I
have long been championing the fact that parts of Europe and
Scandinavia have been leading the way in the creative
development of what I loosely term to be 'groove orientated
'music. The fact that we all try to pigeon hole music into
different genres leaves our mind closed to the possibilities of
what could be if no such barriers existed.
Thus it is always refreshing when projects
such as CDB offer us an example of what the future holds if we
are brave enough to explore these possibilities. This is their
fourth album and without doubt it is a musical milestone, where
jazz, soul, funk, lounge, big band, bossa and even Fred Astaire
meet together in creative unity.
The album opens with the uptempo Big Band influenced killer
dance track 'What is Jazz' featuring the spoken and scat vocals
of Dean Bowman whom Madonna cites as having the 'Voice of God'.
The Brass arrangements for the whole album are in the capable
hands of ex Tower of Power side man Greg Adams who captures the
mood and tone perfectly so that everything oozes with modern
hipness despite the influences of the past Big Band era..
Fresh from her very soulful outing on the
last CDB album 'Aprico Soul' US vocalist Belinda Boykin
returns on a number of tracks. Now permanently living in Germany
she turns her hand to bossa nova scat romp on 'She Said NO'
, and drives a rhythmically inspired 'Some like it hot'
with perfect pitch. However, it is the London based jazz
vocalist Iain Mackenzie who steals the show this time around.
Vocally sitting somewhere between Mark Murphy and Michael Buble
he features on the album's killer track 'Wearing out my Shoes' .
This track will find itself on all sorts of future compilation
albums and is sure to appeal to those who know the true meaning
of Soul. It is just perfect in all respects.
Such is the high standard of the album that the additional input
of Swedish Vocalist Anna-Luca who herself is working on a new
album and the CDB remix of Mr Fred Astaire's classic 'Putting on
the Ritz' would find themselves headlining. This though is an
album of rare quality that only surfaces once in a while. It is
impossible to say if it will have a lasting influence on shaping
the future in the healthy cross fertilisation of musical genres.It
will however remain a classic.
