Smooth Jazz Therapy

Bob Baldwin's The Groove Pact - Club Life

As smooth jazz glides serenely through its fourth decade the proliferation of ‘featured artists’ continues to enrich the music and expand exposure of the talent that is a staple of the genre.

This year, one such example has been the stunning David Garfield vehicle ‘Jammin Outside The Box’ and another is a sensational track from the legendary Bob Baldwin who, recording under the collective name of The Groove Pact, includes a record ten (yes ten) featured artists all on one song.  Titled ‘Club Life’ this groove drenched tour de force is fronted by Baldwin and sax man Marion Meadows with additional contributions from smooth jazz heavyweights Walter Beasley, Joey Sommerville, Brook Alford, Barry Danielan, Marcus Anderson, Ragan Whiteside, Oli Silk, U-Nam, Nils and Tom Browne.

Make no mistake ‘Club Life’ is more that a recording, it is one of the musical events of 2018 and with some of the proceeds earmarked for the How Big Is Your Dream Foundation, which encourages young students to learn about music through performance seminars, there has never been a better time to become part of the pact.

Darryl Williams - Now Or Never

‘Here To Stay’ (aka the gift that keeps on giving) from ‘go-to’ bass player Darryl Williams has just offered up another winner in the form of the hot new single ‘Now Or Never’.  Featuring Jonathan Fritzen on piano and Paul Brown on guitar, this easy grooving gem follows both ‘Do You Remember’ (featuring Michael Lington) and the hugely successful title cut (featuring Euge Groove) as sure fire radio favourites. 

The fact that the title track powered its way into the Smooth Jazz Therapy Top Twenty Tracks of 2017 tells you all you need to know about the pedigree of this outstanding player.

Brian Simpson - Something About You

Keyboard player, composer, producer and prolific studio musician Brian Simpson has just weighed in with his eighth solo project, the dazzling ‘Something About You’.  It is a rare amalgam of jazz, R&B, and soul all conveyed via ten original compositions for which he is assisted by regular collaborators Steve Oliver and Oliver Wendell.  Completing the line-up are bass players Alex Al and Andre Berry, guitarists Darrell Crooks and Yarone Levy, percussionist Ramon Yslas and trumpeter Ron King for a collection that confirms Simpson as having top-notch smooth jazz pulsing through his veins.

Paul Hardcastle - Amber Sky

Warming up ahead of the September 28 release of his latest project ‘Hardcastle 8’ (or is it VIII – I never know with Hardcastle) comes the distinctly tasty ‘Amber Sky’ which, although offering few surprises, finds him doing what he does best and without doubt doing it sublimely.

When the year-end ‘best of’ lists are compiled it is extremely likely that this track will be on them.

David Garfield - Jammin Outside The Box

Together with collaborators of unrivalled calibre, keyboard player David Garfield   has come up with what might just be the best pop-orientated R & B album of 2018.  Titled ‘Jammin Outside The Box’ and with with input from A-list performers such as George Benson, David Sanborn, Freddie Washington, Smokey Robinson, Michael McDonald, Natalie Cole and Ray Parker Jr. it is the second in Garfield’s five part multi genre ‘Outside The Box’ series and one which sublimely crosses over from R & B, to contemporary jazz, to pop and back again. 

Adam Hawley - Traveling Mood

‘Just The Beginning’ from guitarist Adam Hawley instantly moved him from being an in-demand session player to a headline artist in his own right.  With red hot radio singles such as ‘35th Street’  (that featured Eric Darius on saxophone), ‘I Don’t Mind’ (featuring sax-man Euge Groove) and the groove drenched ‘Joy Ride’, the album was testimony to how good accessible smooth jazz can be when done this well.  His latest project is ‘Double Vision’ and having already delivered the excellent ‘Can You Feel It’ is further showing its depth with the zesty ‘Traveling Mood’ that features bass player Julian Vaughn. 

Completing the line-up on ‘Traveling Mood’ is Keith McKelley on sax, Nathaniel Kearney Jr on bass, drummer Eric Valentine, percussionist Ramon Yslas and Carnell Harrell (who also co-writes the song with Hawley) on keys. 

Excellent track.

Tea - Grand Cru

Tea, the production team of guitarist Frank Balloffet and drummer - keyboard player Phil Bunch has been on the Smooth Jazz Therapy radar since 2009 and the release of its second CD ‘Dreams’. Since then the duo have collaborated with the legendary Brian Auger for his solo project ‘Language Of The Heart’ and consequently it is particularly pleasing that for the band’s latest offering, ‘Grand Cru’, they have enlisted the services of Auger who features on eight of the eleven choice tunes.

‘Grand Cru’ has been described elsewhere as a collection of electro-pop songs that draws influence from jazz, lounge and soul. Indeed the vibe that Balloffet and Bunch effortlessly create engenders a warm intimacy that is precious and this is particularly the case with the decidedly retro ‘Cargo’ and the wonderful ‘Natural’ where Ines Murer on vocals is superb. She also features on ‘Princess’ that shimmers with an understatedly theatrical aura and when she returns one more time for ‘Drive Me Away’ she perfectly complements Auger’s work on Hammond B3.

‘Grand Cru’ provides five further vocal numbers all of which are fronted by the delightfully soulful Sabrina Williams. Among them is the groove drenched ‘Wonder One’ for which Auger again excels and the equally good ‘I Can’ that has an ‘Everything But The Girl’ thing going on. It is right up there with the best that ‘Grand Cru’ has to offer yet all things considered the Smooth Jazz Therapy top track is the vibrant instrumental ‘Trapeze’ that serves as the perfect vehicle for the collective talents of Balloffet, Bunch and Auger.

Sam Rucker - Redemption

Hip-hop producer turned sax-man Sam Rucker hails from Williamsburg, Virginia and caught some attention in 2014 with his sophomore CD ‘Tell You Something’ that was mixed and mastered by Euge Groove and included contributions from Norman Connors, Bobby Lyle, Tom Browne and Alyson Williams. Now he is back with ‘Redemption’, a tight ten-track collection that he produces writes or co-writes throughout and which promises to be one of the urban jazz events of 2018.