| Smooth Jazz |
If we can take a CD out of its sleeve with our eyes closed, knowing we’re about to have a good time, that’s always the case with our friends at Mack Avenue. But now, it’s also the case with our new friends at Shanachie, who are to smooth jazz what Mack Avenue is to jazz, offering artists who are all brilliant, from lesser-known to very famous ones. So when this new Richard Elliot album arrived, I had a smile on my face, and I didn’t lose it throughout the entire album. I had discovered this artist a long time ago on a track by another great artist, Jeff Golub (“Keep The Ball Rolling”), totally captivated by the playing of this saxophonist, and that’s when I became interested. He often plays with sounds that give the impression of duplicity, creating a unique tone that has become his signature—a way of placing his instrument in the air and making his listeners dream. They will have another opportunity to dream on this album with the track “High Tide,” which is graced by the presence of the excellent guitarist Paul Brown, whom I mentioned in one of my previous reviews of the album BMP – *Seriously*, right here. This new album by Richard Elliot, *Straight Up Down*, goes by too quickly, so we let it play again, as once more, the compositions, arrangements, and mixing are particularly clever and interesting. One of Richard Elliot’s strengths is his way of using rhythmic foundations, upon which he knows how to perfectly react or blend in.
To truly understand what shapes Richard Elliot’s work, one must delve into his family history… If you are among the lucky ones, you can recall a moment when a gateway to a whole new world opened for you, and a spark was ignited inside you. For Richard Elliot, this moment happened when his sister, ten years his senior, took a chance and invited him to listen to her record collection. The only condition was that he take care of her records and put them back where they belonged. Not only did Elliot take care of the music, but the music has taken care of him for over four decades. The chart-topping, Grammy-nominated saxophonist recalls: “My sister had everything from Joni Mitchell, Carlos Santana, and Dave Brubeck to Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, and The Four Tops. I was fortunate to be exposed to a wealth of great music at a very young age.”
Indeed, all these influences run through the veins of his music; in its foundations, you can hear soul and R&B inspirations. It’s a culture deeply rooted in his artist’s heart, where power and delicacy are the key words. And it’s delightful to hear him talk about his new project: “I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do this as a career and even more grateful to have been doing it for so long. It’s about being honest and sincere in my music and never taking it for granted.” Elliot maintains full control over *Straight Up Down*, a collection of nine inspired tracks, eight of which are originals.
I, too, feel lucky. Having written for a long time about the greatest jazz artists of yesterday and today, I’ve never wanted to choose between the jazz I adore and smooth jazz, which I see as one of its components, with just as many talented artists like Richard Elliot. It’s no coincidence that a great trumpeter known in the smooth jazz world like Chris Botti recently released a beautiful album with Blue Note. Richard Elliot is the same kind of musician, with a vast cultural background and a vision for his art, and he could one day surprise us with another form of jazz because he has all the capabilities. All great artists are tempted by diverse experiences, and speaking of experience, *Straight Up Down* is, from my perspective, the best album Richard Elliot has released since the beginning of his career, allowing him to land gracefully on the top of our stack of albums labeled “Indispensable.”
Thierry De Clemensat
USA correspondent – Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, October 3rd 2024
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