Customer Reviews

Global Cooling

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I agree with the first review. This CD is fantastic! I've been a Joyce Cooling fan for a number of years and she keeps getting better with each release. Global Cooling is a great mix of instrumental and vocal. You can't get bored as each cut brings something new to grab you. This is definitely music at it's best.

Having been a big fan of Joyce and Jay since their 1st album, I really wanted this one to be GREAT! Some cuts achieve that. "Grass Roots" does take me back to their earlier work in "Playing it Cool," "Keeping Cool," and the "Third Wish" albums. "Global Cooling" also is a keeper. "Save This Dance For Me" has the same soft, cool introspective quality that many of their better vocal numbers displayed in earlier albums. "Dolores in Pink" confirms they've always been willing to go a little "outside the box" with their musical journeys, incorporating some instruments we haven't heard from them before. This cut was like the supporting actor who steals the scene in a film. It's why Joyce and Jay have retained my interest over the years. "We Can" began my small disappointment with the album. Do we need another lecture on "going green?" Don't we get enough of that from politicians and special interest groups? This cut was not musically or vocally worth listening to, so why? There are way too many artists exploiting their celebrity to tell the rest of us how to live. I'm surprised Joyce and Jay felt compelled to do so. "The Red Rose" was pretty much a "generic" Joyce and Jay cut, nothing much to like or dislike. "Chit Chat" was another sermon which I would just as well not have paid for (hooray for iTunes!), but at least it was musically interesting. "In the Street" was the kind of song I bought the album to hear. With a great background beat, conversational rhythms, and a positive, uplifting mood. There's enough really good here to overlook the not so cool preaching and my iPod can fix the rest.

There is something for everyone on this CD. I love the funky jazz sounds mixed with a world flavor that describes Global Cooling in total. I am so glad to see Joyce expand beyond the smooth jazz format on many tracks. To hear a good mix of what's available on this CD, at least listen to Grass Roots, Global Cooling, Cobra, What Are We Waiting For, and Chit Chat. When you're done, I think you just might buy this one!

For this longtime fan of Joyce Cooling, Global Cooling is a bit of a letdown. There are 3 tracks in particular that don't work, in my opinion. "What are we Waiting For" is dull; "We Can" invokes almost a rap and reminds me too much of Obama's slogan from last summer (and I really hope Joyce isn't going too political in lieu of making great smooth jazz); and "In the Streets" seems like a throwaway track at 1:24. The rest of the album measures up to Joyce's best work, but the three aforementioned tracks make this her overall most "unlistenable" album.

Fantastic player song writer and she's from the Bay Area....my home (actually she's from New Jersey and moved to the Bay). Love her body...of work. Before KKSF was dismantled I use to turn up the volume when her tracks were played on the air. I'd have the car bopping up a storm. Her new alum just solidifies her prowess as a guitarist and how "cool" eclectic and prolific she can be. NICE ALBUM!

Cooling has always been a good artist and still is. This album is good for just listing or dancing. I've enjoyed it very much.

It is a real treat to hear Joyce Cooling play the guitar. She knocked me off my feet with her leads and rhythm playing. Very smooth style and she can kick some

butt with the best of todays players. This gal can sing too! Nice voice.

Her band members are all great players. Lots of great tunes on this album....something for everybody.

Her music is as beautiful and adventerious as she is. Pure dreamy delight.

The best female artist around today.

As with most Cooling CD's they are most enjoyable to listen to and I am an ardent fan of her's! However, Global Cooling tends to be a political statement of sorts or so it seems! I hope she does not gravitate towards that direction in future releases. Nothing wrong with expressing your view's/interest's but keep it off your CD's please! There are other ways to do this! We all get a daily bombardment of politic's & ecological issues from the political pundit's on the cable new's networks! Enough!!!!

Overall this is a pretty nice CD, great music in the cooling style and a nice change in beat with maybe a little flavor of rock, cha cha and tango sprinkled here and there! My only complaint's are tracks 5/7/11 and the rather chincy cardboard sleeve this CD comes in, could have put the CD in a paper sleeve then stuck it in the cardboard like the albums of old!. Track# 11 is a complete waste....what is this for???? Track# 7 Is a so so go green thing and Track#5 is a politcal statement of sorts. The rest are just fine. Track#9..The Red Rose makes you want to get up and do a Tangy Tango with your sweetie! Track#6 Delores In Pink could make you want to do a cha cha. Track#4...Cobra, is a great song with abit of rock! Track#2...Global Coolong is a fine number as well. If your a big Cooling fan as I am, you will like this one in your collection Some pleasent changes in her style of music, just leave political/ecological views at home. We all know the world is a screwed up place!

"In the ever-changing world of what we call the 'music business,' Joyce Cooling and long time partner Jay Wagner have savvied up and released this independently owned album (their 7th studio project to date), GLOBAL COOLING. The world-class recording features her signature body- moving, funky blend of contemporary jazz with global flavors that we've come to love and expect. Eleven new tunes, all compelling... in particular, we're digging the horn- enhanced, 'Grass Roots,' the chilled funk of the title track, the smoothness and layered vocals of 'Save This Dance For

Me' and the sweet, soulful vocal 'What Are We Waiting For?'" - Sandy Shore / Smooth Jazz Radio

"Global Cooling is like taking a transcontinental flight, touching down in fun, exciting and beautiful places. We were inspired to travel into uncharted territory, so we really stretched ourselves to get our passports in order! We played with a lot of new instruments and layered Tablas, congas, bongos, sitar, berimbau and even accordion over funk, rock

and jazz. It was a trip." - Joyce Cooling

Smooth & Soul Review:

"Smooth like a cheetah crawls Joyce into the starting Grass Roots. The reggae flavored bass and a strong horn section perfectly surround Joyce energetic guitar lead. Jay Wagner shines on a syncopated piano. The propelling Global Cooling is Joyce's tribute to the green-globe effort. The pumping beat is performed by Billy Johnson (drums) and

Roberto Quintana (percussion).

A real popular melody is the grooving Save This Dance For Me. Joyce earned high accolades on the Berks Jazz and Seabreeze festivals this year with her new album. Cobra is a little trip to India instrumentally inspired by tables and sitar. Joyce comments: 'I have some favorite Indian ragas, or scales, that I always wanted to play. The scales didn't fit over any of our previous songs, so we wrote Cobra, using one of my favorite ragas as a springboard.'

Hooking melodies and lyrics are Joyce's great potential and talent. What Are We Waiting For? is a brilliant example of her blessed gift in the style of Joni Mitchell. Dolores In Pink is a tight collaborating between Jay, Joyce and long time drummer friend Celso Alberti. A Samba groove with a hypnotic power.

We Can is not an announcement but a fact. When someone deserves a prize for innovation then it is Joyce Cooling for this fantastic jazzy rap song. Especially recommended for percussion fans, congas, bongos, timbales, berimbau are the strong beat backbones.

One of the band's favorite restaurants in Detroit is Rhythm Kitchen. The 114-foot marble waterfall at Fishbone's is hard to ignore, but if that weren't enough for aesthetics, it also has a huge aquarium with beautiful, big, bright tropical fish. This excellent restaurant is the title donor for the next song.

Perhaps inspired by Grace Jones' La Vie en Rose The Red Rose melts Jay's passionate accordion and Joyce's Spanish guitar to an elegant Tango d'amour. 'I have always love the way Jay plays accordion. The last time Jay's accordion playing was featured was on our very first CD Cameo on a song called, Voo Doo Chicken. He hasn't

lost a stitch,' comments Joys enthusiastically.

The origin of Chit Chat is to find in the conversation of two people observed by Joyce and ironically translated in a vocal view. Carnaval in Rio is the real thrill, an unparalleled experience and a definite once in a life-time event. Joyce and Jay join the Carnaval on In The Streets in their own way.

Celebrate Joyce's Global Cooling. It's a festival for brain and heart. Have the party of your life."

"it's the pulse of the emphatic title track and Cooling's musical salute to the safeguarding of our planet that rounds out the segment. Familiar, friendly, and occasionally exotic, while stretching well outside the confines of the everyday, Global Cooling is a gleaming collation of much of Joyce Cooling's finest material to date!!" - Jazz Lynx