Bruce Von Stiers
I love smooth jazz. Some people think that the artists in this arena are really pop musicians who can’t get a gig other than horning in on the Jazz scene. To those people I say, get a life. How many musical styles really stay the same? Classical music is the only style that I know of that has stayed the same throughout time. Rock music has changed at lot. The Country Music of today is nothing like what my folks listened too when I was a kid. And jazz has changed a lot since the days of Dizzy, Bird and all the other Jazz greats. One of the people that I like the most in smooth jazz arena is Russ Freeman. His group, The Rippingtons, is just about my favorite band. Now Russ has a brand new solo album out. The title of the album is Drive. It was released on Russ’s label, Peak Records.
Drive has 10 songs on it, totally almost 46 minutes. The album was produced by Russ. He and Andi Howard are also listed as Executive Producers.
The players on the album, besides Russ, included Jeff Lorber on keyboards, Eric Marienthal on sax and Chris Botti on trumpet. There was also Barry Eastmond and Bill Heller on keyboard and rhythm programming. The song East Side Drive featured Jason Miles on keyboards, Jeff Mironov on rhythm guitar, Will Lee on bass, Buddy Williams on drums and Pablo Batista on percussion.
The first song on the album is Guitarland. It has a pretty solid groove, with Russ providing his unique guitar sound to a decent backbeat. About five seconds past the intro you will find yourself tapping your feet to the beat of the song.
Villa By The Sea is the second song and has a definite Spanish flavor to it. It has a fast beat Spanish sound with castanets in the background. The third song is Soul Dance. It is a mood piece with some great trumpet in it.
Brighter Day is the fourth song. It has is a light and bouncy song, reminiscent of a day out in the sun with your baby.
Don Henley’s Boys of Summer is the next song. It is only one of the two songs on the album that Russ didn’t write. Russ does a great job of getting the music down just as if Don and his band had been doing the song.
The sixth song is called Anywhere Near You. It is a nice light tune that features Eric Marienthal’s wonderful saxophone talent.
Drive is the next song. It is an upbeat tune. Listening to it makes you think of driving down the highway with the wind in your hair. As a matter of fact, the cover of Drive has a picture of Russ doing just that. Cool In The Shade is the eighth song on the album. It has some wonderful guitar riffs in the middle of the song,
The ninth song is Grover Washington’s East River Drive. Russ does an excellent job of getting the tone of Grover’s song right.
The last song on Drive is Bellagio. It is a somewhat haunting, Spanish flavored song. The castanets are out again as background music.
Drive is a great album. It is no wonder that Russ has won things like a Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Smooth Jazz Awards. This solo effort is a slight departure for Russ, his first true solo album in years. After listening to Drive, you can’t help but want to hear it again and again.
Look for Drive in the Jazz section at your favorite music store.