Charles Xavier

Oct. 23, 2006 Contact: Cary Goldberg
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE gomediapr@earthlink.net


“THE XMAN COMETH – EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED” CROSSES MUSICAL BOUNDARIES

New Release from Charles Xavier Serves up Music with Meaning and Message

“The XMan Cometh – Expect the Unexpected,” the new release from San Francisco-Bay Area artist Charles Xavier, introduces The XMan, an emcee of sorts who boldly questions the status quo. Xavier, a drummer/vibraphonist and composer, scores a new, original sound by daring to cross musical boundaries. You’ll feel the free-form artistry of jazz, the passion of punk, and the street heat of rap. You’ll hear the unexpected: thick, funky bass beats and the sweet tones of the vibraphone coupled with screaming horns and driving drum lines. You’ll hear stories of sex, politics, and street hustle.

Let’s set the record straight from the outset – any resemblance to the character from the popular Marvel Comics X-Men is purely intentional. After all, when you go through life with the same name as a comic book hero, you may as well use your implied super powers to their best advantage!

In the case of this XMan, those super powers are of the musical variety. Drawing from his past experience, which encompasses everything from jazz to punk, Xavier has crafted a CD that brings together an incomparable cast of players on ten songs that speak of human rights, of dreams buried deep in the heart, and of the struggle to survive in today’s complex world. Xavier asks that you “expect the unexpected” because that’s exactly what he delivers.

A professional musician since he was sixteen, Xavier’s musical tastes were shaped by the East Coast jazz scene and further honed in the clubs and recording studios of Los Angeles. He’s worked with everyone from jazz greats Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette at the eclectic school the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY to seminal artists on the LA music scene of the 1980s such as Francis X and the Bushmen and Trauma Fetish. Along the way, he’s also worked on projects with such artists as Stan Ridgeway and Ray Manzarek. In the 70s, he formed the avant-garde jazz band Satori, and then in 1982, after relocating to the West Coast, he hooked up with acclaimed producer Glen Feit (Red Hot Chili Peppers and David Byrne, among others) to produce his debut EP (as Xavier and the Messengers), titled “The King Has Come.” A blend of reggae, rock and jazz, “The King Has Come” first introduced audiences to Xavier’s unique blend of social commentary, and musical artistry, and was so critically well-received that it earned an “Editor’s Choice” review in Downbeat Magazine.

On “The XMan Cometh – Expect the Unexpected,” Xavier takes that winning combination to the next level, with the support of a wide array of musicians, including – among others - Sam Riney (Ray Charles and Chaka Khan) on sax, Warren Gale (Grateful Dead) on trumpet, Barry Reynolds (Grace Jones, Marianne Faithful), Frankie “Blue” Sposato (Tricky, Garbage, Jamiroquai) on guitars, Richard Larsen on keyboards (Erasure, Berlin), Antonio “Tony” Newton (Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson) and Steve Loria (Spirit, Tricky) on basses. Xavier himself plays drums and vibraphone, as well as various “percussion toys,” and he shares vocal duties with Eric Harrington (the singer on “The King Has Come”), session vocalist Anejia Shockley, and Jerry Giddens (Walking Wounded.) Another unexpected touch is the participation of Carol Robbins on acoustic harp.

On “The Xman Cometh – Expect the Unexpected,” Xavier serves up music with meaning and message, delivering hope and a call for personal and socio-political change in a fast and complex world.

Happy Note Records has just released “The XMan Cometh – Expect the Unexpected,” which is distributed by Burnside Distribution (retailers) and IRIS Distribution (digital). For additional information on the XMan, visit www.happynoterecords.com.

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- Go Media

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHARLES XAVIER, THE XMAN, PERFORMS AT SAN FRANCISCO MULTI-MEDIA CULTURAL EVENT SPONSORED BY CULTURE CATCH AND DOUBLE VISION

Xavier to Feature Music from New CD “The XMan Cometh, Expect The Unexpected”

SAN FRANCISCO – JAN. 2, 2007 – San Francisco artist Charles Xavier has been invited by pop culture leaders of the 21st century Culture Clash and Double Vision to perform at their multi-media cultural event at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 9 at the Red Ink Gallery, 1035 Market Street in San Francisco. A primary musical act of the evening, Charles Xavier will perform from his new CD, “The XMan Cometh, Expect the Unexpected.”

Xavier’s new CD introduces The XMan, an emcee of sorts who boldly questions the status quo. Funky beats and screamin’ horns create strong musical statements that bring together the free-form artistry of jazz and mixing in the passion of punk, funk, rock and street rap. Often intense, other times fun, his sonic landscapes take listeners on a creative, thought-provoking journey. The XMan band performing at the event will feature vocalist Tina Marie Murray. guitarist Russell Golub, and keyboardist Jeffrey Chin.

The Red Ink Gallery will be transformed into a 5,000-square-foot multi-media cultural experience complete with five digital video projections, interactive sound and light installations, choreographed drink servers, and an art show curated by DOUBLE VISION and Culture Catch. In addition, each evening will feature audio and video podcast interviews by Dusty Wright of CultureCatch.com and performances from some of the smartest artists, dancers, musicians, and performers on the West Coast. For more information about this event, visit: http://www.culturecatch.com/salon.
“The XMan Cometh, Expect the Unexpected” is currently being played on college radio stations across the country and is available online at iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby and other leading music sites. “The XMan Cometh, Expect the Unexpected” is a production by Happy Notes Records, www.happynoterecords.com. Find Charles Xavier on MySpace at www.myspace.com\thexman.

About Culture Catch:
CultureCatch is a vid and pod casting site providing provocative, insightful, entertaining and often-irreverent discussions and reviews about 21st century smart culture. The site has an appeal to ravenous pop culture junkies and savvy scene-stealers everywhere. With distribution in 47 countries, CultureCatch.com receives approximately 300,000 downloads per month of audio and video pod casts.

About DOUBLE VISION:
DOUBLE VISION is an intermedia performance company unifying dance with other art forms and technology to create unique and challenging performances. DOUBLE VISION's work bridges artistic disciplines by employing collaborations between choreographer, composer, video artist, animator and technologist.

Happy Note Records: www.happynoterecords.com or email us at info@happynoterecords.com
- Double Vision

Written by Mark Saleski
Published November 22, 2006
I watched the American Music Awards last night. I love awards shows. The stilted cue card reads. The bad jokes (though Jimmy Kimmel's Kevin Federline "no-hit wonder" joke did make me laugh). The bad "performances" — made so much the better when the camera switches back to the audience to catch those shocked/bored looks frozen on celebrity faces.

Still, one of the reasons I watch these things is that I'm not intimately connected with the pop music scene and you just never know what'll turn up. Sure, these particular awards are based on record sales and a fan survey (hey, you didn't ask me) so the results will tend toward the least common denominator — the category that had Nickelback, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and a third bland band comes to mind. But then Sean Paul won the award for best male pop/rock artist. I had heard of — but never heard — the dancehall singer Sean Paul, and now I'm interested. There was also a punkish rock band that I liked but somehow managed to miss the name.

I know, I know...there's this whole concept of "American Music", the true roots of our music, that's just not represented here. But the amazing thing is that even the watered-down genres like country do have their roots in Americana, rock, soul, jazz, funk, hip-hop, blues, country, pop. Or, more historically accurate: blues, jazz, country, soul, rock, funk, pop.

All of these genres are represented in Charles Xavier's The Xman Cometh. Xavier, a true music polymath (music and video production, percussion, leader of several avant garde jazz outfits), has put together a group of compositions that manage to touch on all of the afore-mentioned genres. That alone might not be such a big deal if the album was a disjointed mess. It's not. In fact, "cohesive" is the right word.

Topics broached include creativity, the sadness of Katrina, big band jazz, Hollywood from the inside, love. This is all drawn together by a pulsing funk spiced up by a cast of relative unknowns who seem to be able to pull together all in the same direction. The clouds of instrumentation (including bass, drums, percussion, vibraphone, guitar, trumpet, saxophone, and keyboards) somehow remind me of what went on in those Parliament/Funkadelic records. It's a vibe that's tough to pull off without the entire ensemble being in the know, so to speak.

No track-by-track consideration here. You've got to experience the record as a whole. Just know that there are not many albums out there sounding like this.

But, you might be thinking, is this Xman a musical variant of the Marvel comics character, Professor X? That's certainly one way of looking at it. Xavier says that the Xman is "everyman's emcee", with topics of "love, sex, politics, the streets or the dreams buried deep in our hearts." The X-Men were put together to better relations between humans and mutants. Tossing the obvious "Who are the mutants?" jokes aside, the parallels are fairly obvious.

Oh, but then there's Kevin Federline...

- Blog Critic's Review

Charles Xavier - The Xman Cometh - Expect the Unexpected
- This is one of the few albums that one must work at to enjoy. So much is going on that if you don’t pay attention every second, the experience will get away from you. It’s not a bad thing and catching up is fun. The XMan is an audio chef mixing ingredients in a CD bowl. You can actually hear when he adds the pepper just above the horns. Forget the salt, it’s all healthy. But sometimes I can hear the trans-fat oozing across the tracks. His dessert can make you fat, but fat and fate are just one letter apart…..turn up the sound to the max for Hollywood & Heaven and eat away.


TheCelebrityCafe.com
Reviewer: Michael Mardings
Added: 24-Oct-2006
- TheCelebrityCafe.com

Charles Xavier
Happy Note Records
CD

1. I’ve spent most of my life associating Charles Xavier with the X-Men. In San Francisco though, there was this kid named Charles Xavier and he dedicated himself, not to the betterment of human/mutant relations, but to creating some of the funkiest jazz fusion pop you’ve ever heard. An insatiably groovy album, Xavier mixes pop, punk, soul, jazz, r&b, blues and funk and adds a bit of social-minded commentary to produce what is simply one of the finest and grandest musical experiences I’ve had all year. The experience begins with the funky mellow “They Say”, before going into full blown big band jazz with the Katrina inspired “American Refugee”, which itself flows easily into the similar-sounding “Stomp’n at Around Midnight”. “Gonna Change America” starts off a little brassy before becoming a soulful melody with an “Eye of the Tiger” kind of rock-out. “Crazy People” takes a time out for a pop ballad before going for a 70s-style soul-funk groove with “Thank You Girl.” Bottom line, the comic book Xavier may have created the X-Men, but this Xavier is the X man and the X stands for anything he wants it to.

- Lucid Forge Review

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Charles Xavier - The Xman Cometh - Expect the Unexpected
-
GO MEDIA
CHARLES XAVIER/Xman Cometh Expect the Unexpected: Here’s a cat that has done everything, played with everyone and you’ve never heard of him. He trots out some of his pet things like political diatribes over funky beats. The ultimate genre splicer, he knows everyone and still he couldn’t get a mercy fuck of a record deal, what better way to turn your back on the whole thing and really do your own thing? Pretty much like not anything you’ve ever heard as a whole, Xavier wants to blow your ears and mind open and he accomplishes exactly what he sets out to do. You can’t pigeonhole this set, it doesn’t come with a map. Either you strap yourself in and enjoy the ride or shake your head in bewilderment.
9671 (Happy Note)
Volume 30/Number 14
November 27, 2006
MIDWEST RECORD RECAP
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
(c)2006 Midwest Record
- MIDWEST RECORD RECAP