Artist Name: Mindi Abair

Website: www.mindiabair.com

The Artist Plays: ALTO and SOPRANO Saxophone

The Artist's Tool of the Trade: LB124CT

This St. Petersburg, FL, native is a graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston and has played alto/soprano saxophone with the Backstreet Boys, Mandy Moore, Jonathan Butler, Adam Sandler and Bobby Lyle, among others.

It Just Happens That Way showcases Mindi's abilities as not only a distinctive voice on saxophone, but also as a writer (she co-wrote every tune except the cover of Eagle-Eye Cherry's "Save Tonight," where she reveals her vocal style with backgrounds by Duran Duran's John Taylor). Produced by Matthew Hager [Mandy Moore, John Taylor], a friend from her days at Berklee, the album features contemporary jazz laced with R&B/soul rhythms and pop melodies on songs like "Lucy's," "Save the Last Dance," "Salt and Lime" and the title track.

Pop, R&B, soul and jazz were all seminal musical influences on Abair, who grew up in a musical household (her grandmother was an opera singer, her father a professional saxophonist/keyboardist). She was on the road with her father until the time she was five, at which time she started learning to play keyboards, eventually picking up the saxophone at age eight.