Mind & Soul

1st Place Winner in Billboard Worldwide Song Contest 2006 Rap/Hip-Hop Category.

Charted at 22 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart.

"Reminds you of a young Earth Wind & Fire or trumpeter Terrance Blanchard."
-- Nokia's Music Recommenders

"Life is composed by what sounds very obviously like some seasoned cats. I mean well seasoned, like a perfect blend of salt and pepper. The overall tone to this sample is very mature, almost borderline contemporary jazz, but real thick like G-Funk...it just drops real fresh and spontaneous..."
-- TheOwlMag.com

Editor's pick on CDBaby.com in Urban/R&B:Neo-Soul category

William Forsyth is the visionary founder, composer, arranger, and producer of Mind & Soul. He also plays several instruments and lays down background vocals. Forsyth has spent a lifetime immersed in philosophy, mysticism, beats, and rich instrumentation of all styles. His influences cover a broad spectrum, from Brahms to Gil Evans, from Miles Davis to Earth Wind & Fire, from Ohio Players to Timbaland, from Quincy Jones to Dr. Dre, from Teddy Pendergrass to Common - and it shows. He first cut his musical chops as a teenager playing jazz trumpet, composing, arranging, and studying jazz theory. By age 17 his works were being performed in concert and at gigs, and at age 23 his work, Sphinx, was performed in concert by Randy Brecker & Eliane Elias and 23-piece ensemble. Since then he's played jazz gigs, composed, arranged, done studio recording (plays flugelhorn on this CD), studied many classic orchestration and composition texts, studied classic scores, and even created original scores for some guerrilla indie films. Always listening to and feeling a wide range of music he's as comfortable with making a contagious beat as he is with arranging an orchestral passage. In this music he's truly found his voice. He currently lives and creates music in Atlanta.

The latest release features Kamau Rashaad laying down the world-class rap. As a kid on the southside of Chicago he started writing poetry and making beats on two-tape recorders. Inspired by a list of legendary greats like A Tribe Called Quest, NWA, Ice Cube, and all east and west coast hiphop, he grew up battling and rhyming on street corners and trains, and in school lunch rooms and barber shops (for free haircuts :). He was influenced by hiphop, 70's music, classical, house, and gospel (his mother was once an aspiring gospel singer). Like many others, through his music he sought to escape from family pain, rejection, violence, and what he calls, "the inner city madness outside my bedroom window." Now in Atlanta he's taking hiphop to a more spiritual level. He's worked as a youth leader and has been active amongst those younger adults who have struggled as he has. Often pulled in for mixtapes around town, he's been workin' it both solo and in groups. As a poet, producer, and rapper his lyrics convey an uncommon depth. With a distinct music sensibility he rides the beats as if an improvisational instrument.

Sam Skelton lays down some amazing sax solos. A native of Conyers, Georgia, he's been active on the Atlanta music scene since 1987. Sam graduated summa cum laude from Georgia State University and the private studio of Tony Carere with a degree in Jazz Studies. During his course of study at GSU, Sam was a Montgomery Music Scholar and a two-time fellowship recipient to the Aspen Music Festival. He continued his saxophone studies with Kenneth Radnofsky at Boston University in 1991. As a woodwind doubler, Skelton is well versed in any genre of music. His grasp of saxophone, clarinet and flute has enabled him to remain very busy in live performance as well as in the studio. Sam has performed and/or soloed with The London Symphony Orchestra, The Atlanta Symphony, The Atlanta Pops, The Peachtree Pops, The Atlanta Ballet Orchestra and The Cobb Symphony Orchestra as well as numerous local high school and civic ensembles. World Premiers include James Oliverios Children of A Common Mother, Lee Johnsons Ora Pro Mi: Concerto for Winds Soloist (clarinet, flute and soprano saxophone) and Seaside Symphony (clarinet and soprano saxophone soloist). Sam also played the premier recording of Ora Pro Mi and Seaside Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra. With a discography of over 120 compact discs, Sam remains very active in the studio and can be heard on recordings by such artists as: Train, Matchbox 20, The Gap Band and The Ohio Players. Television and radio jingles include The Weather Channel, The Travel Channel, Ford, The Cartoon Network, CNN, Natures Own, Popeyes, Papa Johns and Turner South. Television appearances include In the Heat of the Night, Savannah and Sinbads Summer Jam II on HBO. Sam is Director of Jazz Studies at Kennesaw State University, a member of the R & B band The Neons and a member of the Praise and Worship team at The Church Of The Apostles in Atlanta.

Other Atlanta musicians, Mike Barry on trumpet, Bruce Mangan on trombo