Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Ray Alexander: Down to Earth

130

Ray Alexander: Down to Earth

By

View read count
Ray Alexander: Down to Earth
There is one “smooth jazz” radio station here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the music in trumpeter Ray Alexander’s debut album, Down to Earth, would be right at home on the playlist. Not, as Seinfeld would say, that there’s anything wrong with that. But it must be noted that smooth jazz, with its syrupy melodic contrivances, tedious rhythmic patterns and irksome synthetic props, is definitely an acquired taste, one that I’ve thus far managed to elude.

Alexander, on the other hand, seems to have come to it naturally, having worked in the showrooms of various Las Vegas hotels accompanying pop stars Tony Bennett, Nancy Wilson, Robert Goulet, Lou Rawls, Mitzi Gaynor, Julio Iglesias, Natalie Cole and many others, toured with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, the Temptations, the Spinners, Mary Wilson and Harry Connick Jr., and served as horn contractor and interim music director for the Four Tops. He may be a fine trumpeter, but one could never verify the assumption by listening to this hodgepodge, on which his horn is ordinarily submerged beneath a rising tide of acoustic and electronic clatter. Not that there’s anything wrong with that...

Two of the songs, “Never Can Say Goodbye” and “People Make the World Go Round,” are performed by a fourteen-piece ensemble, the others by groups ranging from sextet to tentet. Alongside the usual pop residue are standards by Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Michel Legrand and Don Raye/Gene DePaul, but each of them has been infected by the smooth Jazz virus and is unable to swing. Not that there’s anything wrong with that...

Fans of undemanding jazz (and there are many) should find Alexander’s otherwise sleep-inducing themes quite agreeable. The rest of us must content ourselves with jazz that engages rather than numbs the mind.

Track Listing

All of You; Pieces of Dreams; Smoke Gets in Your Eyes; Little Things; Maxine; Never Can Say Goodbye; Star Eyes; Turn Your Love Around; You

Personnel

(Collective)

Album information

Title: Down to Earth | Year Released: 2004 | Record Label: Independent Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Eternal Moments
Yoko Yates
From "The Hellhole"
Marshall Crenshaw
Tramonto
John Taylor

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.