{"id":4444,"date":"2014-01-01T22:21:10","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T22:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jazzusa.com\/kombo-cookin-out\/"},"modified":"2011-01-01T22:21:10","modified_gmt":"2011-01-01T22:21:10","slug":"kombo-cookin-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/?p=4444","title":{"rendered":"Kombo – Cookin’ Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cookin’ Out<\/font>
Kombo<\/font>
(GRP – 2001)
by Ray Redmond <\/font><\/p>\n

Kombo’s debut album “The Big Blast” recalled the solid R&B of the past while adding a more contemporary jazz feel. With “Cookin’ Out'” Ron Pedley<\/b> and Jon Pondel<\/b> are back with a mixture of originals and covers that all share that same smooth, old-school jazz sound. They come out of the gate with “Tip of the Hat”, a very uptempo Lorber-esque<\/i> piece which features Ron’s signature B3 and Jon’s distinctive jazz-tinged guitar. “Tight” rolls along, again featuring the duo’s lively interplay. Sharon Hendrix<\/b> shows her vocal talents on the sensual “Hush” as well as their sporty cover of the classic Nyro track “Stoned Soul Picnic”. <\/p>\n

This is a very good example of a contemporary group taking a classic song and infusing it with a liveliness that is just as dynamic as the original, yet sufficiently different to be enjoyable on it’s own merits. The same can be said of the very creative “Use Me\/Green Eyed Lady” combination they put together (This was a candidate for this month’s Hot Single). The choice to cover WAR’s<\/i> classic “Low Rider” was perhaps a little less wise, coming off as flat and lacking in luster compared to the original. There are only three cover tunes on the entire CD, so I guess two out of three isn’t bad. <\/p>\n

“Cookin’ Out” and “Gettin’ it Done”, both originals are well crafted and smooth. A lot of the enjoyment of this CD comes from the interplay between Pedley and Pondel, who are old friends. Though not as outright <\/i>funky as some of the Jazzhole<\/b> stuff that Pondel was involved with a few years ago, there is an element of old school funk throughout this release. As Pondel says, their music is “in the vein of acid jazz and R&B but can also fit into the contemporary jazz thing.<\/i>” Saxman Everett Harp<\/b> helps this cause making an appearance on the percolating original “Simmer Down”. Also…Kudos to Luis Conte<\/b> who held the percussion down throughout the album. <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

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Cookin’ Out Kombo(GRP – 2001) by Ray Redmond Kombo’s debut<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jazzusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}