Customer Reviews

New Beginnings

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This is a very interesting recording. New Beginnings was recorded after the Missing You CD. This CD has alot of great music on it. The "Happiness is Now" track really grabs your attention as Henry Johnson' trumpeter performs a great solo. This is a must have in your CD collection if you enjoy Smooth Jazz. Very well done.

Henry Johnson is one of those versatile, virtuosic musicians whose prolific talents may be his biggest nemesis. As George Benson discovered, it's best to pick a winning horse and stay with it to the end. Johnson has monster chops, practically on the same level as Benson or Wes Montgomery. He can play funk, new age, burning bebop, compose, and sing. And he does it all on this album.

I'm not much of a smooth jazz fan, so the favorites would have to be Johnson's own "Flying Fish," which features dazzling solos by both Freddie Hubbard and Henry, along with some headspinning exchanges between the two. The other stand-outs are "Lush Life," permitting Johnson to demonstrate he's as proficient with chorded as octave solos, and "In the Wee Small Hours," done as a pure, totally unaffected and unmannered vocal accompanied only by piano. Both numbers reveal that underneath all the technique and musical mastery lies the honest soul of a true musician.