Casino Lights '99
Contemporary jazz, smooth jazz, jazz lite: call it what you will, if you have a taste for that kind of funky, groove-oriented instrumental music (with a couple of vocals thrown in for good measure), you'll certainly get a healthy dose of it here. Filmed at Switzerland's Montreux Jazz Festival in 1999, the concert (also available on CD) features some of the genre's best players, like pianist Bob James and guitarist Larry Carlton, both of whom appear with their own bands, backing other musicians, and with their group Fourplay. Also on hand are keyboardist George Duke, saxophonists Kenny Garrett, Boney James, Kirk Whalum, and Mark Turner, and trumpeter Rick Braun. The performances are all good; these fellows can play, and singers Kevin Mahogany and Gabriela Anders are no slouches either. The problem lies in the material. Aside from Miles Davis's "Four" (played by Fourplay), the standard "Old Folks" (Turner), and a couple of others, most of what passes for tunes is little more than riff-heavy, melody-free jamming--and that includes two hoary classics, Eddie Harris's "Cold Duck Time" (played here by Carlton, it first appeared on Swiss Movement, the Harris/Les McCann album recorded at Montreux in '69) and Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" (the closing number, played by just about everybody). The simple truth is that listening to (and watching) some guy get down with his funky horn again and again gets old over the course of two hours. But then, perhaps you had to be there. --Sam Graham
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