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12
Album Review

Aka Balkan Moon & AlefBa: Double Live

Read "Double Live" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


The music of the Balkans has been progressively finding a prominent place among Western listeners of creative music in the past several years, though its presence has been a relevant factor for decades. Notably Raya Brass Band, Eastern Boundary Quartet and Balkan Beat Box have directly and indirectly incorporated the regional influences in the context of post-modern approaches blending regional folk, world and jazz elements. A number of like-minded musicians--the core trio, Aka Moon (billed here as the “AKA Balkan ...

174
Album Review

Various: The Very Best of This Is Acid Jazz: A 10 Year Celebration

Read "The Very Best of This Is Acid Jazz: A 10 Year Celebration" reviewed by AAJ Staff


This double CD collection charts the growth and mutation of a genre that has little acid-ic about it, and whose links to jazz are usually by way of funk. The first disc, covering the years 1991-1996 has a distinctly more upbeat tone and features funky jam sessions that channel the energy of the peak of the acid jazz movement. Tracks from Little Big Bee and the Hip Joints are cheerful reminders of the kind of funk that Brand New Heavies ...

161
Album Review

Various Artists: This is Smooth Jazz

Read "This is Smooth Jazz" reviewed by Robert Spencer


Yet another stellar smoothie collection from Instinct Jazz brings you the silky sounds of Kirk Whalum, Gerald Albright, Brian Bromberg, and more. This is the music of smooth evenings with young ladies like the one on the cover of this disc, and, smooth fans, glass and babies' bottoms never had it so good.

A minor quibble, that does not detract from the velvet danceable sheen of this music: this collection comes with helpful profiles of each of the artists, but ...

170
Album Review

Various Artists: 10 New Smooth Jazz Releases from Instinct Jazz

Read "10 New Smooth Jazz Releases from Instinct Jazz" reviewed by Robert Spencer


Just when you think the music can't get any slicker, or groovier, or smoother, Instinct Jazz does it again. Smoothie jazz fans, get on your dancing shoes and lower the lights; it just doesn't get any smoother than these ten.

Bill Sharpe,State of the Heart, Instinct 426

Keyboard sharpie extraordinaire Bill Sharpe lets the rhythm take you high on eight originals plus two from fellow keyboard wiz Don Grusin. The grooves are jumping but as smooth as they can be, ...

128
Album Review

Count Basic: Trust Your Instincts

Read "Trust Your Instincts" reviewed by Robert Spencer


As you might expect from the Count at this point, Trust Your Instincts is funky, glossy, shimmery, soulful, wailing, smooth, and incredibly booty-shaking. The Count (is he this slick-headed gentleman accompanied by the amply-endowed woman in the liners?) delivers up, amid deft shifts of personnel, a nonstop funkfest enlivened by vocals as strong as those of any diva wailing and whispering and cajoling nowadays.

Underneath the vocals is popping synthesizer and drum work, laying down a foundation as smooth as ...

152
Album Review

Various Artists: The Best of Acid Jazz: In the Mix

Read "The Best of Acid Jazz: In the Mix" reviewed by Robert Spencer


Yes, yasss, dig him, it's DJ Smash, bringing you a nonstop party of Acid Jazz, that funky stepchild of the r&b funk pioneered in the Sixties by Lee Morgan, Ike Quebec, and so many others.

“Everybody Loves the Sunshine" kicks off the jamfest is a vocal number from The Soul Society, featuring Roy Ayers. It's worthy of Earth, Wind, and Fire, or at least Earth, Wind, and Cool Breezes.

Sharpshooters follow with “Heavyweight," a synthesizer boogaloo featuring chunky unison horns ...

125
Album Review

Brian Tarquin: Soft Touch

Read "Soft Touch" reviewed by Robert Spencer


This music was born in the Seventies. Do you remember “The Hustle"? Barry White? If you like that, baby, this is for you! Danceable grooves that last all day long, fronted by Tarquin's sweet guitar, plus the saxophones of Phil Brown and Jacko Peake, Damon Brown's trumpet, and the sax and flute of Dave John-Baptiste. There's even a string base, courtesy programmer Tony Campbell.

There is nothing overheated, nothing overdone, not a hair out of place in the music of ...

175
Album Review

Various Artists: Smooth Jazz Radio Hits, Volume One

Read "Smooth Jazz Radio Hits, Volume One" reviewed by Robert Spencer


Oh yaaaaaaaaaaasssss, it's another smoothfest from Instinct Jazz, and this one, let me tell you, is smoother'n glass, smoother'n the finest crystal, smoother'n your bathroom mirror, and oh yaaasss, smoother'n yer baby's bottom.

It's two from the redoubtable Gota, three from the jam meister extraordinaire Count Basic, and one each from Soundscape UK, Brian Tarquin, Duncan Millar, Shakatak, Exodus Quartet, and Chris Standring.

If you do not know those names, and yet call yourself a smoothie, get this disc and ...

145
Album Review

Nite Flyte: Ascension

Read "Ascension" reviewed by Robert Spencer


Ascension ! What! Nite Flyte, smoothies extraordinaire, covering Coltrane's most ear-stretching avant-garde piece of all?? Fear not, friends of Mr. Smooth. Other than a loose album-long concept ("Lift Off," “Take Me Up," ), this smoothie document bears no resemblance whatsoever to Trane's fabled Sixties freak-out. No, Nite Flyte's Ascension is a freak-out for the Nineties, a feast for folks who couldn't care less about anything - not Clinton, not Monica, not Saddam, not Kosovo - except where and when they'll ...

58
Album Review

Various artists: Smooth Jazz for a Rainy Day

Read "Smooth Jazz for a Rainy Day" reviewed by Robert Spencer


Smooth Jazz for a Rainy Day promises exactly what it delivers, and delivers exactly what it promises: shimmering smooth music, not a hair out of place, well-executed and solidly danceable. This Instinct collection kicks off with Joe Fuentes' “Slow Brew," on which his reflective, musing guitar easing out over an elegant funk beat; it's a smooth opening to a goldmine for smoothies.

The elegant funk never lets up. On the second track, the more extroverted “Maybe Someday," Darren Motmedy plies ...


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