It’s Okay to Dream is Bob Baldwin’s contemporary jazz record with two tracks from Mozambique’s Jimmy Dludlu.

Whereas his other released-at-the-same-time album “Songs My Father Would Dig” is a straight-ahead jazz project, “It’s Okay To Dream” is a contemporary jazz outing and one which marks the first time in 24 years that an artist has dropped two new albums on the same day in two different genres of jazz.

Another unique aspect of Baldwin’s extensive repertoire is that he exclusively owns the rights to all but seven of his albums, which makes him one of a select few recording artists who can make that claim. That places Baldwin in the company of Michael Jackson, Prince, James Brown, Ray Charles and Bob James, each of whom were proponents of artists owning the rights to their own recordings.

“The cool jazz era of the 1960’s was my father’s era and the backdrop to my own music foundation. This is a lifetime project for me due to the fact that the piano sound and recording had to be on point and picking songs that were my father’s favorites. Jazz of the 1960’s was post-bebop and Avant Garde. It had a slight pop feel and was easy for the non-music listener. It was palatable and eventually became the launching pad for contemporary jazz in the 1970’s,” reveals Baldwin, who splits his time between Westchester, New York and Atlanta, Georgia.

1. Cape Town At Night (feat. Jimmy Dludlu)
2. Turn Up the Positive
3. That One
4. My Will (feat. Q. Coleman)
5. Malema, Pt. 1 (feat. Jimmy Dludlu)
6. Malema, Pt. 2 (feat. Jimmy Dludlu)
7. Dreamin the Dream
8. I’m Good (Thanks for Asking)
9. Get the Love (feat. Zoiea)
10. Complicit (feat. Rick Watford)
11. It’s Okay to Dream
12. ’Til We Meet Again (Contemporary Mix)

The album opens on the energetic Cape Town At Night (featuring the Mozambique-born musician Jimmy Dludlu, who combines traditional and modern elements of jazz to perfection) and the free-flowing Turn Up the Positive and then we get the atmospheric opulence that resides within That One, the all-embracing My Will (featuring Q. Coleman), and then Part’s 1 and 2 of a sprawling Malema (once again featuring Dludlu) are along next.

Along next is the gently grooved Dreamin the Dream and the vividly-hued I’m Good (Thanks for Asking), and they are in turn backed neatly by the funky Get the Love (feat. Zoiea), the light and breezy feel of Complicit (featuring Grammy, Dove & Stellar award winning guitarist/producer Rick Watford), the recording rounding out on the cultured balladry of It’s Okay to Dream, coming to a close on a contemporary mix of ’Til We Meet Again.

www.bobbaldwin.com