In a jazzy mood

Napa Crossroads by David Pack. This is for all of you out there who have been wondering what David Pack has been up too lately. That is when he is not busy joining his former bandmates at Ambrosia on their hugely in-demand reunion stints. For those of you still unfamiliar with Pack, he is best known as the lead singer, guitarist and composer of the famous band. Among their biggest hits, most of which feature Pack’s distinctive vocals are Holding On To Yesterday, How Much I Feel, Biggest Part Of Me, You’re The Only Woman and I Just Can’t Let Go.

I just found out that Pack has spent five years working on this truly special album with his vintner friends from the Napa Valley in California. They grow the grapes that are bottled into those much-admired wines from the area. Pack so loves not only the wine but also the grapes and the lovely land on which these thrive that he decided to make this album. To his surprise, it turned out that vintners can also be very good musicians and they eagerly hopped aboard the project.

I have never been to Napa Valley and my knowledge of wine is only basic. But the liner notes in the CD say that the music pretty much captures the hearty spirit and humanity that grows in the valley. If that is the case then Napa Valley must be beautiful because the songs in the album are among the best-ever heard from the Grammy-winning Pack and the special guests who all obviously enjoyed creating music to go with the wines.

Get a load of the star-studded line-up. Ray Manzarek of The Doors, Bela Fleck, Alan Parsons, Todd Rundgren, David Benoit, Billy Dean, Jimmy Wayne, Larry Carlton, Doyle Dykes, Mindi Abair, Robert Schwartzman, Lincoln Parish of Cage The Elephant, Rick Braun and others.

Napa Crossroads was made with the cooperation of Silver Oak & Twomey, Pride Mountain Vineyards, Far Niente Winery, Gargiulo Vineyards and the Casa Piena Winery. The album was until recently only available in Napa Valley. The songs included are O Blessed Vine, Silverado Free, Next Adventure, Full House Full Heart, Every Time I Look At You, You Were The One, Wine Country Cowboy, Corner Of His Room, A Friend Like You, Napa Crossroads Overture, Crossroads Bound and Harvest. The best of the lot are the touching April Born In May, about a father and daughter on her wedding day and the joyfully jaunty Vineyard Stomp.

Here We Go by guitarist Peter White. The British virtuoso has been making great smooth jazz with sweet, sophisticated melodies for many years now. Two of his biggest hits are Midnight In Manhattan by Grover Washington Jr., and Bright which he recorded himself.

This is his latest album and it has his usual kind of fusion. Here are 11 new compositions that are so relaxing to listen to. These are the sort of tunes you want playing in your head while you strut or drive around.

The first thing I noticed about White is that his jazz guitar sounds utterly classical. It was stunning to hear him pluck the notes with tough precision while maintaining a relaxed, ambience throughout. It cannot be that easy but he makes it seem so. There are a lot of those instances in Here We Go. White is totally superb serving up a lovely package that makes one aware of how glorious a guitar can sound with the hands of a master.

The cuts are titled Night After Night, Time Never Sleeps, Here We Go, If Ever, Our Dance, Desert Night, Joyride, Costa Rica, My Lucky Day, Requiem For A Princess and Reunion.

The Mystery Of You by Spencer Day. A singer, songwriter and pianist, Day is one of today’s most exciting young artists in the field of jazz. Mostly self-taught, while growing up in Utah, he started out singing standards. He has strong, soulful vocals with an easy, natural rhythm. But he later on discovered his innate talent for writing songs and he has been writing and singing ever since. The Mystery Of You, his fourth album, is his most ambitious and most personal effort to date.

The 13-cut, all-new originals production tells the story of a relationship. With his own words and music, Day goes the entire gamut, from the tentative first stages in The Mystery Of You and Here I Go, to the ecstasy of being in love Soul On Fire, down to heartbreak, with truly heartbreaking and best cuts in the album, I Don’t Want To Know and The Answer. Then, the painful separation Somewhere On The Other Side and the hope that comes after the end with I’m Going Home. Somewhere in between these are Love And War, Something Wicked, Shadow Man, A Long Way (Black Rock City) and Nevermind.