Richard Elliot chose to go with the production expertise of
Steve Dubin on his
Chill Factor, but the silky, simmering soul influence of
Paul Brown -- who produced the veteran saxman's previous hit,
Jumpin' Off -- has stuck. Where
Elliot once routinely went for the jugular and blistering approach to his tenor, he lives up to this disc's name by bringing out some of his best hooks in a gentler, restrained mode. In the past, you might never mistake an
Elliot horn lick for one by the master of funky cool,
Boney James, but he's in that zone from the first easygoing notes of the bluesy opening track "Moomba."
That's not to say he won't let out occasional gushes of the old intensity during certain break points in a tune, but it has to be the right occasion, like wrapping around
Tim Heintz's bouncy Rhodes and
Rick Braun's sassy flügelhorn on the title track. With other guests like
Peter White,
Elliot sets the example; rather than let
White chime in with nylon string gymnastics, he instead asks the acoustic guitarist to simply embrace his gentle sax melody so tightly that you can hardly tell he's there. The most remarkable evidences of the new, more mature
Elliot are the low bass tone he uses on the smoky ballad "Deep Touch" (what
Gerry Mulligan might have sounded like on tenor) and the elegant, folksy duet "Mikayla's Smile," where he picks up his rarely used soprano and wraps a loving melody around the swaying acoustic guitar harmony lines of
Dwight Sills. ~ Jonathan Widran