3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Really not the last, I hope., February 3, 2007
This review is from: The Last of the International Playboys (Audio CD)
Sometimes it seems that Amazon has so much to offer that they just don't know everything they have. In all the various times that I've browsed the Lounge or Exotica sections, I don't believe this CD ever came up and yet it sits squarely in the genre and does a pretty good job of things too.
The album is titled "The Last of the International Playboys" and is sub-titled "Vegas Jazz and Latin Lounge" but comes up on Amazon under the latter. The Playboys are a nine piece combo with extra sidemen sitting in on various tracks. Their CD represents a tour through all the different facets of cocktail nation style; low key swing, crime jazz, bossa nova, Clebanoff-style Latin jazz, Mancini,etc., all of it performed in just the way we want it: alert and on point for the uptempo numbers, suave and smooth for the mid-tempo items. If there is a slight weakness to the proceedings, it's the two male vocalists. Like many jazz singers, they are singers who get by more on style points and ernestness than truly accomplished voices but they are never less than listenable and sometimes quite likable for their aptness to their material. At any rate, only about a quarter of the tracks are vocal. All of this is performed in a hip and urbane way which almost but not quite conceals the professionalism of the performances. An album, in other words, on which everyone seemed to have a great time, in a low key way, creating it, and making a fine job of it in the process.
This is not an album which reaches out and grabs you by the throat with its brilliance but which slowly engages you over repeated listenings. After several hearings, I've come to appreciate its virtues and have turned to it repeatedly. I think you just might too.
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