Robert Chini: World Without Tears

San Diego-based Robert Chini (pronounced "keen-e") has extensive and varied musical background. He started out as a drummer, then picked up guitar. While playing in a local band, John Ford Coley was in the audience, and asked if he played bass. Although he didn't (yet), he borrowed a bass, auditioned for the gig, and spent the next nine years with England Dan and John Foley, which in turn allowed him to develop many more musical contacts. Although he's been composing for years,World Without Tearsis his debut CD under his own name. Ten of the dozen tunes are his; the CD concludes with Stevie Wonder's "Bird of Beauty" and Goffin/King's Monkees hit "Take a Giant Step." Chini proves himself to be a skillful composer and multi-instrumentalist.

The underlying theme of the CD is Chini's concern for our children, best expressed in the liner notes, "With so much sadness, negativity and violence in our world today, it's hard to imagine what the future holds for our children. We need to turn off the television and tune into our children instead, and start looking at the world through their eyes, then maybe we could all start living in a "World Without Tears."

Stylistically, the CD is wide-ranging, although it centers around soft folk-rock. There are some "new age" influences, particularly on the two cuts with David Arkenstone, and there are some funkier, jazzier moments on several of the instrumentals and the Stevie Wonder cover. Since this review is being written for a jazz-based web site, you should be aware that this isnota jazz CD. However, for those who also enjoy the genres mentioned above, and can appreciate good music in many flavors, this is a worthwhile effort. (Harmony Grove Music)

Tracks: Call of the Wild; Answer in the Wind; Stop the World; Better Way; The Party's Over; Big Boy Now; Gabrielle's Lullabye; Tranquil Moon; Edge of Town; Someday, Someway; Bird of Beauty; Take a Giant Step. (47:11)