John Klemmer - Chateau Love (2024)      


Review:
JOHN KLEMMER is a veteran US jazz sax man with a lengthy and distinguished career. He debuted as a leader way back in 1967 with the album ‘Involvement’ – the first of his LPs for the famed Chess/Cadet label. Since then Klemmer has seen trends come and go. Indeed some commentators suggest, with some justification, that Klemmer has been in the vanguard of establishing various jazz sub genres – jazz-fusion, smooth jazz, spiritual jazz and ambient jazz amongst them. You can hear those shadings and a lot more on ‘Chateau Love’, our man’s latest album – his first for over 26 years! The album is a 12 tracker. All tunes were composed and produced by Klemmer and such is his standing in the jazz community that he can call on some stellar players as  sidemen. Thus on ‘Chateau Love’ you can relish the craft of bassist Abe Laboriel Sr., drummer Harvey Mason Sr., percussionist Lenny Castro, keyboardist Ronnie Foster and acoustic guitar maestro John Tropea. Klemmer leads with tenor and soprano saxophone along with synth, piano and vocal contributions and between them these jazz stars deliver  an expressive and emotional soundscape; it’s  subtle and never over-wrought – grown up music if you would! The album opens with the brief title track . Klemmer (who narrates the track) explains that ‘Chateau Love’ can be  real, imagined or a concept that you can go to. He adds that it can be anywhere, or it can be your own invention. It’s your place for seclusion, intimacy, relaxation or romance. And those are the themes and emotions that the rest of the album expands on. Amongst the album’s other focus tracks are ‘Love Divine’  which Klemmer describes as “the ultimate groove of celebration, of discovery, of mutual attraction.” Here the lead sax lines are enhanced by the sensual minimalist vocals (more cooing, really) of Katie Christopher. The there’s the lengthy (it’s over 10 minutes) ‘Islands in the Sun’ . Here the reassuring vocal is down to Darlene Koldenhoven. Klemmer himself takes to the mic on ‘You Are The One’ – the sincerity of the lyrical pledge shines through. Elsewhere, the track titles hint at what you can expect form the sonics –‘Heartbeat’, ‘Smile’, ‘Beautiful Words’  and ’Dreams’ need little explanation. All of those tunes (indeed  any of the ones mentioned above too) deliver warmth and intimacy, relaxation and reflection. Klemmer may have been away for 20 years or more but his craft and commitment to it has altered not one jot! — soulandjazzandfunk.com


   


Track List:
01 - Chateau Love Intro
02 - Love Divine
03 - Heartbeat
04 - Smile
05 - Beautiful Words Part One
06 - Something More Than You and I
07 - Dreams 2040 (Open Skies)
08 - Islands in the Sun
09 - Bliss Kiss
10 - The World's In My Angels Arms
11 - You are the One
12 - Love Devine Outro


Media Report:
Genre: Smooth Jazz, New Age
Origin: Chicago, Illinois, USA  
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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