Trumpet and flugelhorn player Gordon James first caught my attention in 2007 with his excellent CD ‘In Joy’. It marked him out as a performer with a tone brim full of sensuous warmth and now he is back with the equally comforting ‘A New Kind Of Love’. Make no mistake, with sixteen tracks in all, this is a collection where quantity is never a problem but, with a combination of nine new songs and seven covers, James also ensures that quality is not overlooked.
Among those nine new numbers (which incidentally are all written by James) is the soothing title cut that benefits from a cool vocal duet by Jose Loo and LaJuan Carter while another is the charmingly reflective ‘With Our Love’. It proves to be the perfect vehicle for his tender trumpet tones and, as James slips closer towards quite quiet storm territory, ‘One True Love’ flows just like a sparkling river. It features stunning vocals from Ty Stephens and in fact Stephens makes telling contributions to seven of the songs. He is also in fine form with another James original, ‘Make It Your Day’ and, if that wasn’t enough, plays a significant part on the easy grooving ‘Straight From The Heart’ which is right there with the recording’s best.
‘Here You Are’ is another dreamily tranquil track and although James briefly notches up the tempo for tunes such as the zesty ‘Urban Shaman’ and the interesting ‘Dark Chocolate’ he is quickly back on chilled out message for a clever reworking of ‘Give Peace A Chance’ which he cleverly splices with his own ‘One World One Heart’.
Familiar classics such as the timeless ‘Smile’, the always magical ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’ and Sting’s ‘Fragile’ are given regulation workouts but in terms of cover versions it is when James digs a little deeper that he really strikes gold. He goes all the way back to 1973 and the album ‘Wild And Peaceful’ for Kool & The Gang’s deliciously brassy ‘Funky Stuff’ while elsewhere ‘The Ghetto’ ( from Donny Hathaway’s 1969 masterpiece ‘Everything Is Everything’) also makes its mark.
The much overlooked Isaac Hayes – David Porter composition ‘No Diggity’ gets a welcome outing but in terms of personal favorites the smoky ‘Got Blues’ comes complete with some nice production touches and is very hard to beat.