Search - Chieli Minucci :: Jewels

Chieli Minucci's best ever solo album

A. Cippico | Hampshire, England | 06/14/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album has it all. Minucci runs through all musical styles with elegance. Don't bother with the subsequent 'smooth jazz' albums - unless you like safe, anodyne music. Starting with 'Courageous Cats', a gloriously heavy swing tempo kicks in with a walking bass pumping the whole thing along. A funky horn section pulls the whole thing together.'Phat City' is a laid back funk groove with steel strung and electric taking turns in between the twin-guitar verse and chorus. A great horn section break lifts it halfway through.'Only You' is a 'power ballad' starting with nylon strung guitar, leading to a climactic overdriven electric finale.'Sitting in Limbo' is a reggae-infused vocal track which chugs along nicely. Possibly the least strong of them all.'Hideaway' picks up the tempo with a memorable bass and synth backing riff that gets stronger as it goes, picking up piano and guitars as it goes. A delicate twin-tracked acoustic plays the melody and leads to the inevitable jazz electric finishing it off in a truly memorable flourish of inventive soloing.'Dig the Dirt' rocks along with a funky bass and dirty electric guitar playing the melody. Harmony electric guitars take it to the wonderful chorus - power chords and all. A wah-wah solo takes us back to the verse and a grand finale played around the chorus is absolutely fabulous - a screaming guitar fades to the unlikely sound of a church organ playing just the backing which then takes us right out. Great stuff.'Mountains' is an orchestral-type piece with shades of Delius' 'On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring' (if I recall my classics). Plenty of light and shade, a lone nylon-strung guitar plays a gentle melody accompanied by strings. Picking up backing, it crescendos with timpani-like floor tom and electric guitars into a Minucci-soft attack guitar solo, quietening to revisit the start again, and a cuckoo-like finale played on the acoustic.'Realm Of The Senses' brings us back to a more up-tempo number. Strummed steel-string guitar and rock-solid drums provide the backing for a strong electric guitar melody. Mid-way we get a really rocky power-chord section leading into an entirely appropriate electric solo. Taking us out is a superb Hammond organ played over the really tight bass and drum backing.'Moment Of Love' is the album's second vocal track. A fairly standard love-song at first impression, but it's not in the vomit-inducing style of Witney Houston, et al. It's a low-key number but no less passionate for it. It really sounds as if it was sung from the heart. A nylon-strung guitar solo breaks it up beautifully at points. Influenced by Minucci's divorce? Who knows. It's a real oasis of tranquillity and mood-change among the other tracks.'Jewels' (Parts 1-4)
What can I say about this sequence of tracks to adequately do it justice? It's a roller coaster ride of a title track. Starting gently with acoustic guitars it leads into a prog-rock-meets-jazz-fusion number. Musically complex and dynamic, it is simply superb. Listen to Part 2 very loud if you can. The combination of rock-guitar, syncopated drum and bass backing is just out of this world. Play 'hand drums' along with it and it will leave you breathless at the end. Parts 3 and 4 bring the number back down to earth with the refrain. We've landed - phew!To sum it up: Minucci at his best and most creative since early Special EFX went 'World' or 'Smooth Jazz'. Go buy it now."

Wonderful mix of styles & emotion

A. Cippico | 07/02/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I get bored with most "jazz" albums as they seem to get monotonous after awhile. Not this one... A really good mix of butt-wiggle and raw emotion in an urban jazz environment. Two vocal pieces are great on their own and serve as refreshers between the instrumentals. His guitar never dominates completely, allowing the other artists to add their competence to his pieces without having to endure annoying "solo" breaks. sc"