Mindi Abair

Mindi Abair (born May 23, 1969) is an American contemporary jazz saxophonist with a strong Top-40 pop music background. Mindi has toured and/or recorded with the Backstreet Boys, Duran Duran, Mandy Moore, Josh Groban, Adam Sandler, Keb’ Mo’, Lalah Hathaway, Lee Ritenour, Teena Marie, John Tesh, Bobby Lyle, Jonathan Butler, Peter White and Rick Braun.
Mindi Abair with her silver plated Selmer Mark VI alto saxophone.

In 1999 she independently released a pop album, Always and Never the Same.

In 2003, Abair moved from pop to jazz. She signed to Verve Records and released the album It Just Happens That Way, which peaked at #7 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart and remained in the Top 10 for 19 consecutive weeks.[citation needed] Billboard magazine named It Just Happens That Way one of the top 10 Contemporary Jazz CDs of the year.[citation needed] Her hit single “Lucy’s,” was #1 on R&R[clarification needed] for a record-breaking eight weeks. Her 2004 release Come As You Are peaked at #9 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz charts. Her 2006 release Life Less Ordinary peaked at #2 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart[4] and remained in the top 20 for 45 weeks.[citation needed] Her songs “True Blue” and “Bloom” hit #1 on R&R. She signed to Concord Records in 2007, and her latest 2008 release Stars broke the usual genre barriers, with her single “Stars” (written and produced by Matthew Hager) charting #29 Adult Contemporary R&R simultaneously with her single “Smile” hitting top ten on the R&R jazz airplay charts.[citation needed]

Abair also plays the flute and keyboard and sings, and she has hosted the nationally syndicated radio program Chill with Mindi Abair since 2007, which focuses on chill out music.