Whether the jazz is free or modal or nightclub or urban or -funk or -pop, if it\u2019s going to catch my interest, it\u2019s gotta have one thing: it\u2019s gotta have groove. After Hours<\/i>, the sophomore album from rheumatologist-turned-saxman Dr. Hulon E. Crayton II, might not win any awards for adventurousness\u2014it\u2019s firmly in the smooth\/contemporary jazz genre\u2014but it has most definitely got groove.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Hulon\u2019s 2010 debut album First Impressions<\/i> (2010) spent 15 weeks on the Billboard Jazz Chart, peaking at #25, and featured the single \u201cSax On The Beach,\u201d which reached #16 on the Smooth Jazz.com Top 50 Indie Chart, in addition to receiving national and international airplay. Once again teaming with producer\/co-composer\/mentor Jeff Kashiwa of The Rippingtons, Hulon this time around features a pair of vocal tunes obviously designed with airplay in mind. <\/p>\n
Kickoff cut \u201cTwo In The Morning\u201d is indeed a tasty track, an r&b tune with genuine swing, well-arranged background vocals behind guest vocalist Howard Hewitt, and Hulon\u2019s sax lurking and accenting. It builds into a slow jam\u2014the lonely guy alone in his bed late at night\u2014that\u2019s mostly superb, though it\u2019s undercut by what sounds like an electronic rhythm section. (Sorry, but this is a pet peeve; in the entire history of recorded music I\u2019ve never heard electronic drums that sounded better than regular acoustic drums\u2014not once, not ever.) \u00a0Later on, Geoff McBride turns in a terrific guest vocal performance on the classic Heatwave ballad \u201cAlways And Forever,\u201d wringing every ounce of soul out of this gorgeous Rod Temperton number.<\/p>\n
Highlights from the remainder of this primarily instrumental album include \u201cTakin\u2019 My Time,\u201d which has a kind of Philly soul sound to it, a sweet groove that also reveals Hulon as a generous bandleader when guitarist Allen Hinds takes a long, nimble solo. Another standout, \u201cSticky Trickuation,\u201d features some of Hulon\u2019s finest soloing, especially on the fade, while \u201cBackstep\u201d is a finger-snapping blues shuffle that also lets the man wail wonderfully on his horn. Late in the going, Hulon returns to \u201cAlways And Forever\u201d for a run at it without vocals, starting out all silky elegance before the sax comes in with a slow, smoky line. On its heels, \u201cDo You Feel Me\u201d features a full horn section and more sweet soloing from Hulon\u2019s players.<\/p>\n
A few missteps crop up along the way\u2014the lounge-y electric piano on the title track feels a little cheesy, and a couple of numbers (\u201cSecond Opinion\u201d and the closing \u201cYou\u2019re Beautiful\u201d) rely too heavily on synthesizers for my tastes\u2014but overall this album is a consistently enjoyable ride. Unlike so many albums that start off strong and fade in the second half, here Hulon keeps right on bringing it.\u00a0 After Hours<\/i> might be on the smooth side of the jazz spectrum, but it\u2019s got plenty of soul, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":30881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8802],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42558","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-hulon","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42558"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}