Discerning Brit soul fans will know a little something about veteran guitarist NEVILLE “BREEZE” McKRIETH. He was, of course, a founder member of Beggar and Co and he’s gone on to work with Light of the World and The Brit Funk Association.
Neville/Breeze is constantly in demand as a session and festival player. Indeed it was at a festival that the idea for his latest solo album, ‘Just Another Day’ came about. A few years back our man was invited to play at the UNESCO International Jazz day in Phuket, Thailand. There and over the next few years he got to work with people like new age jazzer Mike Tambasen and Korean Jazz guitarist Jack lee. Those experiences and the exotic locations, says, Neville, evoked in him a new passion in his journey of music making and demonstrated to him again the power that music could invoke.
Heavy stuff maybe, but the music on the resulting ‘Just Another Day’ LP isn’t complex or heavy. Rather its jazzy (in the smooth way) with a hint of the exotic. That exotica is maybe best represented by tracks like ‘This Is Paradise’, ‘Return To Valencia’ and ‘The Island’ while ‘Something For Miles’ is self-explanatory.
The most eye catching cuts are the two big covers – versions of Marvin Gaye’s ‘I Want You’ and a take on Bobby Caldwell’s ‘What You Won’t Do For Love’. Both are treated with respect but sufficiently different to the orignals to provoke interest. The former is mainly instrumental with an ensemble vocal coming in just past half way while the latter is a tad slower than the original and maybe most would say that our Breeze is a better guitarist than singer. I’m presuming it’s him on the vocal.
Other players on the album, which Breeze says was partly influenced by the sounds of Caldera, the Crusaders and Santana, include David Baptiste on saxophone, Kenny Wellington on trumpet and flugelhorn, Toby Baker, Peter Hinds and Luismi Valles on keyboards, Pat Clahar on saxophone, Rolando Domingo on trumpet, Camelle Hinds and Ernie McKone on bass and Billy Osborne on drums.
BREEZE; ‘Just Another Day’ released December 6th via Expansion.
