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Keyboardist, trombonist, and producer Brian Culbertson has landed at Number One on the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart this week with his all-star project Bringing Back The Funk. The Chicago-based musician debuted in the top slot with his tenth album, which is a salute to '70s funk and soul.

This is Culbertson's second back-to-back chart topper, after 2005's popular It's On Tonight.

Bringing Back The Funk is executive produced by Earth, Wind & Fire's Maurice White, and features special guests William "Bootsy" Collins, Musiq Soulchild, Ledisi, Larry Graham, Gerald Albright, Sheldon Reynolds, Maceo Parker, Tony Maiden, Ray Parker Jr., Ronnie Laws, Tom Scott, Paul Jackson Jr., and many others.

Culbertson's lead-off single from the project is the tune "Always Remember," which has risen to Number Eight on the national smooth jazz airplay chart.

Trumpet star Rick Braun is currently on tour with his saxophonist friend and business partner Richard Elliot to promote their duet set R'n'R across the country. The title track from their first-ever studio collaboration is a bona fide smooth jazz hit, and their latest single, "Better Days," is rising fast on the radio charts.

Braun gets a break from performing this Sunday, on Mother's Day. He says that growing up in suburban Pennsylvania, he got a lot of support as a musician from his own mom, and co-wrote the tune "Mother's Day" for his 2003 solo album Esperanto. He explained: "She was so important in me being where I am right now. You know, she was so supportive but on the other hand she was so musically aware and she could hear when I wasn't doing things well and she was not gonna settle for second best. And so in a way she was my auxiliary trumpet teacher and my person who pushed me to greater heights."

The R'n'R tour will play a date tomorrow, May 10th, at the Thornton Winery in Temecula, California.

Frank Sinatra's children will be on hand in three different states on Tuesday (May 13th) to celebrate then new Frank Sinatra first-class postage stamp. The Associated Press reported that the new 42 cent stamp, which marks the penny increase starting Monday, will be celebrated at three separate ceremonies in New York, New Jersey, and Las Vegas.

The United States Post Office's (USPS) chairman of the board of governors Alan Kessler will join Sinatra's daughter Nancy Sinatra and son, Frank Sinatra Jr., as well as Rep. Jose E. Serrano, for a 10 a.m. ceremony at Gotham Hall in New York City.

Later that day, Frank Sinatra Jr. will join Rep. Albio Sires, in a ceremony in his father's hometown of Hoboken, N.J. at Pier A Park which sits on at 1st Street and Frank Sinatra Drive.

In Las Vegas, Sinatra's youngest daughter Tina Sinatra will join Postal Service governor James Bilbray in dedicating the stamp at the Bellagio fountain's main alcove on Las Vegas Boulevard.

USPS's chairman of the board of governors Alan Kessler said, "Frank Sinatra was our nation's first modern entertainment superstar. He had looks and charm, talent and skill, creativity, tenacity and style."

Frank Sinatra Jr. was his father's bandleader for the last decade of his career. He recalled the night his father called him and asked him to become his conductor: "It was March of 1988 and my father asked me to conduct for him. And after my associates revived me with the smelling salts, I said, 'Why do you need me to do this?,' and he said, 'Because I can't get any of these conductors to understand what I'm trying to do. And I'm thinking, maybe another singer would understand what a singer is trying to do.'"

Bassist Gerald Veasley is busy promoting his latest album Your Move, which features his astounding skills on the bass as well as on the guitar. The album also features the contributions of writer and producer Chuck Loeb.

Veasley says he first learned how to play the guitar before switching to the deeper-voiced instrument, but says he doesn't miss playing guitar that much. He explained: "I've got my bass. And the six-string bass allows you to really have quite a range, both a dynamic range and a range of expression, a wide range of pitch. So a lot of cool stuff you can do, I mean, you can play melody, you can play chords, and of course you can play very, very funky on it. To me it's really one of the great instruments. And I'm still trying to figure it out after all these years."

Veasley's current single from the set is the upbeat "Slip N' Slide."

The bassist is expected to kick off an international tour with Loeb later this summer.

Veteran singer Patti Austin has become part of a new campaign by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which works to raise awareness and provide aid to victims of domestic violence. The Grammy winner has written an inspirational new song titled "By The Grace Of God" for the organization's Every Home A Safe Home campaign.

The song is an anthem about survival that was inspired by a segment on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Austin says she was at home in southern California watching an Oprah segment about a woman who was physically abused and barely survived. Oprah's last words to close the segment were "she survived by the Grace of God." The phrase had such an impact on Austin that she sat down at the piano and composed the tune "By The Grace Of God" within 15 minutes.

This past February, Austin earned her very first Grammy Award for her work on the live big band tribute CD Avant-Gershwin.