Citrus Sun – Another Time, Another Space
Another Time, Another Space
Citrus Sun
(Heads Up – 2001)
by Ray Redmond
Incognito founder Jean Paul “Bluey” Maunick focuses on an instrumental jazz sound with the creation of Citrus Sun. Maunick recruited Average White Band guitarist Jim Mullen for the guitarist role along with Incognito members and keyboardist Tim Vine from Simply Red. With a cast of characters like that you expect a smooth, jazzy release with silky vocals, good use of harmony and some jammin solo work…the CD does not disappoint.
The first song Make Me Smile comes in with horns that are reminiscent of the group Chicago, followed immediately by a disctinctly retro guitar line. The sax work on Budapest caught my ear, as did the smoking guitar on the title track. Where the Wind Blows is appropriately named. The horns blow strong on this one, particularrly Glover’s trumpet solos, accompanied by the sweet keyboards…this is a VERY grooving tune.
Somewhere, Nowhere slows things down a bit, with it’s AWB-ish percussion licks, overlaid by smooth Incognito-ish melodies that all come together to sound a little like Chicago on Jazz! Though Maunick calls most of the musical shots for Incognito, he took a more collaborative approach with Citrus Sun, encouraging the band to co-produce, write songs and play live to track. These little things make the tracks on this CD more varied than the Incognito releases were. Although this is a smooth release, I don;t think I’d call it your conventional smooth jazz, rather it’s just good jazz that’s smooth. Try it, you’ll like it.
RealAudio Samples
