The Spice of Life

New awards ahead for Earl Klugh

A smooth jazz, romance, a mesmerizing guitar are the words to briefly characterize the music of legendary Earl Klugh. In the mid 60's of the last century at the age of then 13 her came to hear Chet Atkins playing and was amazed that a guitar was able to sound like that. The event has become a turning point in Earl’s life and by the age of 15 he already taught playing the instrument by himself never ceasing to improve his own mastership. Each of his albums would become the jazz music classics especially successful being the 2005's acoustic record Naked Guitar, and this spring the artist gives us his new work The Spice Of Life. Optimistic, smoothing, wonderfully gentle and beautiful music is far from the only advantage of The Spice Of Life. The album besides all can also boast an orchestra background of some of the songs and a number of collaborations. Taking into account relatively low competition within the given genre Earl Klugh's album can be easily considered the year's leader of jazz music and pretend to new awards for its creator.

The Spice Of Life makes one feel good

Each song on The Spice Of Life is the reflection of its title: a most powerful life energy emanates from them. Thus there is no wonder one is willing to think only of something good, remember the best times and dream about the future. The record opens with a calm pacific composition Ocean Blue, while song Sleepyhead is a more energetic piece refined with soft drums and melodious guitars. A Grammy-winning musician Don Sebesky joins Earl on splendid orchestra compositions Canadian Sunset, Bye Ya and C'est Si Bon, whereas the brightest example of his masterful flamenco guitar playing is track Venezuelan Nights that Earl has written in the honor of a Venezuelan guitarist Antonio Lauro. Probably the most romantic track on the album is the quiet and gentle Driftin' that contrasts greatly with a heavier composition Snap!, flavored with mellow wind and an electro guitar. A most beautiful creation Heart Of My Life, also a Klugh's original is performed with a flute player Hubert Laws and song Morning In Rio pleases with a great rhythm so one can even move along with it if one likes. Sensual notes appear on Lucy's World, and those melancholic on My Foolish Heart and the album closes with a most beautiful guitar song The Toy Guitar proving again that Earl Klugh is second to none expressing what he feels by means of his guitar.

Forever young jazz

As before some of the material on the record has been written by Klugh himself the rest being a well-known classic interpreted by the master. Some listeners will appreciate the complicated many layered orchestra composition, while the others will be delighted by the pure guitar pieces. As on many Earl's record here one can trace the influences of The Beatles, Sergio Mendes and Burt Bacharach on The Spice Of Life, but one cannot but agree with the fact that during many years already Earl Klugh has been developing his own unique style that combines all the achievements of the past years. Performing both standards and his original creations, playing both alone and in duos or even bands, applying acoustic and electronics for his recordings, this wonderfully talented performer has released over thirty albums to date. As it is well known once being born in the 1920's jazz never gets old that is why Earl Klugh's multiple fan base keeps growing each year, and The Spice Of Life will certainly contribute to that a great deal, too.