Track Listing

1. Road Warriors [#]
2. Summer Lovers
3. Welcome to the St. James Clu
4. Hideaway
5. Black Diamond
6. South Beach Mambo
7. She Likes to Watch
8. Jewel Thieves
9. Rain
10. Avenida del Mar
11. Purple Haze/Fire Medley [#]
12. Fire
13. Star Spangled Banner
14. Are We There Yet?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #101407 in Music
• Released on: 2002-03-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
Japanese version featuring a bonus track: 'Are We There Yet'

Amazon.com
Russ Freeman has written some of smooth jazz's more enduring melodies for his Rippingtons. Years ago, however, the band had little identity live, and their leader rarely strayed far from recorded versions. Through persistent touring, Freeman has become a confident performer and improviser, and has built his band into something to see and hear. On this high-octane release, the group demonstrates why every summer they are now one of the top-drawing acts in smooth jazz. This is a feel-good summertime kind of record that not only highlights Freeman's compositional prowess on smooth-jazz chestnuts like "Welcome to the St. James Club" and the classic "She Likes to Watch," from the very first Rippingtons album, Moonlighting, but also those stirring Latin pieces like "Avenida del Mar" and "South Beach Mambo" that show off his soloing ability. Two different versions of the band make up this recording, and they both have well-known saxophonists out front blowing Freeman's lines. One is Eric Marienthal, and the other is Paul Taylor, who has some of his best solos ever on this record, particularly on "She Likes to Watch," "Jewel Thieves," and the appropriately titled "Summer Lovers." --Mark Ruffin

Customer Reviews

The Live Jazz Inferno!!
I have been a jazz fan since the early 90's, and have seen many groups (like the Rippingtons), and soloists (such as Richard Elliott). Ever since my first live experience at Coachman Park in beautiful Clearwater, FL., I have been absolutely hooked on smooth jazz. With that in mind, let me tell you that after the thousands of hours of playing music from the smooth jazz genre, this is the one CD I will always treasure!! It only helps when I see that it is the Rippingtons as the group's name on it.. my absolute favorite group/solo artist in ANY genre. Anybody that has ever been to one of the Rippinton's concerts should absolutely, positively buy this CD! Trust a born enthusiast such as me... you will NOT be disappointed! For those that have never seen, heard of, or been able to go to one of the Rippington's concerts, this CD will definitely blow you away. Gees, I can't wait to get this August's Russ Freeman release!

A GREAT LIVE ALBUM!!
I second most of the other reviewers that this is a very good Ripp album. Personally, I was sort of getting burned out on the same old CD after CD, but this one is very good indeed. Quality is great, though I would have preferred abit more room ambience be mixed in. Having seen the Ripps several times in concert (my first was with release of "Kilamanjaro"), I found this recording to be quite faithfull to the spirit of the Rippingtons.

Like another reviewer, I did NOT like the addition of "Purple Haze" and "Fire". They played these during their summer tour through Houston last year, and I really couldn't understand why everyone got so excited about their playing these tunes. Of course, Russ is as good as any guitarist past or present, but to retro back to Hendrix didn't impress me. I probably would have preferred to hear him copy some Stevie Ray Vaughn numbers; at least those have a blues background. Russ' version of "Star Spangled Banner" is okay I guess, but no one can do like Jimi did!

But all things considered, this is a great CD!!! Don't hesitate to buy it!!

ALMOST perfect
OK, this is live Rippingtons, right? Well, the first thing I noticed is that the sound quality is phenomenal. There's a new studio track tacked on as the last song, and I couldn't tell the difference between the songs based on the sound. That's a great thing.

Seeing the Rippingtons, there's a lot of extended soloing, etc. There's a taste of that on here - Kim Stone doing a great bass solo, Paul Taylor doing some nice work on sax - but only a taste. One thing I remember from this tour is some good percussion jams on the song "Avenida Del Mar" which is missing on the version here - including this or some other extended percussion/drum set would have earned 5 stars.

The songs are great, and Russ Freeman's guitar work fabulous. "Black Diamond" is a particular highlight, as are "Rain" and "Summer Lovers". One minor fault is that a lot of these songs have some very prominent late 80's-early 90's style keyboard horn hits that do add depth but make the songs sound a little dated. (Very reminiscent of the studio versions, though, which were from that time period.)

The added bonus is the Hendrix medley from the concert tour located at the end of the CD. Kim Stone belts out some vocals on "Purple Haze" and "Fire" and it is so cool to hear Hendrix covered by a jazz band.

So all in all, it's a nice taste of a Rippingtons live show and a somewhat good extension of the studio albums. Great musicianship, with a lot of restraint, and they play great together. A fine album.