Iowa's James Kennedy up for Grammys, Again!

Iowa's own James Kennedy Lands Grammy Nomination Acceptance 2nd Year in a Row!

Tuesday, November 19, 2002
For Immediate Release

   Mt. Vernon, IA - Recent CD releases by Iowa's jazz/fusion guitarist James Kennedy have been accepted by NARAS for Grammy nominations - "Too Many Pictures" was accepted into the "Instrumental Pop Album" category; and "Rock N Roll Heart" was accepted into the "Rock Album" category. This music is available for your listening pleasure all around the internet at MP3.com, Cdbaby.com, Javamusic.com and others.

Other recent accomplishments by the versatile guitarist include airplay on a variety of "ground" and internet radio stations, new distribution agreements with 5 distributors, and a "front page feature" at Kweevak's track site for the months of November and December. Kennedy's music has also been selected for inclusion on an upcoming CDNetwork compilation CD, and his two newest releases have been "pre-nominated" in the AFIM's INDIE Awards.

"Too Many Pictures" is a set of jazz and world musical paintings that features James Kennedy on guitars, Matt Alles on bass, Catherine Lawson on electric violin, and Masahiro Iwasaki on drums/percussion.

"Rock N Roll Heart" celebrates classic rock with Kennedy's driving guitar, Joe Patterson and Masahiro Iwasaki on drums, Jim Kennedy and Matt Alles on bass, and is the first of HCM's eleven releases to include Vocal selections.

James Kennedy's first solo release ?Just Bein? Natural? with Union Street Productions was a folk guitar/vocal album late in the 1970's. He toured in support of this album until he went to college. During his undergraduate work in music composition with internationally known composer Alf Houkum, he also studied jazz, world music, arranging, and more. Many of his big-band jazz compositions have been performed by several world-class bands. After his undergraduate training, Jim did graduate work at the University of Iowa with Dr. Richard Hervig and Dr. Tom Davis, among others. Kennedy's jazz and blues training were clearly evident on a recording he did for Matthias Winckelmann of Enja Records which was a very popular release in Europe for many years.

   In 1986, Kennedy and Catherine Lawson founded recording label Heart Consort Music. In the intervening years, James has released 11 albums in a variety of styles, ranging from folk/acoustic to rock/fusion, jazz and world music, and more. These eleven releases have received international radio airplay, distribution and exposure. James has written music for various independent film and video projects, and his music has been licensed by 3M, AEI, Bravo, Disney, The Discovery Channel, PBS, DMX, Muzak, Playnetwork, and many others. He has performed at festivals all over the world including Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland; North Sea Jazz Festival, The Hague in The Netherlands; and the Euro-Disney Jazzfest in Paris, France. James Kennedy is an endorsed artist by the Guild Guitar Company and the Lakewood Guitar company.

For more information about James Kennedy, please visit his web site at http://www.heartconsortmusic.com. For more information on the GRAMMY Awards, please visit the web site at http://www.naras.org. NARAS voting members are invited to vote for Kennedy's nominations. Ballots are to reach NARAS by December 4, 2002.

For interviews, presskits, photos or more information, please contact
Heart Consort Music/410 First Street West/Mt. Vernon, IA 52314
www.heartconsortmusic.com    mail@heartconsortmusic.com or HrtCnsrtMs@aol.com
319-895-8557