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"Kirk Whalum" puts the "smooth"
in smooth jazz with this album covering recent pop hits from
artists such as Mariah Carey, Brian McKnight and Whitney Houston.
For those who might not be familiar with Kirk, he's the one who
played the sax solo on Houston's smash hit "I Will Always
Love You." This is his ninth album, having recorded his
first five for Columbia, before moving to Warner, where his first
album was the Grammy nominated "Joined At The Hip"
with Bob James.
Softly opening the album is McKnight's,
"Anytime," as Whalum plays like a lover whispering
in your ear. It would have been even better if Paul Brown's mixing
didn't make the background music sound like an insistent alarm
clock. The next track, Maxwell's "Ascension," sounds
much better by comparison. and is complimented by sweet sounding
vocals. However, Paul Brown's programming again takes much of
the enjoyment out of one of my favorite's, "Same Ole Love"
from Anita Baker. Luckily this song is played with more volume
by Kirk so the unimaginative programming is less distracting.
Guitarist Peter White joins Kirk on "My
All," the Carey megahit, giving it a languid, viscous sound
that fills up the empty places in your heart. The pace picks
up as Janet Jackson's "That's The Way Love Goes" flows
through the speakers, and Kirk resists the urge to turn this
into a piece of "elevator music," giving it a lot of
feel as he makes this one to put on repeat. Kenny Lattimore's
"For You" is the title cut, and first single off the
album. Kirk makes this a real "sexyphone" piece as
he pleads and puts his yearning into music. He notes that it's
his wife's favorite song, which may explain the extra feeling
he put into it.
Kirk is joined by Wendy Moten on vocals
for "All I Do," and gives Stevie Wonder a run for his
money as to whether I prefer the original or this version. Given
that Kirk played behind Whitney Houston for years, he could have
chosen virtually any of her hits to put on this album, but settled
on "Lover For Life." "I Want You" was a number
one r&b hit for the late Marvin Gaye, but Kirk goes in a
different direction with this cut. With his brother Kevin providing
the vocals he goes for a more Latin-sounding arrangement, and
uses his saxophone as a counterpart to the vocals, giving us
a duet between brothers that makes a good argument for nepotism.
The final cut was written by longtime friend
Jerry Peters, who worked at Memphis Records when Kirk was under
contract as a singer at the tender age of 12. Originally performed
by "Friends of Distinction," "Goin' In Circles"
describes what you'll keep this CD doing once it's in your player. |
