Smooth Jazz Now.com :

N-Touch one of Portland's top Smooth Jazz bands are destined for national fame with a debut album that spices up the format. With a mix of positive passionate R&B, Latin, Gospel and Urban Grooves N-Touch hits the mark. We spoke with saxman and driving force behind the band Eldon T Jones.

John Beaudin - Hi Eldon, welcome to the pages of Smooth Jazz Now.com.

Eldon "T" Jones - Thank you very much. It's an honor and pleasure to have this opportunity to chat with you.

John - I liked your album. We are talkin' catchy songs, nice production and a great addition to Smooth Jazz radio.

Eldon - Thanks John. I'm glad you like the project. We really put our hearts into the music in hopes that it would connect with a broad range of listeners.

John - I loved the opening track named after the band, now that's the kind of tune that I expect to hear on radio. Can you tell me anything about the song?

Eldon - We wrote that song about five years ago and adopted it as our theme song. It was nice to finally get the chance to record it and share it with our fans.

John - How did you feel when your Portland Smooth Jazz station flipped formats?

Eldon - We were shocked to hear about the change because it was such a popular station in Portland and it had so many listeners. As a matter of fact our manager was working with the station to try and get a least one of our tracks into the station's rotation when it folded.

Eldon - It's certainly more challenging for independent artists like us to break into Smooth Jazz radio. We've had to spend a lot of time promoting ourselves so the process takes a little longer. But we are having fun and experiencing some success from our efforts.

John - I hear different stories from different camps about the future of Smooth Jazz radio. Some people think it's going more urban since it scores so well with urban audiences while others say New Age will come back in the mix and some just say Smooth Jazz sounds bland. Where do you think it's going?

Eldon - I believe the current sound is here to stay for a long duration. I would describe the sound as a mixture of R&B, pop, jazz and I also hear some elements of gospel happening. As a matter of fact all of these mixtures are included in the N-Touch recipe. People can really feel the simple melodies and the funky beats. I think that's the main reason why Smooth Jazz radio is so popular today.

Eldon - Oh yeah! We have several new songs and we can hardly wait to get back in the studio and start cooking.

Eldon - Most of the core group grew up together playing music in church. We truly enjoyed playing music together at an early age but the opportunities to perform were limited, so that's why we formed N-Touch so we could expand our audience and touch more people.

John - Are you getting played in Canada on Hamilton's Smooth Jazz station the Wave?

Eldon - Yes. Our manager contacted one of their radio personalities back in March of this year and forwarded him a copy of our project. He really liked it and gave it to the Program Director. They had their focus group listen to the project and we received feedback that they really were impressed with the tracks and production. They picked four tracks from the project and incorporated them into their rotation. The tracks are 'N-Touch', 'Walk With Me', 'Time Will Tell', and 'Old Soul'. I remember the first night our manager called to inform me he had just heard our music on their station and he was so ecstatic and happy for us.