For those not in the know, LA-based jazz vocalist and recording artist Amber Weekes fulfills her musical destiny with the release of her new album, To Oscar with Love, which celebrates the late, great singer-songwriter, poet and Civil Rights activist Oscar Brown, Jr., who used his many talents to impart his wit and wisdom about the lived experience of Black Americans.

“Oscar Brown, Jr. is one of my musical heroes, perhaps the biggest one,” says Weekes. “It was a privilege to get to know both the man and his music. My hope is that To Oscar with Love will introduce him to new generations, making him as memorable to them as he continues to be to me.”

Now, nearly five decades later — and just before Brown would have turned 100 on October 10th, 2026 — she marks his centennial with a collection of his songs that resonate in today’s world just as much as they did back then. Weekes has also included her seductive rendition of “The Snake” on this album, featuring an evocative trumpet solo by Count Basie Orchestra director Scotty Barnhart.

Having begun her own singing career, feeling in her bones that one day she would produce an album exclusively focused on his work, that album, Weekes’ fifth as a leader, has come to fruition at last. She feels blessed to have had expert support and guidance along the way, especially from her producer and arranger, string master, Mark Cargill, and also from Sue Raney, the legendary vocal coach and film/radio/television/jazz artist who has been there for her for much of her career. “What I do now is in no small part because of Sue,” Weekes maintains, “and she deserves her flowers while she is here to receive them. It has also been a thrill to have Mark in the recording booth in partnership with his amazing sound engineer Greg Cook.”

The album features 12 of Brown’s musical masterpieces on eight newly recorded tracks and four “refreshed” from Weekes’ previous releases, Pure Imagination (2019) and Round Midnight-Reimagined (2021), which Cargill brilliantly burnishes with lush string timbres and complementary instrumental lines.

1. MISTER KICKS (featuring Keith Fiddmont)
2. AFRO BLUE
3. STRONG MAN (featuring Paul Jackson, Jr. & Mark Cargill)
4. BUT I WAS COOL (featuring Glen Berger)
5. BROWN BABY
6. HAZEL’S HIPS
7. RAGS AND OLD IRON
8. HUM DRUM BLUES (featuring Adam “Ayejaye” Jackson, Paul Jackson, Jr., Philip Whack)
9. THE SNAKE (featuring Scotty Barnhart)
10. WORK SONG (featuring Tony Campodonico and Mark Cargill)
11. A LADIES MAN (featuring Adam “Ayejaye” Jackson, Tony Campodonico, and Tom Luer)
12. A TREE AND ME (featuring Tony Campodonico, Paul Jackson, Jr.)

Raised in Los Angeles in a home filled with the sounds of Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Barbara Streisand, Diahann Carroll, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nancy Wilson, Weekes was born to sing, and showcases her incredible talent in triumphant style from the very off on the buoyantly vibrant MISTER KICKS (featuring Keith Fiddmont, a member of the award-winning Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra for the past twenty-four years) and a gorgeous hipsway within AFRO BLUE and then we are gifted the sheer elegance of STRONG MAN (featuring fusion/urban jazz composer, arranger, producer and guitarist Paul Jackson, Jr. and talented Jazz Violinist Mark Cargill), the jauntily fun BUT I WAS COOL (featuring Saxophonist Glen Berger), before both the affecting BROWN BABY and the soulfully grooved HAZEL’S HIPS are upon us.

Along next is the slow cooked storytelling of RAGS AND OLD IRON which is itself backed seamlessly by some upbeat swing rhythms that drive HUM DRUM BLUES (featuring American jazz and soul vocalist and performer Adam “Ayejaye” Jackson, Paul Jackson, Jr., and Saxophonist Phillip Whack), and the silky smooth THE SNAKE (featuring acclaimed jazz trumpeter, leader, composer, arranger, educator, author, and now in his twentieth year with the legendary Count Basie Orchestra, Scotty Barnhart), the new set rounding out on the decadently vibrant WORK SONG (featuring composer, keyboardist, arranger and conductor Tony Campodonico and Mark Cargill), a dutiful storytelling that pulses throughout A LADIES MAN (featuring Adam “Ayejaye” Jackson, Tony Campodonico, and Saxophonist Tom Luer), coming to a close on the sleekly emotive A TREE AND ME.

Amber Weekes - To Oscar With Love [Official Intro Test Video]

www.AmberWeekes.com

Official Facebook Page