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When your last release,"Sweet Thing,"
was the number two selling contemporary jazz record for 1997
AND 1998 and spent the entire year in the Billboard top ten what
do you do next? What you do is use a little "Boney"
language and get ready to become your own stiffest competition.
For James' new album is both as powerful and alluring as its
predecessor.
They all play saxophone and are label mates.
Kirk Whalum is smooth,. Joshua Redman is jazz, and Boney James
is soul. He brings Motown to New Orleans and in the process carves
out a unique style that is both rich and powerful. With the backing
of a 22 piece orchestra, a few special guests, and all original
songs except for a cover of Janet Jackson's, "I Get Lonely
" this is an album that will caress your ears like a welcome
lover.
Chelle Davis asks "Are You Ready"
as Boney's soprano sax teases and puts out a siren call. He soars
"Into The Blue" on this lighter than air tune that
features a call and answer with the piano of David Torkanowsky.
The title track is the moodiest piece on
the album, containing the suppressed sexuality of the mating
dance. Resisting the urge to overpower, James use subtlety like
the little clues women and men send out, the flip of the hair,
straightening the collar, the pose.
The group "Shai" lends their
sweet vocal talents to "I'll Always Love You" and Boney
wisely chooses his moments to accent the main theme, not afraid
to take a back seat to the vocals until his solo reprise. This
song should be a crossover hit on the R&B charts. Another
guest, Rick Braun and his flugelhorn, joins Boney on his nod
to Erykah Badu as he co-opts "Boneyism" from "Baduism."
Step back in time with "Love Fest"
featuring the kind of soulful sound of the seventies and let
Boney play you a "Bedtime Story" as you listen with
the lights down low.
Boney heard Janet sing "I Get Lonely"
to open the Soul train awards program (where he won an award
for "Sweet Thing") and was so blown away his wife convinced
him to record his own version. He puts plaintive into his play
as he defines lonely in his own way. The final cut perfectly
expresses my feeling about listening to this album; I could listen
"All Night Long." |
