Castle Rock – A photo of Gerald and Glynis Albright in an ornate silver frame sits atop a black baby grand piano just inside the door of their golf course home. The last person to play this piano was the R&B singer Omarion, who dropped by his aunt and uncle’s new Colorado digs for a quick visit this summer.
The engraving on the frame reads: The Albrights in Colorado.
Move from this formal sitting room into any other area of the Albright’s eclectic home awash in high-end custom furniture, paintings by contemporary Chinese artists, collectible metalwork and animal prints, and the story unfolds:
After decades in Los Angeles, where Gerald engineered a noteworthy jazz career and Glynis founded both an interior design business and the health-minded baking company Just Sweet Enough, the pair and their kids left the glare of Hollywood behind in 2005 for a new life and a new house in Colorado.
“We weren’t really serious about moving,” Glynis says about the days spent touring several suburban Denver neighborhoods with a real estate agent recommended by a local friend and fan of Gerald’s music.
“In that two-day period, we probably looked at 20 or 25 homes,” her husband adds. “Some of them were really remote. I mean, serious wildlife.”
But what began with curiosity evolved into determination to relocate once the couple found this home nestled among regional wildflowers and a gurgling stream.
The house is a 10-year-old, Mediterranean-inspired two-story with a commercial kitchen stocked with Viking appliances, three outdoor terraces, mountain views and a full finished basement where Gerald has installed a home studio and the couple’s 16-year-old son, Brandon, overtakes the game room with his friends.
“We loved it before, then we saw the downstairs,” says the smooth-jazz saxophonist, whose latest CD, “New Beginnings,” was released earlier this year. “For her business and my business, it’s really conducive.” As long as there is an airport nearby, he adds, business continues, for the most part, as it did in Los Angeles.
Since relocating, the Albrights have spent their time settling into very different surroundings from their longtime home in Moorpark, Calif. Their teenager, for instance, zeroed in on his golf game. Now, he practices on the nearby course and plays on his high school team.
“His game is really coming on strong,” Dad says. “I’m looking at his swing and thinking, ‘That’s what I’d like to emulate.”‘
Even low-key accolades carry weight when they come from this man who once exchanged saxophone tips with Bill Clinton. “You forget he was the president, he’s just so personable,” Gerald says.
The Albrights’ 24-year-old daughter, Selina, wasted little time before becoming involved in Denver’s local music scene. On Friday, she will take the stage at Herman’s Hideaway in her role as the newest vocalist to work with the hip-hop-jazz-fusion band Future Jazz Project.
Glynis, meanwhile, is a New Orleans native with a flair for food and design. She has been focused on doctoral studies in natural health, and on utilizing her well-stocked new kitchen to experiment with recipes for her Web-driven, low-sugar gourmet baking business Just Sweet Enough.
Born from her own battle against and recovery from cancer, the company quickly gained a following for its Sweet Potato Poundcake and easy-to-pop, not-too-sweet Cookie Dots. Clinton, Alicia Keys, Colin Powell, Bill Cosby, Dave Koz, Halle Berry, Kim Fields and Samuel L. Jackson are among the celebrities who have given endorsements to Just Sweet Enough.
“There are Bibles all over the place,” Glynis says while standing in her kitchen near an abundance of spices and cookbooks. “We’re from the old school. Any time an important piece of paper comes into the house, you tuck it in the Bible.”
And while the easy way to get these new Coloradans chatting is to ask them about music, baking or parenthood, none of those subjects sparks as much lively chatter as a query about their first encounter, 34 years ago.
Glynis: “Oh my goodness, we met in the eighth grade.”
Gerald: “But we were in different classes at the time.”
Glynis: “He was a very neat dresser and he carried a briefcase. … He was so quiet. But once he picked up that horn, he transformed. I thought that was so exciting. He sent me a little note asking me to be his girl, on June 9th. I guess it was the next day. …”
Gerald: “No, it was a couple days after that.”
Glynis: “Oh, all my friends had to find out first. …”
From there the conversation devolves into a memory-lane volley as each Albright competes to remember the fellow eighth-graders who, in 1972, helped bring them together.
“By the time we made it to the 10th grade, we had already named our kids,” Glynis says. “Now every year on June 9th, we celebrate.”
But this year is special. In December, the Albrights will mark their 25th wedding anniversary. Glynis shrugs off the idea of a flashy party. Her husband seems insistent, and keeps coming back to the idea of hosting something in the new house.
Could it be that after a year rooted so close to the mountains, this new place in Colorado finally feels like home?
“Yeah,” Gerald says with a nod toward a big, soft, suede sectional in the main-level family room where the Albrights spend most of their time. “It really does.”
Staff writer Elana Ashanti Jefferson can be reached at 303-954-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com.
