Grant Geissman - In With The Out Crowd (1998)

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Imagine a cinematic scenario where one day Eddie Murphy turns into Lawrence Olivier and you'll have some idea of the pleasant shock of Grant's "In With The Out Crowd" . Till now, like Murphy, Geissman has been a lighthearted, people pleasing entertainer; his three previous Bluemoon releases all caught airplay fire but sacrificed artistic growth for friendly compositional flair. No longer, as the acoustic guitarist grows in quantum leaps, forgoing that fluffy, sax driven jacuzzi jazz sound for such down home, creative and swinging elements as recorder, flute, upright bass and Charlie Bisharat's remarkable gypsy violin. Bisharat's vibrant touches take Geissman's career to another level entirely. Stylistically, Geissman is all over the board, with Strunz & Farah like naivete, saucy Latin, solid jazz and even a classical tour de force with flutist David Shostac. And yet that melodic guitar ties all the elements together. "Silent Movies" features wildly enchanting acoustic piano work from Emil Palame and Pat Coil. Geissman's plucky string dynamics have never shone brighter, and after years of strong but less ambitious pop, he's at last found a way to reconcile true art with agreeable craftsmanship. The result: as organically brilliant an album as the smooth jazz genre has ever heard.

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Tracklist:

01. In With the Out Crowd
02. Did I Save?
03. World as One
04. Heartbeat
05. Sweet as U R
06. Highway 60's Revisited
07. Secret Garden
08. Lost, but Found
09. Tempest
10. Dharma
11. Life...And Stuff