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)

Sadao Watanabe - Orange Express (1981)

Japanese Import

I like smooth jazz and I cannot lie.

Watanabe had been well-respected as a straight-ahead and bossa nova sax player since the 1950's, but my favorite Watanabe is 1978-85 when his work more closely resembled Grover Washington, Jr. and Tom Scott (this particular album favors the latter). Recorded in NYC, there's a lot of familiar names backing up Watanabe: Dave Grusin, George Benson, Marcus Miller, Richard Tee, Eric Gale, and Jon Faddis. The writing is nondescript, but the performances are fantastic.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Jazz: #17
• CashBox Jazz: #18
• Record World Jazz: #19

Tracks: Top tracks are the funky Ride On, Good For All Night, and the final two tracks (Straight To The Top & Mbali Africa), which both sound like they were lifted directly from a Stuff album.

Bonus tracks: Two versions of the pseudo-reggae-lite Yes I Love You. The best I can tell, the song was 1982 single-only Japanese release with an instrumental version on side A and a version with vocals from Ken Tamura on the flip. Both are presented here and neither is worth your time.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Around the time this album was released in 1981, I was starting my sophomore year in high school. We had six classes a day back then (now 8 is the norm); I "studied" Algebra II, Biology, World History, Health, English and had marching band as an elective. Of those six classes, five were taught by what I consider to be subpar teachers - some apathetic, some incompetent, some clueless, and some all of the above. So I had a rough year academically, but as far as my family was concerned, I was to blame, not poor instruction and assessment. I get it - when I was teaching, I wanted the parents on my side, too. In any case, my teachers for English and world history were so bad, they later achieved a sort of pseudonymic infamy in a chapter of my somewhat autobiographical doctoral dissertation. But that really doesn't have much to do with this album other than coincidental timing, so never mind. As you were.