The great jazz master Duke Ellington once said that "there are two kinds of music, good and bad," a simple truism recalled heartily by modern musicians who dare to blend a wide range of styles and influences in a time when radio formats would segregate them. The Duke's open-minded spirit must have made a resounding impact upon saxophonist Ron Brown, who played with the legend's Duke Ellington Orchestra at the start of his career in the late 70s.

All these years later, Brown - who launched his own smooth jazz career with the well received From My Eyes Only on Discovery Records - digs deep into the roots of all the genres he's ever played in to create the innovative and dynamic Urban Jazz Network an ongoing project, with new artists rotating around his sax and production in the way that Urban Knights evolved in recent years around Ramsey Lewis.

Featuring some of the best loved artists and studio performers in R&B, Be Bop, Smooth Jazz, hip hop and gospel, the Urban Jazz Network is more than merely a funky, cool and adventurous melange of soul music.