WORLD JAZZ

  When I first received JUST FEELS RIGHT I thought it might be a joke or a misprint: a smooth groove (jazz) cd by someone named Euge Groove?? How do pronounce that? Huge groove? Well, it's a groove; that's for sure: 1976-style soul r&b done instrumentally.  Most of the musicians on here are at home in both the jazz and r&b worlds, so the fusion works.

 All instruments and studio tricks used ( well in place by the mid-1970s0 were at the request of Euge Groove himself, who is apparently in love with the soul r&b sounds of the 1970s to such an extent that analog tape was used for the recording.

 Hard-core jazz fans may be disappointed as all the solos stay close to the melody line and no-one ever strays far from the groove: so is this really jazz at all?   Maybe not; but it's fine and mellow and very groovy.

 Euge Groove is a white guy who fell in love with a certain style of black American music. He plays various saxophones and keyboards, but strangely does not play on all the tracks, even though it's his cd. He did write all the tunes, however, under his real name Steve Grove, and he also did most of the arranging.

 It must have been a huge thrill for him to record with so many of his musical heroes like Michael White on drums, Ray Parker Jr. and David T. Walker on guitars, Lenny Castro on percussion and the gang: an impressive line-up of musicians, with impressive results.

 JUST GETTING STARTED is the sort of radio-friendly music you hear on smooth jazz stations: the type of music which crosses jazz with pop, like the fusion jazz of the 1970s, but with most if not all the edges knocked off till it borders on easy listening music.

 Some of the music is really romantic r&b, while much of it is party music - you can actually dance to most of it.   Most jazz purists hate this stuff; especially since many of the most famous players in this genre can't really play jazz, a type of music usually requiring a formal music education and strong improvisational chops.

 Gladly, Eric Darius can lay down some classic improvisations on top of his party groove, but he chooses to keep it to a minimum just to let the jazz hounds know he can really play - but not so much as to destroy the commerciality of the recording.

 After all, how much hard bop do you hear on the radio today; even on the so-called jazz stations? Not even NYC has a full-time jazz station any more. Of course before the rise of bop in the 1940s most jazz was danceable. By the late 1960s contemporary jazz was more a mathematical challenge than something most listeners could relate to.

 In the 1940s jazz musicians either learned to play the technically-challenging bebop or simplified their music to emerging r&b dance music that later became rock and roll. Fusion music and its offspring smooth jazz is an attempt to get people listening to jazz once again.

 JUST GETTING STARTED is a fun recording that you could play at any party. It's not very challenging, but it's not totally vapid either.

 My personal hope is that in the future Eric Darius challenges himself and us, the listeners, a bit more without losing the mainstream audience that JUST GETTING STARTED hits so brilliantly.

 I can remember the first time I heard a recording of Monte Alexander back in the 1970s in San Francisco - I loved what I was hearing: a jazz pianist who was contemporary but not afraid of rhythm. He sounded as if he had the talent to go far out but chose not to. Many of the snobs who hung out at record stores put his music down as not 'real jazz', for Monty used Caribbean rhythms not usually associated with jazz, as well as being accompanied by steel drums (a.k.a. pans).  Well, I adopted Monty Alexander right then and there: anybody who worked with steel pans was ok by me.

 Now here it is thirty years later and Monty Alexander is back in Jamaica, the land of his birth, paying homage to the most famous singer/songwriter musician Jamaica ever spawned, Bob Marley.

 Apparently CONCRETE JUNGLE is Monty's second go-around on the songs of Bob Marley. The accompanying musicians on CONCRETE JUNGLE are a mixture of reggae and jazz players.  Some of the tunes come across as straight or near straight-ahead reggae renditions; others as reggae influenced jazz, while yet others occupy a middle ground. 

 There's even one tune where Monty plays with a mento band (mento being an early, somewhat crude predecessor to ska, rock steady, reggae and other non-Latin Caribbean sounds.  The mento tune 'Three Little Birds' and two others, 'Concrete Jungle' and 'War' feature vocals. 

 Every time I listen to CONCRETE JUNGLE I hear things I hadn't noticed before, like little jazz riffs in the background on tunes that sounded like straight-ahead reggae, or a subdued reggae groove or accent on a tune which outwardly appeared to be primarily jazz.  I keep pealing back layer upon layer of sound and finding more delightful surprises with each listen: now that's my idea of fun listening!

 Monte Alexander has been working with a virtual 'who's who' of American jazz musicians and singers since 1961. He has been playing with Jamaican reggae musicians off and on since the 1950s. He knows what he's doing.

 The only other musician I know of who has been able to pull off this particular style of double life is guitarist Ernest Ranglin: if you love Ernest Ranglin, try Monte Alexander. If you love Monte Alexander - try Ernest Ranglin.

 Mimi Fox isn't the first female jazz guitarist to play as good or better than any man: Mary Osborne was doing it as far back as the 1940s, Emily Remler was a sensation in the 1970s - but even today most people assume only a man can play jazz as one of the 'greats'.

 Well, Mimi Fox could stand most listeners on their ears if only they'd give PERPETUALLY HIP a listen. Joe Pass thought she was great 15 years ago - if only he could hear her now, better than ever.

 PERPETUALLY HIP is her second cd on Steve Vai's label Favored Nations Cool. Yes, Mimi plays most cool - but she can play most hot, too.   PERPETUALLY HIP is a two-cd set: one cd is a group cd with bassist Harvie S, drummer Billy Hart and pianist Xavier David; the second cd is a solo recording: just Mimi and her guitar.

 On the group recording Mimi mixes in some originals with a few standards. On her solo cd, it's standards all the way.

 Mimi plays a big-bodied, cut-out single pickup guitar: the kind favored by nearly all jazz guitarists until the 1970s.

 In other words: no electronic effects - but boy, does she swing. Mary Osborne would love it.