Reviews of new releases,
both from our area and around the world

Steve Cole "Stay Awhile"

Ok, a lot of smooth jazz sucks. When I first saw this CD, having yet heard it, it looked like sucky smooth jazz to me -- what, with the twenty-something well dressed saxophonist on the cover and all -- I wanted to hate it. I wanted to rag on it big time. But, boy, was I wrong. It?s smooth all right, but smooth in the good sense as in smooth and sexy and sensuous and melodic. And it would have to be called jazz because it?s all instrumental and has sax and piano solos on every song (even though instrumental R & B might be a better descriptor). So whatever the term ?smooth jazz? conjures up in your mind, try to reserve judgment until you hear this. And you should. It?s great.

Steve Cole (soprano, tenor, and alto saxophones) and producer / keyboardist Brian Culbertson wrote all the tunes on this collection. And good song writing is precisely what sets ?Stay Awhile? apart from much of the rest of the pack. The sultry mood invoked from the opening track, ?It?s Gonna Be Alright?, is sustained throughout all eleven tracks from beginning to end with no crappy filler in between. It?s all good.

Particularly pleasing is the track, ?Where The Night Begins?. Deceptively simple in that it is built on only two chords, its hooky chorus keeps you coming back for more.

Many of the tunes utilize horn harmonies by overdubbing the sax instead of bringing in a trumpet, which makes for a smoother edged sound, which is perfectly in keeping with the project?s overall hip but mellow sound.

Think of the best of David Sanborn or Boney James and you?d be on target. Positive vibes abound as Steve Cole shows us what modern mood music with a beat is all about. This is the soundtrack for a seduction.

**** (4 stars!)

-Mark Towns