Luxury Experience - David Benoit

Long, sultry, summer days require cool refreshment to quench one's thirst; and the jazz album David Benoit Earthglow, produced by five time GRAMMY® nominated composer and pianist David Benoit and Clark Germain on the Heads Up International label, a division of Concord Music Group, is as satisfying as an ice-cold glass of lemonade on a sweltering day.

David Benoit Earthglow: Botswana Bossa Nova, Will's Chill, Unbelievable, Easy Day, Straightaway, New Creation, Earthglow, Sneaky As A Cat, Downtime, Brownie's Gone, Freedom at Midnight (The Schroeder Variations).

Personnel: David Benoit: piano, Rhodes piano, synthesizers, sequence programming; David Hughes: acoustic and electric bass; Jamey Tate: drums, Brad Dutz: percussion.

Guest Musicians: Rick Braun: trumpet and flugelhorn; Jeff Kashiwa: alto and tenor sax; Pat Kelly: acoustic and electric guitar; Tim Weisberg: flute, alto flute, and bass flute; James Saez: electric guitar on the track Unbelievable.

The album features 11 original tracks by David Benoit and is straight up refreshment beginning with the opening track, Botswana Bossa Nova, which soothes and satisfies with the drum laying down the Brazilian beat, complemented with David's stellar piano work and a melding of horns, that recalled when I lived in Rio de Janeiro and used to spend many happy hours in the boites (nightclubs) and on the beaches.

David describes Botswana Bossa Nova as "focusing on the high energy hybrid of old school soul-jazz and infectious world beat textures and rhythms" with computer sequencing, and "played everything in real time as opposed to step timing," and he gives a nod to the "Soul Bossa Nova" sound of the Austin Powers theme. He also uses computer sequencing and real time play on the tracks Straightaway, Unbelievable, New Creation, and Sneaky As A Cat.

Guest musicians James Saez on electric guitar, and Rick Braun on trumpet, join David on the Unbelievable track featuring David's trademark piano set against excellent percussion work.

David switches from Steinway piano to a Fender Rhodes on the track, New Creation, which was originally to be the title track, and is a "percussive retro-jam with a Chick Corea / Herbie Hancock vibe."

Sneaky As A Cat features the magic artistry of David Benoit and guest flautist Tim Weisberg, whom I fell in love with when I first heard Tim's album with Dan Fogelberg, Twin Sons of Different Mothers.

The track Will's Chill, a nod to will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, came as experimentation "with some of the new ‘jazz-lounge-Euro-chill' music that David was hearing at upscale boutique hotels and chic Japanese sake bars."

Inspiration for the album came in many guises, the title track, Earthglow, was inspired by a NASA photo of the planet, and Brownie's Gone is a tribute to "a beloved cat who ran away." Other tracks on the album include Easy Day, Downtime, and Freedom at Midnight (The Schroeder Variations). Wherever he found inspiration, the result is unsurpassable David Benoit exploring new jazz frontiers that will leave you satisfied for a long time.