Javier Colon

Javier Colon (stylized as Colón; born April 29, 1978) is an American acoustic singer-songwriter.

He has referred to his style of music as being "acoustic soul."

He was a member of EmcQ and The Derek Trucks Band, and worked with many musicians before going solo.

Following his college graduation and a successful audition in July 2000, Javier joined the band in August 2000.

From 2002 to 2006, he was signed to Capitol Records, known as artist Javier.

After touring with the band for nearly two years, Javier, then 24 years old, left the band in April 2002 to pursue a solo career, having been signed by Capitol Records.

He went on to release two albums with Capitol Records, the first the self-titled Javier in 2003, and the second entitled Left of Center in 2006.

Since parting ways with Capitol Records, Javier has performed with such diverse acts as Joss Stone, Darius Rucker, the Indigo Girls, Stevie Nicks, Adam Levine, and Anthony Hamilton, and recorded an EP on his own label, Javier Colon Music.

On stage, Javier's primary instruments are steel and nylon stringed acoustic guitars by Larrivée (guitar company) and Taylor Guitars.

On August 5, 2003 – Javier released his debut, self-titled album on Capitol Records.

His first single, entitled "Crazy", debuted at No. 95 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 42 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

The second single, "Beautiful U R", did not have the same commercial success as his first release.

The album reached No. 91 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and No. 18 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

Javier consisted of mainly R&B songs, with a mixture of other genres such as jazz and funk, as well as a little influence of Javier's Latin roots.

After the release, Javier's music style drew comparisons with the likes of Kenny Lattimore, Brian McKnight, and Babyface.

Pianist Mulgrew Miller and trumpeter Roy Hargrove performed on the final track, "October Sky", the only featured artists to appear on the album.

In 2006, however, the contract was terminated and Javier Colon became an independent artist with his own label, Javier Colon Music.

On March 7, 2006 – Three years after his self-titled debut, Javier released his second album Left of Center.

The album title was used to demonstrate that Javier was not like the rest of the present Contemporary R&B artists.

Javier did keep to his main R&B/Neo-soul genre, but again mixed in other styles and genres.

Three singles from album were released: "Indecent Proposal", "Dance for Me", and "The Answer is Yes".

None of them had any major success, and the album only reached #37 on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.

Like Javier, Left of Center had minimal artist features, namely just fellow R&B artist Anthony Hamilton who appeared on the song "Count On Me".

Although the album was not successful commercially, multiple reviews praised Javier for his unique style and willingness to do his own thing.

In 2009, he was featured as singer and songwriter for song, "October Sky", on Vanessa Williams's vocal album, The Real Thing.

On August 3, 2010 – This six-song EP entitled "The Truth" was released on Javier's own label.

In the Album Notes for the EP at CD Baby, Javier is quoted as saying, "The Truth-Acoustic EP is part 1 of a larger project that I've been working on for over 3 years. I've taken a few songs that will be on my upcoming album Ok... Here's The Truth and recorded them acoustically for this EP."

In 2011, He was the winner of season 1 of American talent competition show on NBC, The Voice, receiving $100,000 and signing a recording contract with Universal Republic Records.

Starting April 26, 2011, Javier Colon appeared as a contestant on NBC's reality talent show The Voice.

The show, produced by John de Mol and Mark Burnett, features a group of contestants competing for a $100,000 grand prize and a Universal Republic recording contract.

On the first show, Javier sang the Cyndi Lauper classic "Time After Time".

All four judges, Adam Levine, Cee-Lo Green, Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera, opted to take him as one of their finalists, with both Levine and Shelton giving him a standing ovation.

He was the only contestant in blind auditions stage besides Jeff Jenkins to win all four judges.

Colon eventually decided to part ways with Universal Republic in 2012.

Colon was born in Stratford, Connecticut, the son of a Dominican father and Puerto Rican mother.

His father worked in a radio station.

He went to Frank Scott Bunnell High School in Stratford, Connecticut, where he started writing songs.

Then he pursued a degree in music education from the University of Hartford's Hartt School.

While studying, Javier also performed as vocalist and percussionist in EmcQ, a soul/funk band led by lead guitarist Ian McHugh and mainly dedicated to the legacy of Stevie Wonder.

When EmcQ opened a show for the soul-jazz trio Soulive, the group's guitarist, Eric Krasno, was impressed by Javier's vocals and recommended him to his friend Derek Trucks, who he knew was looking for a lead vocalist for The Derek Trucks Band.