Search - Bob James Trio, Mark Turner, Kenny Garrett Quartet :: Casino Lights 99

From the opening note of Bob James's lyrically romantic "Mind Games" to the closing jam on Mongo Santamaria's "Watermelon Man," the Casino Lights are shining bright. George Duke, Kenny Garrett, Kirk Whalum, Boney James, Rick Braun, Larry Carlton, and Gabriela Anders constitute an awesome smooth-jazz lineup here, with Anders's smoky harmonies shining especially alongside Duke on the title track from his classic album Brazilian Love Affair and on her silky hot "Fire of Love." Even trumpet honker Braun, musically way over his head in this company, manages to push the smooth-jazz envelope. The first Casino Lights album, recorded on the same Montreux Jazz Festival stage and released in 1989, was a vocal heavy effort that pales in comparison with this recording, dominated as it is by crafty instrumentalists playing a bit of inspired one-upmanship on each other with the listener turning out to be the winner. The superlatives abound, from the packaging to the selections, which include covers of Ronnie Laws's "Always There," Eddie Harris's "Cold Duck Time," and Fourplay doing a tour de force on Miles Davis's "Four." One of the top contemporary-jazz albums of the year. --Mark Ruffin