Track 2 reminded me of Sade's No Ordinary Love, the whole song has a same feel, same arrangement, very similar. Not the quality of Sade's vocals though of course...
The Angie Stone track has this great sample of "Sun Goddess", the Ramsey Lewis song that was often performed by EFS as well, funkiest riffs there and great Fender piano solo. I like that it's just a touch of the sample that you can hear at the beginning, very subtle, it comes back from time to time almost unaudibly but reminding of the mood of the original song. This is just a fine example of how to cover and sample old jazzfunk classics (Dimsa's just nodding his head while reading this, I hope so

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Interesting cover of Marvin Gaye, a light version, the bassline is still there and it's cool. Is it just me or do others also feel a bit of "Get Up, Stand Up" Bob Marley references in the guitar solo? It's repeating this pattern which is basically the part when they sing "Don't give up the fight". Anyways, might be just my imagination...
You lose a half note between 5 and 6, it's out of phase, the kick is on the top of snare and vice-versa :-) shifted by half a bar :-) (sorry, had to notice :-)
I loved "One For The Money", make me think of scratching on top. The two Avila Brothers tracks are top shelf, I might need to look into this artist deeper.
Funny, this is Marvin Gaye cover again, wow, very cool, supercool! You just LOVE these few Marvin Gaye songs Dimsa, you can't deny it, so many versions are used in your sets SOOO many times!
No problem, I'm like with some songs, Summer Madness, Funkin' For Jamaica, Holding Back The Years, have so many versions of them, it's an obsession I guess.
"Hear Me" keeps it pumpin', I like this mellow RnB sound, R Kelly sound - just like Track 10, even the vocals... Hang on, this is Midnight Star??? Can't believe it... Isn't it a typo or mistake? Or did I just miss some serious Midnight Star comeback albums? It's not their popular electro-funk style...
And then it just goes on, you find this chique RnB dancefloor party sound and stay there. Ah, just what I like. Used to play these tracks as a warm-up back then but I was always secretly wishing if I could have a whole night's party of this kind of music. Hard to find audience for this, but I'd still go if there was a place playing this stuff only. Actually, there's an RnB Club in Sydney on Fridays, I just saw some flyers, maybe I check it out this weekend...
You're killing it towards the end! I was a bit scared to see Michael McDonalds first (although I love "I Keep Forgettin'", well just because someone (guess who) sampled it) but usually he's quite cheesy, dubbed as the american housewife favorite. Well, not this one, it's rockin' and pumpin' on one hand secondly: interesting cross-over of Gap Band's "Outstanding" (the piano chords remind me of it") and of course Vandross's "Never Too Much", the same guitar riffs. Deja Vu's all over this set...
Plus Mr. Pendergrass, always classy, even from the wheelchair... all respect!
Brilliant set again! I have to admit I was a bit worried first, since I did not like the falsetto male vocals on the first two tracks, I knew though why you picked them, the music is awesome underneath - I have a few songs like these, I'd love to use them because of the music but the bad vocals just annoy me. However the rest is just jawdropping again - so many unknown tracks for me even if I knew the artists... Your years of experience shine through again - more motivation for me to go on with crate digging!
The only other question is why you called it smooth jazz - it is mainly RnB for me, well, some smooth jazz artists here and there, but most of them are soul singers. Well, who cares about genres, it's the music that matters!