KIRK FRANKLIN 'BLESSED' WITH YAMAHA MOTIF

—Gospel Singer Tours With Motif Synths—

BUENA PARK, CA (November 15, 2002)—Hailed as "The Garth Brooks of Gospel" and credited as almost single-handedly bringing traditional inspirational music to the general public, Yamaha artist Kirk Franklin is one of the brightest stars in Contemporary Inspirational music, with a goal of "…reaching our youth with a positive and uplifting message."

Kirk Franklin

His 1993 debut, Kirk Franklin and the Family, spent 100 weeks on the Billboard Gospel charts, and was the first gospel debut to achieve platinum status. Soon after, Kirk Franklin & the Family Christmas became the genre's first Christmas album to hit number one, and 1996's Whatcha Lookin' 4 went gold immediately after its release. Franklin's latest album, The Rebirth of Kirk Franklin, features some of today's top gospel artists (Donnie McClurkin, Richard Smallwood, Crystal Lewis, Shirley Caesar, Jaci Valesquez, and the late Willie Neal Johnson), and is being supported on the "Hopeville" tour—his biggest tour to date. While on the road, Franklin and his band spread the gospel of music and positive message with a fusion of R&B, rock, hip-hop, pop, jazz and traditional gospel choir arrangements through the help of multiple Yamaha Motif Music Production Synthesizers.

"The sounds on the Motif—when it's time to get funky—are just wonderful," Franklin explains." I haven't played a grand piano sound that has been that lush in a long time. The string, horn and harmonica patches are out of this world."

Since its introduction, the Yamaha Motif Music Production Synthesizer has become the tool of choice for many of the world's top performers, onstage and in the studio. In one fantastic package, Motif combines the power of the world's most advanced synthesizer, the hands-on immediacy of a groove box, the proprietary Integrated Sampling Sequencer (ISS) and a user interface which puts this powerhouse at the user's fingertips. Available in 61-, 76- and weighted action 88-key versions, Motif features Yamaha's AWM2 tone generation and an amazing 85MB of Wave ROM (when converted to 16-bit linear format) for a complete palette of high-quality sounds: stereo acoustic instruments, cutting-edge dance sounds, ambient textures, plus many of the best waveforms from Yamaha's acclaimed S80, 9000 Pro and EX family of synthesizer products.

The Fort Worth (TX) native has been involved in music since childhood, leading a church choir by age 11. Rebellious teenage years saw him return to the church to spend all of his time composing and performing gospel music when a close friend was killed in a shooting. In 1991 he formed "The Family," a 17-member choir comprised of neighborhood friends. In 1997, Franklin began collaborating as producer and mentor to the inner-city youth choir "God's Property," producing the crossover hit "Stomp."

Franklin's last tour venue of the year will be a concert at the Alltel Arena in Little Rock, AR, on December 1st. Franklin will hit the road again after the holidays, beginning at the Universal Amphitheatre in Stockton, CA, January 13th, 2003.

"We're extremely grateful to Yamaha to be blessed with the Motif's," he notes. "They've been wonderful—we have five on stage. My guys [in the band] have been going bananas over them. They've been fighting over them—they're the hottest thing on the street. We put the other keyboards back in the box as soon as the Motifs arrived."

For more information on the Motif, contact Yamaha Corporation of America, Pro Audio & Combo Division, Digital Musical Instruments, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622, telephone 714-522-9011, email infostation@yamaha.com; or visit www.yamaha.com, www.yamahasynth.com or www.motifator.com.