U-Nam

Emerging from Paris yet long established in Los Angeles, guitarist U-Nam delivers a soul-steeped, rhythm-driven sound shaped by his admiration for George Benson. Early notice arrived in the 2000s through the releases The Past Builds the Future and Back from the 80's. As founder of Skytown Records, he has placed multiple tracks inside the Billboard Smooth Jazz Top 20, among them a version of the Crusaders’ “Street Life” from the 2007 album Back from the 80's and “Risin’ to the Top” from 2014’s C’est le Funk.

Emmanuel Abiteboul entered the world in Paris in 1970. He picked up the guitar near age twelve and soon absorbed the work of George Benson, Stevie Wonder, and George Duke. After secondary school he completed a three-year program at Paris’s CIM (Le Centre d'informations musicales), then spent the next decade as a session player across pop, R&B, and jazz. Signing with Trippin ’n’ Rhythm, he issued his first solo album, 2005’s The Past Builds the Future, which included contributions from Jeff Lorber, Rahsaan Patterson, and Phil Perry; the European single “I’m Only U-Nam” appeared on that project.

In 2007 he returned with Back from the 80's, reworking well-known jazz and R&B tracks of that decade; the Crusaders cover “Street Life” reached number three on the Billboard Smooth Jazz Songs chart. That same year he relocated to the United States and made Los Angeles his base. Unanimity, his third studio set, arrived in 2008 and featured Marva King and Najee along with a reading of George Duke’s “Shine On.” Festival dates kept him active worldwide, including appearances at the Catalina JazzTrax Festival, the Dave Koz and Friends Cruise, and the Dubai Jazz Festival.

U-Nam established Skytown Records in 2012 and marked the label’s launch with the all-star album Weekend in L.A.: A Tribute to George Benson, enlisting longtime Benson collaborators Patrice Rushen, Ronnie Foster, and Marcus Miller. Two years later came C’est le Funk, which yielded the Top 20 singles “Smoovin’” and “Risin’ to the Top.” Surface Level followed in 2016, carrying the Billboard Smooth Jazz Song “Going for Miles” to number 23. After sessions with Bob Baldwin and Darryl Williams, he delivered his seventh studio album, Future Love, in 2019.