Gordon Bahary to Perform and Sign Debut CD UNBREAKABLE at Barnes & Noble in West Nyack, 9/13

No one can ever accuse Gordon Bahary of rushing into things. The New York-based singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer has been making music for more than three decades-earning the respect of such giants as Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock and the late Harry Chapin along the way-but only now is he releasing his debut album. Unbreakable (Lasting Treasure), available digitally online on Aug. 28th and in an exclusive deluxe version with three bonus tracks at Barnes & Noble (retail and online) on the same date, with CDs to follow, is the culmination of a lifetime's worth of creativity and innovation from an artist who has quietly built a huge, devoted fanbase-his Facebook page has nearly 150,000 likes-while refusing to travel down traditional music industry pathways.

Bahary, who has never previously toured, will embark next month on his first-ever series of live performances, beginning in the Northeast. His first confirmed appearance is scheduled for the Barnes & Noble store in the Palisades Center in West Nyack, New York, September 13 at 6:30 p.m. The Barnes & Noble edition of the album, available at all of Bahary's appearances, will feature bonus tracks unavailable elsewhere.

Written, as the album's liner notes explain, "in a cocoon of alone time, day into the night," Unbreakable was recorded "in a cozy atmosphere" in Bahary's home studio and at New York's Dubway Studios. Bahary wrote, sang, produced, engineered and mixed the music and played along with a crew of New York all-stars who have toured and recorded with Sting, Paul Simon, Josh Groban, Michael Buble, Hall & Oates, Carly Simon and Barbra Streisand. Bahary's music traverses the emotional spectrum, and Unbreakable delivers a range of expressions from bold and ambitious to vulnerable and fragile.

The 13 original tracks on Unbreakable are poignant and expressive, an intimate, elegant and dynamic work that draws on such indelible human experiences as love and hurt, friendship, faith and trust, compassion, truth, determination and the bonds we all share-an Unbreakable bond.

The video for "Angel," the first single from Unbreakable, is set to debut soon. A stunning ballad of loss and longing, "Angel"-an earlier, rough version of which earned an award from Youtube/Google as one of the Top-20 most-viewed videos in the world, with over 600,000 views the weekend it was released-is a standout track from this intimate, elegant and dynamic work that reflects the artist's thoughts, hopes, values and experiences at this stage of his life. Other highlights include "A Lady," "Blue Boy," "Father and Son," "Mediterranean Woman" and "My Last Day on Earth," each of which-along with the other tracks on Unbreakable-explores matters and values that are of utmost importance to Bahary.

"It's about resilience and getting yourself back on your feet after the blows that life throws you," he says of the album. "And it's also about spirituality, music and love wherever you can conjure it up-that's the medicine to help along that resilience."

Gordon Bahary began his musical journey during his childhood, writing songs at the age of 10. By 14, his next-door neighbor, singer-songwriter Harry Chapin (of "Taxi" fame), was dropping by to offer encouragement and musical tips, and the following year Bahary began a friendship with the iconic Stevie Wonder that lives on till this day. After introductory phone conversations with his ambitious young fan from Long Island, Wonder invited Bahary to fly out to L.A. and watch him in the studio, and they ultimately worked together-Bahary later demonstrated to Wonder the newly emerging electronic keyboards of the era and contributed to his Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants album. Another early fan of Bahary's talents was Herbie Hancock, the legendary keyboardist and composer-Bahary collaborated with Hancock on the jazzman's Feets Don't Fail Me Now album, for which Bahary supplied the synthesized sounds.

By the early 1980s, Bahary was ready to strike out on his own and, under the pseudonym Twilight 22, he recorded a single called "Electric Kingdom" that vaulted into the Top 10 of Billboard's R&B chart, selling a remarkable seven million copies. Bahary was all of 23 and had already accomplished more than most musical artists do in a lifetime. He'd worked with everyone from jazz keyboard great Ramsey Lewis to the great filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola. Bahary's synth creations would later be sampled by top rappers. But in time Bahary went in other directions, both within and outside of the music world. He produced the child television star Raven-Symoné of The Cosby Show), and over the years has run his own label, created work in animation and video games and pioneered a state-of-the-art digital studio. Only recently has he decided to return to his first love, bursting with new things to say.

Now that he is back in the game, Gordon Bahary is making his most fully realized musical statement to date-the first headlining work under his own, real name. "I've built an organic audience, created virally, based on the quality and the sincerity of the music," he says. That quality and sincerity shine through on Unbreakable.

Gordon Bahary in-store performance and CD signing will take place on Thursday, September 13, 2012, at 6:30 PM at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 4416 Palisades Center Dr., West Nyack, NY. Call (845) 348-4701 or visit www.bn.com or www.barnesandnobleinc.com for more information. And for more about Bahary, find him on Facebook and Twitter.

Lasting Treasure Media is Distributed by BDG. BDG is distributed by RED Distribution, LLC (a division of SONY Music Entertainment).

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.