Michael Lington - Looking Ahead (2023)
Review:
‘Looking Ahead’ is the brand new EP from US smooth jazzer MICHAEL LINGTON. The sax man was born in Copenhagen but now works out of Los Angeles and he boasts an impressive CV – work with a litany of big names, amongst them Michael Bolton, Randy Crawford Aaron Neville, William Bell and Booker T Jones and a dozen or so solo albums to his credit. His people tell us that the new ‘Looking Ahead’ is a little different – “inspired by a once-in-a-lifetime romance that compelled him to embrace a completely new path he had never travelled”. So yes, ‘Looking Ahead’ can be seen as Michael’s paean to love and romance and the title of the set to a future “quite different from the past, filled with endless possibilities” … sweet. But what of the music? Well, it’s melodic and catchy as all good smooth jazz is and given what we’ve been told the focus cut has to be ‘Keri’s Song’ (Keri, of course, being his new wife). This one’s not in the least bit schmaltzy of sentimental; but it is gentle and beguiling, penned and performed, we’re told, for the Lington’s wedding! If you fancy something a little more robust there’s a soulful ‘Moon Goddess’ (Keri again?) which is Lington’s nod to Ramsey Lewis’ ‘Sun Goddess’. ‘Play’ is another up-tempo soul-fuelled groove featuring fellow horn man Darren Rahn and veteran guitarist Paul Jackson Jr who adds funky guitar lines. ‘Till The Morning Light’ is (as the title suggests) a dreamy affair while ‘South Bay’ is another crisp beater. — By Bill Bucley, soulandjazzandfunk.com
Track List:
01 - Moon Goddess
02 - Til The Morning Light
03 - Play
04 - Keri's Song
05 - South Bay
Media Report:
Genre: Smooth Jazz
Country: Los Angeles, California, USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
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