Gilbert Engle – 2016 Jazz Reggae

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Gilbert Engle continues to demonstrate his musical versatility with this Jazz Reggae release, which has a mellow and sometimes loungy vibe. The light guitar work blends nicely with a Farfisa-like organ tone to give the tracks their reggae flavor. The more organ heavy songs almost have a 70’s psychedelic quality to them. The bass component definitely adds to this. With his detail attentive performance on the saxophone front and center, co-writer Peter Fraise helps deliver on the jazz end. Melody wise, the 9th track is probably my favorite. It’s just the most colorful tune. I’m also very fond of the first song, which at a 1:51 run time left me wanted more. Once I heard the organ, I was hooked.

The production quality is flawless, basically what I’ve come to expect from Engle, given the level of professionalism in his other recordings. What’s impressive about this release though, is that in the process of creating great jazz reggae jams, he manages to obtain some authentic vintage tones, without having to artificially sacrifice any of the recording quality to get them.

For more info:
http://www.newjazz.net/artEngine/showMusic.php/musicIndex=45/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Engle