Peter White - Good Day (2009)

Many people think of smooth jazz as something that didn't start until the 1980s, but arguably, smooth jazz started around 1966-1968 with the overtly commercial, pop-drenched albums that guitarist Wes Montgomery recorded during the last few years of his life. Love it or hate it, Montgomery's more commercial output had a major impact on Peter White and many other guitarists who have contributed to smooth jazz (including George Benson, Lee Ritenour, Earl Klugh, Chuck Loeb, and Henry Johnson). Musically, a lot has changed since the '60s, but the more things change in music, the more they inevitably stay the same -- and 2009 found White (like Montgomery 41, 42, and 43 years earlier) still struggling with a desire to improvise and a desire for mass acceptance (the thing that jazz, for the most part, lost after World War II). Of course, one doesn't necessarily rule out the another; the late saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr. knew how to be commercial and adventurous at the same time, but most smooth jazz artists play it way too safe -- which is what White usually does on Good Day. This 2009 release is, on the whole, an album of pleasant but not very memorable background music; White usually sounds like he is yearning to let loose as an improviser but has to hold back because he dare not offend the smooth jazz/NAC stations that have been playing his recordings all these years. Nonetheless, Good Day has some noteworthy tracks here and there, including the Brazilian-flavored "Love Will Find You," the nuevo flamenco-ish "Ramon's Revenge" and the hypnotic "Mission 2 Mars" (which hints at ambient electronica). But most of the time, Good Day is the sort of album that is content to innocuously fade into the background -- and White, like so many of the smooth jazz musicians who sells himself short creatively, is capable of a lot more. ~ Alex Henderson