Customer Reviews

Smooth Sax Tribute to Marvin Gaye

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

 

 

I Love Marvin Gaye and have alot of his previous recordings..I think the sax player did a good job covering Marvin Gaye and some of the songs have a modern up-tempo vibe.

Terra....KC, Missouri

I Think this is a fun and good rendition of these titled songs, I've compared them to the original tracks from my Dad's records and I like it.

E.C. - Evanston, IL

I just bought this CD two hours ago. In a word--TERRIBLE! I bought it because I don't think anyone had ever re-made "Come Live With Me Angel" from the "I Want You" album and which is one of my favorite Marvin Gaye songs. Navarre's rendition, as well as the entire CD, made me angry, and not just because of the money that I spent for it. I am personally offended by these "artists" overt attempt to rape and bastardize the work of Marvin Gaye and other R&B godfathers (such as Earth, Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder, among others) and call it a "tribute". That's like when a player meets meets your mother or sister, says that he loves her mind when he's really trying to get at something else!! These people aren't any different, and I am insulted by their not-so-"smooth" attempt to pimp such fine music!

Songs like 'Distant Lover', 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine', and 'Inner City Blues', were popular during a time when Black people suffered from gross socioeconomic inequality and were treated as second class citizens. Despite trials and humiliation, we always had the ability to express the beauty of our spirits. We lived, loved, laughed, married, raised children, worshipped and made music during Jim Crow. I'm 34, and I wonder how Duke Ellington, Ramsey Lewis, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Kool & the Gang, Earth, Wind & Fire, Marvin Gaye, etc, could make music that intrigued minds, warmed souls and soothed hearts from their generations through today. I have great respect for these artists, because despite the pain and ugliness they endured in the 1950's, 60's and 70's, they reached into the warmest parts of their hearts and transposed their feelings into a legacy of beautiful, timeless music.

If someone is going to do a re-make, they should respect it as if it they wrote it (such as "Forever, For Always, For Love" by Luther Vandross, beautifully re-done by Lalah Hathaway).

These three R&B pagans who make these "smooth jazz tributes" need to be shut down. Yeah, I know y'all got to feed your families. Why don't you do the public a favor--stop imitating Marvin, Stevie and others, and make real music of your own, or just quit? I haven't listened to your other "tributes", and I'm not going to, either. By listening to this one CD, I as well as others can tell that your hearts definitely aren't into this music, and that you all are merely just playing notes written on a page.

It's funny that group of "artists" didn't name themselves, so that the CD had to be placed with the other Marvin Gaye CD's in the music store. If I made music this terrible, I wouldn't want to identify myself either.

Navarre Corporation, you should repent and ask Marvin Gaye for forgiveness, and pray for another job!!

--CDE