Royal Function

Bona Fide | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 18, 1999)
• Original Release Date: May 18, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Encoded Music
• ASIN: B00000IPYY
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,176 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. High Street

2. Route 40 West

3. X Ray Hip

4. Never Say Goodbye

5. The Avenue

6. T Bone

7. Royal Function

8. Divine

9. The 2 O'Clock Club

10. Mo Diddley

11. Natty Boh

12. The Hippo

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!, May 15, 2004

By 

Sudip Chahal (Gold River, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Royal Function (Audio CD)

I bought this CD after hearing X-ray Hip on the radio - I was thankful that the announcer called out the name of the group though it took a bit of luck to search for "Bona Fide" instead of "Bonafide". When buying, I thought that X-ray Hip was worth the price alone and most likely the group that created it had to be good.

The earlier reviewers are very astute - this is pure, beautiful, fun, lively MUSIC first and jazz/funk etc second - no gimmicks, pretentious, self-important show-off BS here - only what the composers felt made sense musically and tasteful.

The piano, the arrangments are all lush, deep, rich, elegant -gorgeous. The saxophone - where used - is equally tasteful - it is played the way it is meant to be - not the irritating way that seems to be on radio all the time of late. This is one serious group and one serious set of composers - I've heard a wide range of music - this ranks among the very best - truly a great find! I hope they can continue in this vein for a while before the inspiration dries-up.

The pluses are many - lots of music here - it may take you a while to appreciate all of it - but well worth it.

My feeling is that they could have done a better job of ordering (sequencing) the numbers - but that's one nit.

Here's my assessment - see below for description of the grades
1. High Street A+
2. Route 40 West A
3. X-ray Hip A+
4. Never say goodbye B+
5. The Avenue A
6. T Bone B+
7. Royal Function B - why is this the CD title?
8. Divine A+ (it is DIVINE - how appropriately named!)
9. The 2 O'clock club A
10. Mo Diddley B+
11. Natty Boh B+
12. The Hippo B+

OVERALL - A+ (3 A+, 3 As, 5 B+, 1 B amazing consistency here)

A+ - worth the CD price alone; will make your all-time lists
A - almost worth the CD price alone
B+ - very good pieces - perhaps A's on other CDs; on this CD
they fall short of being truly great (perhaps due to the
tough comparisons here)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A groovy CD!, November 19, 2002

By 

James L. Waters, Jr. (Lansdowne, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Royal Function (Audio CD)

Hands down, if you like mainstream jazz that you can't listen to without dancing this is it. Every song has a very uptown jive you can't sit still listening to. Awesome riffs and 100% recommended! Buy all their CDs! Move over Dave Koz and Norman Brown, there's a new kid in town.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Slim Man does it again with Bona Fide, February 28, 2001

By 

"bigbill1" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Royal Function (Audio CD)

This CD rocks - Slim Man does it again with Bona Fide. I found out about Bona Fide because I am a huge Slim Man fan.

You can groove to this CD all day and crank it in your car. It is a funky fresh sound meeting contemporary jazz - way sophisticated and cool to cruise to.

Bona Fide is great live in concert. The band has a certain energy and flow that is awesome! I heard that X-Ray Hip went number #1 in the charts and is up for a few smooth jazz awards.

Great sound, hope you agree . . . Can't wait till the next CD is out.