AQUA

	Aqua
	Produced by Jeff Richman
	Released on July 22, 2008
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
03837 cover [high resolution scan]

T hey send me these to listen as if I’m a mission to record each note wrote down by man or beast. “At least,” a little voice cries out, “at least!” (That for the Naiad, who long lost interest and drifted asleep to the dream of a tempest.) Outside of the axecedental releases, these are the first of the Hawaiian’s pieces to get their spin in my soft tumbler (home to names, dates and the odd number). Richman’s water world suggests a poor man’s Pat Metheny; a lazy assessment that doesn’t convey the sport of climbing windham hill to find the sea lie wide and still, painted from a palette of endless blue, immovable and true. Despite some whitecapped wizardry, this is a calm and friendly sea, not a fretful storm of notes designed to rock and roil your boat. The melodies are liquid elusive at first, but over time they quench a thirst for mellow jazz on glass sea gliding, over the sound bars riding, riding. It’s all been done before, but for the steel drum perhaps, music for cool cats who like to take short naps. Now normally I stay away from the sweet stuff in search of seas where the surf is rough but Richman came with a calm and gentle sound to sing me to sleep ‘til the dreamer, drowned, awoke to a new world bathed in blue. Aqua, man, it’s calling you to play in its warm and foamy froth: The water’s fine, jump off.

TRACK LISTING

EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU 5:35
KAHUKU 6:20
PRICELESS 4:29
THE BIG STEP 6:55
AQUA 5:21
WHERE I BELONG 4:53
STORM BEFORE THE CALM 6:10
PEACE OF WORK 5:56
THE NEST 5:15
DOWN BY THE RIVER (Neil Young) 5:18

All songs written by Jeff Richman unless noted

CREDITS

JEFF RICHMAN -- guitars
JEFF BABKO -- keyboards
MITCHEL FORMAN -- keyboards, acoustic piano
WILL KENNEDY -- drums
ABRAHAM LABORIEL -- bass
SIMON PHILLIPS -- drums, engineer, overdubs
WALFREDO REYES -- percussion
Jeff Beal -- trumpet (3,8)
Brandon Fields -- sax (4,7)
Dean Taba -- bass, acoustic bass
Chris Wabich -- steel drums
Paul Tavenner -- mixing, overdubs
Simeon Spiegel -- overdubs
Robin Tijoe -- back cover photo
Liquid Planet -- cover photo
Rob Braden -- inner sleeve photo/art direction

REGION	RELEASE DATE	LABEL	MEDIA	ID NUMBER	FEATURES
US	July 22, 2008	Nefer Records	CD	03837

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