Dance CD sales to benefit music industry AIDS group

Sales of a new dance and house music CD titled Keep Hope Alive,released nationwide on October 5, will benefit LIFEbeat: The Music Industry Fights AIDS. LIFEbeat is a nonprofit organization that works to reach America's youth with HIV prevention messages. The CD includes songs by Underground Dance Artists United for Life, a group that includes Kenny Bobien, Barbara Tucker, Ultra Nate, Arnold Jarvis, Byron Stingily, Joi Cardwell, and Blaze. Five tracks on the CD are sung by the entire group of singers, plus eight backup singers, in a collaboration akin to the 1984 USA for Africa fund-raiser album We Are the World that combated hunger and poverty in Africa. All but one of the tracks on the CD are written by Blaze, comprised of Kevin Hedge and Josh Milan; the other cut is cowritten by Blaze and Joi Cardwell. The CD is being released by New York City house label King Street Sounds and is available at chain music stores, online stores, and specialty music shops.