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Chris Standring: Wonderful World
by Richard J Salvucci
Many years ago, there was a radio station, WJBR, broadcasting from Wilmington, Delaware. The call sign stood for Just Beautiful Radio and that was precisely what you got. No-one called it easy listening or anything like that--it was the early 1960s--but listeners got a predictable dose of Percy Faith, Ray Conniff, Frank Chacksfield, nothing too challenging. The announcers had a predictable style as wellmodulated, mellow, reassuring. In those days, with the possibility of nuclear war never far from anyone's mind, ...
read moreChris Standring: Wonderful World
by Pierre Giroux
Chris Standring is a Los Angeles-based contemporary jazz guitarist who was originally raised in Buckinghamshire, England. He has always had an itch to record an album of standards and that was scratched with the release of Wonderful World . Through the marvels of technology, Standring was able to record the trio tracks in several locations in California with some bold face names such as Peter Erskine, Chuck Berghofer and Randy Brecker, while the orchestral input was arranged and conducted by ...
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by Jack Bowers
Wonderful World, the fourteenth album as leader by British guitarist Chris Standring, was no doubt recorded with the best of intentions. And make no mistake, the music is warm and lovely, furnishing an opulent showcase for Standring's mellow guitar. Aside from that, however, there's not a whole lot to say. Standring's orchestra" consists of a nineteen-member string section, while Geoff Gascoyne's syrupy arrangements call to mind popular string-laden sessions from the 1950s and '60s, easy listening" albums for late-night lovers" ...
read moreHarvey Mason: Chameleon
by Jeff Winbush
When you've been making music as long as Harvey Mason has as a solo artist and manning the drum chair for Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Donald Byrd,and more artists than there is space here to list, you are not only pleasing longtime fans, you're making new converts as well. Some who might ask, This guy's pretty good. Wonder what else he's done?" Mason's answer is his first album in a decade, Chameleon and he both looks back at ...
read moreThe Complete Arista Albums Collection
by John Kelman
When fusion first emerged in the late 1960s/early '70s with artists like trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Chick Corea and guitarist John McLaughlin, the emphasis was on guitar and keyboard heavy lineups like Return to Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra, with an equally strong predilection for the intensity and volume of rock and a kind of thundering funk that was different than the kind of music coming from R&B and soul artists like Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind & Fire. Parallel to ...
read moreHarvey Mason: With All My Heart
by Javier AQ Ortiz
Harvey Mason's motto on With All My Heart seems to be The one who plays drums in a jazz trio with the most bad-ass pianists and bassists wins. Arguably, that can be also stated of his entire career, as he has played and recorded with a mind-numbing amount of artists through various historical periods and musical styles. The lengthy and illustrious development of the quintessential small jazz group is definitely boosted by this recording.The premise of the production ...
read moreHarvey Mason: With All My Heart
by AAJ Staff
Harvey Mason With All My Heart RCA 2004
Straight-ahead jazz fans and the more purist" minded of jazz listeners among us have a tendency to write off the overall musical abilities of those who play contemporary or smooth jazz. This often boils down to little more than guilt by association, as one will make an assumption about the musical talent of someone who performs music they don't really respect. Just because of ...
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