Ken Navarro - Smooth Sensation (1997)

Compared to his flashier peers, Ken Navarro isn't one of those instrumentalists who get much attention. And yet, few contemporary jazz guitarists have charted as consistently with a style that rarely wavers from the sunny kind of charms the genre is founded upon. Unfortunately, after eight previous releases, he's pretty much competing with his own catalog on Smooth Sensation. Which is to say, he's still crafting seamless, easy beat tunes, ensembling with top players like Eric Marienthal, and showing enough spark on a few numbers to keep this project slightly more interesting than much of today's typical smooth jazz fare. A few tunes -- most notably, the blues-edged "I'll Tell You What" and "Out of the Blue," featuring a potent synergy between Navarro, Marienthal, and keyboardist Jay Rowe -- are among the catchiest and well performed in Navarro's catalog. The rest of the acoustic-based pieces are easy going down, but don't really make the kind of lasting impression he's been capable of in the past. The disc delivers on its titular promise, to be sure, but Navarro has kept us titillated longer in the past. ~ Jonathan Widran