American jazz recording artist Amber Weekes celebrates the birth centenary of songwriter, poet, playwright, and Civil Rights activist Oscar Brown, Jr., with her deeply-felt fifth album, “To Oscar with Love.” It is the most unique and powerful album of her career, with a strong backstory.

Weekes first “met” Brown as a pre-teen, while riding with her two sisters in the back seat of their mom’s car in Los Angeles. When his song, “The Snake,” came on the radio, their mom asked them to stop chatting and listen to “this really old song” of Brown’s. She wanted them to listen to the lesson in his words. Weekes became hooked. As she grew up and into her own musical repertoire, Brown’s songs found their way into her albums, beginning with her promotional recording of his song, “Hazel’s Hips,” in 2002. In 2021, her producer, Mark Cargill, re-mixed, re-mastered, and re-orchestrated the song for Weekes’ second market release, Round Midnight-Reimagined. The song reminded Weekes of her aunt’s real-life romance with actor Sidney Poitier, a patron at the family business, Weekes’ Luncheonette in Harlem, where her aunt worked as a waitress.

Weekes was honored to meet Brown during his LA years, and later performed with him at a fundraiser for donnie l. betts’ documentary, Music is My Life, Politics My Mistress: The Story of Oscar Brown, Jr. In the days leading up to the fundraiser, Brown became Weekes’ most famous houseguest. After Brown’s death in 2005, Weekes knew that someday she would record an album of his music.

Weekes partnered with acclaimed producer, arranger and conductor Mark Cargill to record Brown’s songs. She selected those that would convey her deep respect for him and the messages he left for the world to discover. She is accompanied by LA “A listers,” pianist Tony Campodonico, guitarist Paul Jackson, Jr., trumpeter James Ford, saxophonist Phillip Whack, and violinist, string and horn arranger, and conductor Mark Cargill, among others.

Raised in Los Angeles in a home filled with the sounds of Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Barbara Streisand, Diahann Carroll, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nancy Wilson, Weekes was born to sing. She has performed as a classic and contemporary jazz vocalist all around the United States and the world, including Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. She is a frequent headliner at Hollywood’s famed Catalina Jazz Club on Sunset Boulevard. Weekes’ jazz albums have ranked high as some of America’s best. With each performance and project, she continues to carry the torch for the great legacy of jazz.

For more information, visit www.amberweekes.com.