Bob Baldwin

Robert Baldwin (born December 9, 1960) is an American contemporary jazz pianist, music composer, music producer, author, inventor, radio host, and creator of the NewUrbanJazz Lounge and City Sketches Inc. His views on owning his own recorded masters (as an independent artist) have been referred to[by whom?] as ‘the Ray Charles of contemporary jazz and soul music’ by his peers.[citation needed] As of January 1, 2023, he owns all but 7 of his 48+ studio projects. His music is distributed by Sony Music. Baldwin has completed 11 albums in January, 2026, subtitled the Urban Jazz Music Series. His album "The Stay At Home Series, Vol. 1" was selected in 2022 as the best contemporary jazz album by the inaugural Jazz Music Awards program. Since 2018, he has charted on eight Billboard Smooth Jazz Top-10 hit records as either producer/arranger or composer for Flutist Ragan Whiteside (Randis Records). Baldwin began his recording career in 1983. His debut album, A Long Way to Go, was released in 1988, with his 33rd release entitled The Stay-At-Home Series. All but seven discs in his solo recording catalog are owned by his label, City Sketches, Inc. Baldwin has earned five SESAC Music Awards for his 2002–2003 airplay of "The Way She Looked at Me", his 2008 airplay on NewUrbanJazz.com, his 2010 album, Never Can Say Goodbye: A Tribute to Michael Jackson, in 2011 for NewUrbanJazz.com2/Re-Vibe, and his 2013 album Twenty. His 2015 release, MelloWonder: Songs in the Key of Stevie, which honors Stevie Wonder, debuted at No. 16 on the Billboard Overall Jazz Chart. Baldwin grew up in a musical household in Westchester County, New York. His father, Robert Baldwin Sr. (1926–2008), worked as an engineer and performed as a pianist, and Baldwin has cited him as a primary early influence. Baldwin has also cited jazz pianist Larry Willis as a musical influence.[citation needed] In 1987, Sony founded the Sony Innovator's Awards, an annual ceremony to award aspiring Afro-American artists who have shown outstanding talent in music and the visual arts. In his opening speech at the first ceremony held in 1988, music producer Quincy Jones stated that it was encouraging that a large firm like Sony was providing Afro-American artists a chance to be introduced to the entire nation. Baldwin was awarded the Sony Innovators Award in 1989, selected by Roberta Flack. At age 20, in 1980, he met his first cousin, Pianist Larry Willis, who played in the original version of the pop group Blood, Sweat and Tears. They reunited at the funeral of Baldwin's grandfather, Percy Willis in Norfolk, Va.[citation needed] Out of necessity to maintain creative control, he independently learned how to record music from engineers Wayne Warnecke in White Plains and Mamaroneck, NY, and Keyboardist/Engineer Dennis Johnson in Yonkers, NY. In 1990, Baldwin worked briefly with producer/arranger/keyboardist Kashif, where he learned about the ‘wall of sound’ vocal panning technique. In 1989 -1990, he was hired by Kashif to play keyboards and piano on a recording project by a new group called The Promise (Arista Records) featuring vocalist Joi Cardwell, but the project was never released.[citation needed] Baldwin attended Geneva College in 1978 and graduated in 1986. To complete his degree, between 1980-1986 while caretaking for his disabled father, he attended several New York–based colleges, including Hunter, Concordia and Iona, transferring credits back to Geneva between 1980 and 1986. He majored in Business Administration, minoring in Broadcast Communication. At Geneva College, he discovered broadcasting radio and hosted his first radio program at college radio station WGEV from 1979 to 1980. After falling short on college funding at Geneva, he returned to New York in 1981, where he completed his college degree. In 1982, Baldwin was introduced to the digital recording process called MIDI, which he used on a PC desktop. He began to write, produce, and arrange music through MIDI, which was also the basis for how he first built his recording catalogue. In 1986, Baldwin performed briefly in Tom Browne's band at The Bottom Line in New York City, and in 1987, Browne asked Baldwin to participate on "No Longer I" for Browne on the short-lived Malaco Records Jazz Label. In 2000, he co-wrote and co-produced two songs on Will Downing's All the Man You Need album, which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2000 (Best Traditional R&B Album). He has also contributed as composer, co-producer and performer on Ragan Whiteside's Treblemaker, which charted over seven top-40 Billboard Contemporary Jazz radio singles. Baldwin began in broadcasting at Geneva College and hosted a program on the campus station WGEV (1979–1980). He later held internships and roles in New York radio, including work with Inner City Broadcasting (WLIB/WBLS), and a brief period at WINS. In 1984 he worked as a field reporter for WVIP in Westchester County. In September 1981, Baldwin secured a radio internship at Inner City Broadcasting (WLIB/WBLS) in New York City, then owned by Tuskegee Airman Percy Sutton, where he studied news reporting under the tutelage of then–news director Pat Prescott, the late Carl Ferguson, news director David Lampel, Larry Hardesty, and Mark Reilly. In 1981–1983, he worked briefly at WINS, then owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting, where he pulled news wire for the staff writers. In 1984, he was a field news reporter in Westchester County for WVIP Radio, then located in Mount Kisco, New York (now located in New Rochelle, New York). Baldwin reunited with Prescott when she worked for CD101.9 in New York. Prescott introduced Baldwin's music there in the late 1980s. Between 1998 and 2004, he wrote, sang and produced the CD101.9 jingle. In summer of 2004, he was hired by Glenn Cherry, owner of Tama Broadcasting as the music director at WJSJ in Jacksonville, Florida. In 2005, Baldwin assisted in launching Bermuda’s first smooth jazz radio station, KJAZ 98.1 FM, operated by LTT Broadcasting Co. Ltd. and led by broadcaster Leo Trott."Radio station promises all that jazz". The Royal Gazette. 4 September 2005. The station officially debuted on September 5, 2005, introducing the smooth-jazz format to Bermuda’s airwaves. Contemporary coverage described KJAZ as “carving a niche in Bermuda’s crowded market.”"KJAZ carving out niche in crowded market". The Royal Gazette. 12 January 2006. Programming such as the U.S. Consulate’s Ask the Consulate aired on the station as late as 2007, confirming its continued operation. Although KJAZ faced financial challenges related to broadcast-transmission costs, the station later underwent a frequency and format change under LTT Broadcasting, re-emerging in November 2010 as IRIE 98.3 FM, focused on reggae programming."Telecommunications in Bermuda". Wikipedia. In 2007 he served as music director at WCLK in Atlanta and later worked at WJZZ until its format change in 2009. From 2007 - 2009, he was hired at WJZZ, a Radio-One company. Radio-One's WJZZ became Urban AC “Magic 107.5” January 28, 2009 at 12:00am. Prior to changing formats at WJZZ, he began to develop the radio format of NewUrbanJazz. He later founded the NewUrbanJazz Lounge, a weekly syndicated program supported by over fifty terrestrial stations in the US. He co-created the NewUrbanJazz Lounge cellphone app for Apple and Google, which also houses some archived radio shows. His first show launched on October 1, 2008. After Radio Music Programming jobs in Jacksonville, Bermuda and Atlanta, Baldwin launched NewUrbanJazz Lounge in October 2008. The program is a two-hour contemporary jazz show that has aired on terrestrial stations in the United States, including affiliates in Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina, and later expanded to additional markets. Between March and September 1986, Baldwin, along with New York–based guitarist Al Orlo, created the Bob Baldwin/Al Orlo Project, and they performed on Sundays at a small rock and roll club located in New