Soul Express featuring Phil Perry, Everette Harp & Chris Standring

The new 2008 tour lineup is now officially announced!

This collection of artists is clearly bigger than the sum of their individual parts. It's the funkiest, most soulful vibe of the year, an extravaganza simply not to be missed!

The theme is clearly funk, Soul & R&B - the ultimate vibe for a good feeling show. Phil Perry, the classy and sophisticated soul stylist, tears up the stage in his inimitable style, Everette Harp, the sax powerhouse extraordinaire, and Chris Standring the British soul-jazz boy collectively take Soul Express to new dizzying heights in 2008.

The powerhouse of R&B, Phil Perry is a force to be reckoned with. He is the vocalist's vocalist, with a stunning range and technique, yet all the while retaining all the soul that a great soul singer should have. Perry, a former member of the R&B soul group The Montclairs, went on to great success as a sideman, guesting on many many albums and tours ranging from Anita Baker to Lee Ritenour to Dave Koz. In the 1990s he had his biggest success with the number one R&B hit "Call Me", as well as the top forty R&B singles "Amazing Love" and "Forever" all from the hit album 'The Heart of the Man'. Other hits include "Love Don't Love Nobody" and "One
Heart, One Love". He was also featured on a song with The Emotions, "I Wanna Thank You For My Love", on the Bebe's Kids soundtrack. With a new album set for release July 2008, Phil Perry is at the top of his game and ready to rock the house!

Everette Harp moved to Los Angeles in 1988, and his career as a sideman took off; after a brief tour with Teena Marie, he traveled internationally with Anita Baker (an association that went on and off until 1995), performed with Sheena Easton and Kenny Loggins and began developing his studio chops behind such artists as Patti LaBelle. Harp signed a solo deal with Manhattan/Blue Note in 1992 and recorded his self-titled debut between tours with George Duke and Marcus Miller.

That album's popularity led to further developments which established Harp as one of smooth jazz's greatest ambassadors -- a date at the Montreaux Jazz Festival; a tour with labelmate Rachelle Ferrell; playing alongside President Clinton, performing Your Mama Don't Dance at the 1993 Inaugural ball (Clinton borrowed one of Harp's saxes for the occasion!); and appearing weekly with The Posse on The Arsenio Hall Show. In the later Nineties, his sax was heard performing the theme song for Entertainment Tonight, as well as the Soul Train theme (Produced by George Duke), which is still being heard over the main titles. He also played the main title theme to Roger Ebert at the Movies.

Over the years, Harp has also performed and/or recorded with a wide variety of pop, R&B and jazz superstars -- Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick, Jeffrey Osborne, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Al Jarreau, After 7, Phil Perry, Go West, Natalie Cole, Chante Moore, Will Downing, John Tesh, Branford Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, Chaka Khan, Stanley Clarke, Michael McDonald and Larry Carlton among others.

With 4 critically acclaimed records to his name and now the smash hit single “Love & Paragraphs”, from his forthcoming 2008 release, Chris Standring has become known as the soul-hipster who prefers to push the boundaries of instrumental music to the limit every record he makes. "I try to make every record I do cohesive in a slightly different direction," he says. "There's always an overall vibe in what I'm trying to do. The 70's vibe is the reference point on Groovalicious, my last record, but the fun was that we didn't set out to make it that way, it just happened as I got together with the guys and started writing.

Since Hip Sway cemented his status as one of smooth jazz's top stars in 2000, Standring has appeared regularly at top festivals (including the Catalina Island Jazz Trax Festival) and is a regular performer at The Wave's Smooth Jazz Nights at the Garden of Eden in Hollywood. He's also traveled back to London each winter to perform shows at the popular Pizza Express jazz club. The guitarist has also appeared on numerous jazz and R&B recordings, including dates by Rick Braun, Jody Watley and Bebe and Cece Winans.

Since the release of Velvet, his 1998 debut as a solo artist, The British born guitarist has titled his discs as a way of defining the places his creative muse has taken him. Velvet, whose single "Cool Shades" went Top 10 for over three months on Gavin/Radio & Records' airplay charts, came at a time when Standring was into the ambient European phenomenon known as the "chill out movement." The seductive moniker of Hip Sway, whose title track featuring sax great Richard Elliot peaked at #2 and was one of 2000's most played songs, captured the retro-flavored, dance floor ready, funk-soul-jazz 60's mindset explored by Standring with his bandmates Rodney Lee (keyboards), Dino Soldo (sax), Andre Berry (bass) and Dave Karasony (drums). The title of the 2001 U.K. and Europe only compilation release Shades of Cool is obviously self-perpetuating.

That fresh, hipswaying coolness and heavy pocket grooving seduces us into the Groovalicious experience as well, but with a mini time-traveling twist, its retro tastes move up a decade from Hip Sway, firmly into the deeper funk elements of the 70's. With the exception of "Say What!", a locomotive blues-oriented track reminiscent of Lee Morgan's classic "Sidewinder" that recaptures that 60's train of thought, the tracks on Groovalicious take the hottest retro sounds of the Me decade and fuse them with a very contemporary drum and bass foundation. Add to those some of Standring's best compositions ever and the cool yet edgy string style he and his trademark Robert Benedetto arch top jazz guitar have become famous for, and it's clearly time for some finger snapping, fast and slow dancing, and…whatever comes next with your dance partner.