&rsquo\;s inability to sim ply reach out and talk in an increasingly digital world. The Pentagon\, w ho produced &ldquo\;Hot 16&rdquo\; and &ldquo\;Where Did We Go?\,&rdquo\; also helmed the beautiful anthem\, &ldquo\;Walking on Water.&rdquo\; It&r squo\;s destined to become a wedding classic by virtue of its quiet melod y and revelatory lyrics: &ldquo\;I finally found someone/A girl I can lov e forever/Never thought it would happen for me/Feels like I&rsquo\;m walk ing on water\; walking on water/ When I&rsquo\;m with you\, impossible is easy to do.&rdquo\;\n\nAmong the other 11 tracks comprising &ldquo\;The L etter&rdquo\; is another R&\;B highlight\, &ldquo\;Night Life.&rdquo\; Directed by producer Mike City\, it features the feel-good morning-after line: &ldquo\;Waking up late with you on my mind.&rdquo\; Avant also tap s into the hip-hop side of R&\;B on the languid &ldquo\;Body Police&rd quo\; and club jam &ldquo\;Had Enough\,&rdquo\; both produced by Kajun\, a s well as the mid-tempo groove &ldquo\;That Dude\,&rdquo\; produced by Ma rshall Leathers. In addition to its melodic\, contemporary R&\;B frame work and story-telling lyrics\, &ldquo\;The Letter&rdquo\;&rsquo\;s cohes iveness is tied together by Avant&rsquo\;s lilting tenor\, which can shif t effortlessly from romantic crooner to get-down party man.\n\nAvant come s by those skills naturally. Born and raised in Cleveland\, the church-ho ned singer attended Cleveland School of the Arts and later became the fir st act signed to Magic Johnson&rsquo\;s MCA-distributed label\, Magic Joh nson Music (MJM). Avant came to the NBA legend&rsquo\;s attention when th e singer wrote and released the single &ldquo\;Separated.&rdquo\; The song \, about a failed romantic relationship\, began getting airplay on the to p-rated Chicago radio station WGCI. The song was eventually included on A vant&rsquo\;s 2000 MJM debut album\, &ldquo\;My Thoughts.&rdquo\; Reachin g No. 1 on Billboard&rsquo\;s Hot R&\;B/Hip-Hop Songs chart\, &ldquo\; Separated&rdquo\; was followed by the top five hit &ldquo\;My First Love\ ,&rdquo\; a cover of the 1983 René\; &\; Angela R&\;B classic featuring KeKe Wyatt. Avant returned the favor on Wyatt&rsquo\;s 2001 al bum debut\, &ldquo\;Soul Sista\,&rdquo\; pairing up with her on the No. 4 hit &ldquo\;Nothing in This World.&rdquo\;\n\nAfter scoring platinum with &ldquo\;My Thoughts\,&rdquo\; Avant released two more platinum-certified albums\, &ldquo\;Ecstasy&rdquo\; (2002) and &ldquo\;Private Room&rdquo\; (2003)\, and notched several more top 10 singles: &ldquo\;Makin&rsquo\; G ood Love\,&rdquo\; &ldquo\;Read Your Mind.&rdquo\; Fourth album &ldquo\;D irector&rdquo\;&mdash\;distributed through Geffen and his final MJM proje ct&mdash\;was released in 2006 and featured the hit &ldquo\;4 Minutes.&rdq uo\; Two years later\, he segued to Capitol for a fifth\, self-titled alb um that yielded the top 20 single &ldquo\;Break Ya Back.&rdquo\;\n\nHavin g recorded with such diverse acts as Nicole Sherzinger and Lil Wayne\, Av ant isn&rsquo\;t afraid to stretch his vocal wings. He most recently part nered with contemporary jazz artist Brian Culbertson on the single &ldquo \;Skies Wide Open&rdquo\; from Culbertson&rsquo\;s new &ldquo\;XII&rdquo\; album. He was also among the select group of singers chosen to pay homag e to R&\;B legend Frankie Beverly on &ldquo\;Silky Soul Music &hellip\ ; An All-Star Tribute to Maze featuring Frankie Beverly.&rdquo\;\n\n&ldqu o\;The different textures of music excite me\,&rdquo\; says Avant. &ldquo\ ;The dabbling in other genres inspires my writing.&rdquo\;\n\nAnother side of Avant is revealed on the new DVD release of playwright David E. Talbe rt&rsquo\;s &ldquo\;In the Nick of Tyme\,&rdquo\; which also stars Morris Chesnut\, Ellia English and Terry Dexter. Says Avant\, &ldquo\;Bringing a cross another character was so much fun.&rdquo\;\n\nHowever\, it&rsquo\;s the singer/songwriter part of Avant that&rsquo\;s on center stage right now as Verve Forecast celebrates to release &ldquo\;The Letter\,&rdquo\; t he next step in the artist&rsquo\;s ongoing evolution. &ldquo\;I have to say\, I&rsquo\;m not where I want to be yet\, and I won&rsquo\;t be compl acent\,&rdquo\; declares Avant. &ldquo\;I&rsquo\;m always fighting to go further. Once you hit a plateau\, it&rsquo\;s time to create another. I&r squo\;m just getting started.&rdquo\; DTSTART:20130111T200000 DTEND:20130112T235959 DURATION:PT3H LOCATION:Oakland SUMMARY:Avant END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR