Sadao Watanabe - Rendezvous (1984)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a LP, later replaced by a CD.

Simply put, if you like Grover Washington, Jr.'s Winelight album, you'll probably like this one because it's the same gang: Ralph MacDonald, Steve Gadd, Marcus Miller, Richard Tee, and Eric Gale with Roberta Flack taking the place of Bill Withers. Even the same record label. It's not as good as Winelight, mind you, but definitely in the same vein.

And bless my soul if Richard Tee playing a Fender Rhodes through a phase shifter isn't one of the best sounds in the world.

Press of the time:

• Stereo Review: "anemic music that flows in one ear and out the other"
• Billboard: "Relaxed, commercial groove."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: did not chart
• Billboard Jazz: #2
• Billboard R&B: #37
• CashBox: #153
• CashBox Jazz: #2

Tracks: Track 3, If I'm Still Around Tomorrow, with vocals from Flack, was released as a single and reached #31 on the Adult Contemporary chart. There's three Watanabe originals on the album and, sad to say, those are the three weakest cuts. There's four by Ralph MacDonald & bassist William Salter (including the two vocal tracks) and one from arranger/conductor William Eaton. All of those are very pleasant and relaxing.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. I didn't pick this up in the fall of '84 as I was starting college, but I sure wish I would have.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Orange Express (1981)