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Good Day
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Many people think of smooth jazz as something that didn't start until the 1980s, but arguably, smooth jazz started around 1966-1968 with the overtly commercial, pop-drenched albums that guitarist
recorded during the last few years of his life. Love it or hate it,
's more commercial output had a major impact on
and many other guitarists who have contributed to smooth jazz (including
,
, and
). Musically, a lot has changed since the '60s, but the more things change in music, the more they inevitably stay the same -- and 2009 found
(like
41, 42, and 43 years earlier) still struggling with a desire to improvise and a desire for mass acceptance (the thing that jazz, for the most part, lost after World War II). Of course, one doesn't necessarily rule out the another; the late saxophonist
knew how to be commercial and adventurous at the same time, but most smooth jazz artists play it way too safe -- which is what
usually does on
. This 2009 release is, on the whole, an album of pleasant but not very memorable background music;
usually sounds like he is yearning to let loose as an improviser but has to hold back because he dare not offend the smooth jazz/NAC stations that have been playing his recordings all these years. Nonetheless,
has some noteworthy tracks here and there, including the Brazilian-flavored
the nuevo flamenco-ish
and the hypnotic
(which hints at ambient electronica). But most of the time,
is the sort of album that is content to innocuously fade into the background -- and
, like so many of the smooth jazz musicians who sells himself short creatively, is capable of a lot more. ~ Alex Henderson