Mindi Abair Completes Renovation Of Florida Home

If you’re looking to settle in the city of Punta Gorda in Florida and are looking for a place to rent, you could find yourself with smooth jazz saxophonist Mindi Abair as your landlord.

Abair and her husband, musician Jason Steele, recently purchased a house in the city on Florida’s west coast. She says the 1926 home is a fixer-upper in the historic district right on the water on Charlotte Harbor. Much of Punta Gorda and the surrounding area was destroyed by Hurricane Charley in 2004.

Abair, Steele and several of their friends have landscaped the home, built a fence and indoor banister, renovated the kitchen, added a bathroom and built a brick patio. In addition, Abair oversaw the building of a new room in the space formerly occupied by an attic.

Abair says the home is now back to its original glory and she’s looking to rent it. And in the future Abair says she and Steele – who continue to live in Hollywood, Calif. – want to use the house as second home. Abair is originally from St. Petersburg, just up the coast, and Steele’s family lives in Punta Gorda.

Abair was in St. Petersburg, Fla., last year when Hurricane Charley slammed into Florida’s west coast, just north of where her husband’s family lived.

"A couple hours before the hurricane was supposed to hit us it turned and it hit south of us in Port Charlotte," she says. "As soon as he could get a flight in, we drove down there and just tried to save some of his family’s houses. I mean, we ripped up carpets and ripped down some of the drywall to try and just stop it from molding and mildewing. It was a disaster area down there. It was so horrible and you just wanted to stay down there and help these people because it could have been you.

Katrina, Rita Changing Plans For Rick Braun's Cruise

With the looks of Hurricane Rita, it looks like there might be big changes for Rick Braun's upcoming cruise.

For now, we know that Hurricane Katrina has caused a few changes for the first-ever All Star Smooth Jazz Cruise, departing in November from Galveston, Texas. First, because the Carnival Elation ship scheduled to take passengers on the cruise was called into commission to help with relief efforts on the Gulf Coast, the Smooth Jazz Cruise will now use the Carnival Conquest. ship. The Elation, which normally operates out of Galveston, is taking over the cruise schedule of the Carnival Ecstasy, which is being used to house Katrina refugees and relief workers.

The Conquest, which is one of Carnival’s newest ships in its fleet, normally sails from New Orleans but will now temporarily sail from Galveston. Passengers booked on the cruise – which had scheduled to make ports of call in Cozumel, Belize Playa Del Carmen in Mexico, will now visit Cozumel, the Cayman Islands and Montego Bay in Jamaica.

The musical guest list remains unchanged – among the many artists performing on board the weeklong cruise beginning Nov. 12 will be Peter White, Mindi Abair, Brian Culbertson, Euge Groove, Joyce Cooling, Marion Meadows and Michael Lington.

If Galveston is spared the wrath of Rita, a pre-cruise concert on Nov. 11 will star Al Jarreau and Boney James.

For more information, you can go to www.allstarcruise.com.

Chris Botti Finalizes New CD: To Love Again

Chris Botti has finally decided on a name for his new CD. The follow-up to his best-selling When I Fall in Love as originally called Embraceable You, then Still in Love and now To Love Again.

Botti has now whittled down the songs for the CD and has decided on 13 songs with guest performers such as Sting, Michael Buble, Gladys Knight, Steven Tyler, Renee Oldstead, and Jill Scott. The album’s songs include “Lover Man,” “Good Morning Heartache,” “Are You Lonesome Tonight,” “Smile,” “Pennies From Heaven,” “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?”

When the CD arrives in stores on Oct. 18, it will be available in two versions. The first CD version features the 13 songs, while second is a DualDisc, which is a double-sided disc with one side containing a standard CD and other side with DVD content. The DualDisc version of To Love Again has four bonus tracks of live performances: “To Love Again,” “I’ll Be Seeing You,” and two from Botti's idol, Miles Davis: “Flamenco Sketches” and “Milestones.”

Botti surely has another winner.

To Love Again Track Listing

1. Embraceable You
2. What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life
3. My One And Only Love
4. Let There Be Love
5. What's New
6. Good Morning Heartache
7. To Love Again
8. Are You Lonesome Tonight
9. Lover Man
10. I'll Be Seeing You
11. Pennies From Heaven
12. Here's That Rainy Day
13. Smile
(With DualDisc)
1. Flamenco Sketches
2. To Love Again
3. I'll Be Seeing You
4. Milestones

Chuck Loeb Settles In South Carolina - Temporarily

Smooth jazz guitarist Chuck Loeb, a native New Yorker, has just relocated to South Carolina.

But he might not be there too long. The move was prompted after the Loebs learned that the house of one of their friends had burned down. Wanting to help out, Loeb decided to offer his house in Irvington, which is on the Hudson River north of New York City, to the family while they rebuilt their destroyed home. At the same time, Loeb and his wife, Carmen Cuesta, felt that this gave them the perfect opportunity to test the waters as far as living in the South for a while.

Loeb's two daughters are both in college.

Last year, Loeb and his wife invested in a home on Hilton Head Island, S.C. Loeb is now taking advantage of the nearby airport in Savannah, Ga., to travel back to New York for recording sessions and for traveling to shows. He will be flying from Savannah to Boston on Sept. 24 for the annual Beantown Jazz Festival.

Loeb's most recent album, When I’m With You, features the Top 5 hit called "Tropical."

Gabriela Anders Keeps Wedding - And Baby - A Secret

Top-secret celebrity weddings are nothing new.

Earlier this year, actress Renee Zellweger and country singer Kenny Chesney tied the knot in a private ceremony away from the prying eyes of paparazzi. And Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts and John F. Kennedy Jr. all managed to marry without the media finding out.

Smooth jazz vocalist Gabriela Anders has also managed to keep her marriage secret, although not because she didn’t want anyone to know. She just says she didn’t think anyone would be interested, did not give out any interviews and put nothing on her website. We’ve now learned that Gabriela’s wedding – which is secret no longer – occurred at a small church in New York City on May 22, 2004, in front of a small group of family and friends.

So who’s the lucky guy? He’s Wayne Krantz, a guitarist who performed on Gabriela’s latest CD, Last Tango in Rio. The name may not be too familiar, but Krantz has released several solo CDs and has appeared on albums by Steely Dan, Michael Brecker and others. We've now learned that Gabriela and Wayne have been keeping another secret – they are the proud parents of a nine-month baby girl named Marley Meredith Krantz.

Anders fell in love with her soon-to-be husband while watching him perform in a New York City club where he performs every Thursday night. "I was checking it out, then slowly we became friends and then we started to date," Anders recalls with a laugh. "And now we’ve become married and have a little baby. I have a small family, he has a small family, so the wedding was cool."

Marley will stay at home with her Dad in New York while Mom performs Sept. 10 in Huntington Beach, Calif.