Boz Scaggs - Speak Low

Image via WikipediaI'll start this review of his new release with the same one as the previous one about Warren Zevon: What comes to mind for you when you hear the name Boz Scaggs? I immediately think of "Silk Degrees" and am transported back in time to driving through Laguna Beach in a convertable Mustang with my girlfriends singing along.

I still listen to that CD now and then and love it. His later music did not appeal to me as much but I love his NEW RELEASE which is the second volume of his best songs:

If I could only use one word to describe this new album I'd choose: SEXY. This is music I'd put on for a romantic evening with my lover, sipping some wine, slow dancing and ... enjoying each other's company. He has an incredible voice.

The multi-dimensional singer, whose 1976 album Silk Degrees was one of the landmark pop titles of the decade, began working on Speak Low several years ago. He’d settled on most of the material, and had developed a rough notion of the sound in his head. “I had a few distinct elements I wanted to hear paired with my voice,” Scaggs recalls, “but I needed an arranger who could bring those textures to life.” He remembers wondering whether he’d ever realize the sound he’d imagined. And then he experienced what he describes as a remarkable coincidence. “It was raining, cold out. I walked by the Blue Note and heard music coming out of the club. It was vibes, string trio, a couple of horns – this was the sound I’d been hearing in my head, exactly. Turned out to be Gil Goldstein and a nonet. After the set Gil and I started talking, and it was just a really nice meeting. When we got together around a piano, that was it. We knew.”

Since I have no lover to give it to, I am sending it to my friend Michael so he can play it for his wife :)