The Baylor Project

A husband. A wife. An astonishing debut album entitled The Journey. As the drummer for crossover quartet Yellowjackets, Marcus Baylor is a threetime GRAMMY Award winner who performed and recorded with Cassandra Wilson and Kenny Garrett as he grew into the roles of composer, arranger, producer, and bandleader. Jean Baylor was introduced to jazz as a vocal performance major at Temple University; in those formative years, she was heavily influenced by such greats as Carmen McCrae, Jimmy Scott, and Shirley Horn. Released on the Baylors own Be A Light label, The Journeycracked the Top Ten of the Billboard Jazz chart and a year later garnered two Grammy Award nominations, for Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best Traditional R&B Performance. They draw on a finely shaded palette of modern jazz, as embodied by the likes of Herbie Hancock among others, to bring to the table a flickering subtlety that offsets the rousing energy of spirituals. (Kevin Le Gendre, Jazzwise UK)