New out on Trippin n Rhythm records is the debut album. ‘Never Too Late’ from artist, producer, pianist and songwriter Michael Broening.
Since 2001 Michael has written and produced music for a veritable who's who of contemporary jazz talent including George Benson, Wayman Tisdale, Marion Meadows, Nick Colionne, Cindy Bradley, Brian Simpson, Michael Lington, Steve Oliver, Tim Bowman, Lin Rountree, Althea Rene, Lebron Dennis and Randy Scott. Not only that, he has written and produced over fifty contemporary jazz hits, including twenty six top five and thirteen number one singles, one of which was the 2007 Grammy winning song ‘Mornin’ by George Benson and Al Jarreau. A former touring musician, DJ, and private music teacher, LA born Michael works from his B-Hive recording studio in Phoenix where he operates as both producer and engineer.
Broening’s approach to the tight ten tune ‘Never Too Late’ has been very much to drip feed it into the market. First came the sumptuously easy grooving ‘Shine A Light’ that was followed by the arguably even better ‘Summer In Blue’. The most recent radio single, the moody ‘Let It Breathe’, lifted listener expectation to a whole new height and, with these three tracks scheduled one two and three, ‘Never Too Late’ is afforded a colossally strong opening.
Elsewhere Broening teams with regular collaborator Randy Scott for the pleasingly relaxed ‘When You Smile’ and when he partners with smooth jazz heavyweight Marion Meadows for ‘Talk To Me’ the outcome is just as good.
Detroit based flautist Althea Rene steps up to join Broening for the Latin flavored ‘Fire In The Sky’ and while label mate Lin Rountree adds a little edge to ‘Lava Java’ Broening proceeds to close out the collection with three more solo efforts.
First comes the mellow ‘The Way She Moves’ that is right up there with the best that ‘Never Too Late’ has to offer and although ‘Never Letting Go’ is a rock solid mid tempo gem it is the hugely evocative ‘Oceanside Drive’ that delivers a fittingly high quality finale to a high quality project.