Search - Chuck Loeb :: Music Inside

Great Smooth Jazz Guitar

RH Draper | Auckland, New Zealand | 04/04/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first heard Chuck's 'Listen' and have worked my way back to 'The Music Inside' and it is a great CD from the title track to my favourite, 'Mont Pelee', which is a stunning acoustic Spanish flavoured piece that just has me wanting more. If you like smooth jazz guitar you'll love this CD! If you haven't discovered Chuck Loeb's music yet this is a great place to start."

Average Chuck disc

RH Draper | 07/07/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Personally, I think Chuck's a real talented guy, but this is not where i'd start my Loeb collection. It doesn't depart very much from his established formula, and I think earlier CD's, such as "Life Colors" did much more and covered much more ground. Note that Chuck also is a leader in no less than 2 other bands, The Fantasy Band (which also operates as a collective group also in a very radio-friendly smooth Jazz format), and Metro, which is a very interesting more fusion oriented group based around Chuck, keyboardist Mitch Forman and a very talented drummer/composer (previously unknown to me) Wolfgang Haffner. Their discs cover ALLOT of ground, from Weather Report style fusion, to gentle almost New Age music at times, to an almost Pat Metheny-ish type Jazz to an occaisional smooth jazz piece. Certainly worth checking out.
My real reason for writing this review, however, is for Loeb completeists like myself: The version of "Breathe Again" here is sung by Loeb's wife Carmen,but there is an instrumental version I just discovered of this piece when I purchased the Shanachie compilation disc "Smooth Jazz Slow Jams". Nowhere on that disc does it mention that that version is different from the version on "The Music Inside", but it is. And I actually prefer that version (with Chuck's acoustic guitar playing the song's melody), although in general, I wish Chuck would leave the cover versions of pop tunes to someone else. His writing is almost always preferable to the pop songs he chooses to cover."