Not really a live album and not really a "best of" album, but a mediocre combination of the two. In January '96, this smooth jazz group took to England's Pinewood Film Studios and recorded new live takes on some of their best known songs plus three new tracks. Not the greatest idea, but it could have worked. I actually like the idea of recording live direct-to-digital without an audience. The problem is they augmented their usual understated instrumentation on some of the songs and I don't think the band sounds as good with a string octet and electric guitar. So my complaint isn't with the performances, it's with the arrangements. I don't love it. I picked this CD up in '06 from a used bin to use as background music at work and it rarely even gets used for that.
Album chart peaks:
- US Billboard Top 200: Did not chart
- Billboard Contemporary Jazz: #6
Tracks: A few tracks that work better than the others, including Homecoming, Mr. Chow, and Jamaica Heartbeat.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None
Previously revisited for the blog:
Blue Chip (1989)
I do not know how or why but I have two Acoustic Alchemy discs in my collection: The Beautiful Game and This Way. They sound like music I would hear if I was in a courtyard by a fountain.
ReplyDeleteBackground music? Si. Muchos plays? No.