I like listening to smooth jazz, particularly at work. I usually pick up a few used smooth jazz CDs when I'm at a used CD store so that I can vary my workday listening. This CD fits the bill - I picked it up at a Half Price Books for $4.98 in 2008. The writing and production is well done and the disc is very easy to listen to. Albright is multi-talented, playing bass and keyboards as well as woodwind instruments.
Album chart peaks:
- US Billboard Top 200: Did not chart
- Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz: #5
- Billboard R&B: #26
- Billboard Top Heatseekers: #21
Tracks: I'm sure I've heard To the Max on smooth jazz radio. The other originals have a similar "funk-lite" feel to them. Albright is a good writer, but he includes three covers as well. The first is a nice take on John Mayer's Why Georgia. The next is a pedestrian cover of Condition of My Heart including a vocal by Shawn Stockman doing his best imitation of Brian McKnight. The CD closes with a cover of Gamble & Huff's If You Don't Know Me by Now. I love soul music, but I don't care for this particular song. This version does little to change my mind about it.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Back when Yahoo first had its own streaming radio (below), I would hear tracks from this release all the time. I remember I was in grad school at the University of Houston at the time, so that must have been around 2005. I liked the Launchcast app and invested a considerable amount of time refining my preferences and when Yahoo unceremoniously dropped the service, it left a bad taste in mouth for music streaming services because I felt it had wasted my time.
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