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Faith Restoration Fix '08 - Ken Navarro's new one

A

AnotherCat

This will totally blow you away. When someone says they were inspired by Metheny/Reich "Different Trains" you know it isn't going to be sonic wallpaper, it's not out there either, still got that melodic foundation he does so well, just no format guidelines in effect.

Title is "The Grace of Summer Light" which sums up the feeling you'll get when you hear it pretty well..
he's streaming the whole thing off his website: http://www.kennavarro.com/kennavarroTGOSLstream.htm

This is the kind of instrumental music that makes you want to hear more instrumental music!
 
AnotherCat said:
This will totally blow you away. When someone says they were inspired by Metheny/Reich "Different Trains" you know it isn't going to be sonic wallpaper, it's not out there either, still got that melodic foundation he does so well, just no format guidelines in effect.

Title is "The Grace of Summer Light" which sums up the feeling you'll get when you hear it pretty well..
he's streaming the whole thing off his website: http://www.kennavarro.com/kennavarroTGOSLstream.htm

This is the kind of instrumental music that makes you want to hear more instrumental music!
Click to expand...

Indeed...I've always liked Ken Navarro's work...2 of my all time SJ favorites are his "Healing Hands", and "Touch".

It's no suprprise that Kepler features nothing from KN...good SJ music on BA is too much to ask for, I guess!! :'( :mad:

DD™
 
Ken is a fine musician and a very likable guy. I've spoken to him on several occasions and we support his music to the fullest. He sent me a copy of his new full length CD as well as his single edit copy that he's pushing for adds. It's called Daddy-O and I'm really digging it. I'm going to add it to our rotation next week and try to review the CD over the weekend.

DD, I agree with you...Kepler wouldn't know real if it was cubic zirconia!
 
I thought "Daddy-O" would be the most viable track to take a shot at on radio but I'm trusting that he's not spending a whole lot of money trying to get it added. Toss it out there and see if it will stick but spend the money marketing straight to the listeners, radio is over as the middle man for connecting the listeners and the music, there aren't enough stations and the existing ones can't fit any smooth jazz in between the covers and pop/R&B oldies.

Kind of an aside but considering the current situation at radio as far as there being almost no locally programmed stations and the amount of original SJ dropping to 1 or 2 tracks an hour and only 1 new song per 3-5 hours I'm totally surprised that Gerald Albright and David Benoit are putting out CDs that are so cover-heavy. The market is saturated with covers already and people are voting with their wallets. They are voting "no."
 
One other aspect of the Smooth AC path besides the onslaught of bad covers is the new vocal content and the latest from Mindi Abair has a ton of them. Mindi...please skip the singing and dance with what got you there in the first place. Lets see when BA adds one of these dogs. What a disapointment! Makes me even more determined to get this music up and moving again in some shape and form so the Ken Navarro's of the world can be heard for their hard work and artistry.
 
Bill Harmonic said:
One other aspect of the Smooth AC path besides the onslaught of bad covers is the new vocal content and the latest from Mindi Abair has a ton of them. Mindi...please skip the singing and dance with what got you there in the first place. Lets see when BA adds one of these dogs. What a disapointment! Makes me even more determined to get this music up and moving again in some shape and form so the Ken Navarro's of the world can be heard for their hard work and artistry.
Click to expand...

and not just the vocals on that album, the instrumental track that is charting right now from mindi's new CD i don't like at all. it sounds like an exact cross of her two earlier hits..."lucy's" and "make a wish". boring sax with her "da da" background vocals, no imagination whatsoever. mindi, you're beautiful, but that only gets you so far. what a disappointment indeed hearing that single on the radio.
 
Whats interesting on Ken's new cd is the track lengths. Not very user friendly for BA until they bring out the hatchet. Had a blast playing all 9:14 of "On my way to somewhere" yesterday.

Nock
 
I agree with the "dance with the one that brung ya"...the sad thing is that the BA version of the format has convinced a lot of people, both in the biz and listeners, that all "smooth jazz" sucks. So now the record companies and the artists are bailing at a time when they should be bypassing radio and really cultivating the audience, which is still there, just not buying that 100th version of an old EWF song they just covered on their CD.

I am not as turned off by Mindi's vocals as some folks, but I don't think you'll hear them on "Smooth A/C" either because smooth A/C is really urban and gold leaning and Mindi is over 30 so Kepler isn't going to campaign for her like he did for Bailey-Ray and Kelly Sweet (and her lingerie video). And I love the absence of melisma-she doesn't whine, yodel, or wail all up and down the scale, she just sings and she sings on key, something Corrine, BA Fave Ryan Shaw, and the girl from Hil St. Soul don't do. So as singer/songwriter stuff the vocals aren't bad and the title track I like a lot. Thing is you pretty much have to be on a big budget label to afford the 'promotional considerations" necessary to get added at corporate A/C and Hot A/C.

Obviously the only way to get airplay is to record a song that sounds just like the songs that are already getting airplay, so that's what she did with "Smile." . Coulda been worse, the other Peak/Concord releases - David Benoit and Gerald Albright are extremely heavy on the covers of tired old songs. Benoit's version of "Human Nature" inspired the "Fear of the Elevator" piece I did. That could go straight onto one of the B/EZ stations in S. Fla right next to Koz's "It Might Be You".

Steve Oliver is also moving more into the singer/songwriter path but if you listen to "Bend or Break" you realize what an incredible singer and writer he is.
Thing that scares me is there are a lot of instrumentalists who can't sing and should not sing, much less try to write. (I love you..the sky is blue..please, baby, be true...) If these projects go over we may have an onslaught of bad vocals from good instrumentalists.
 
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