![[Shine]](naideau.gif)
Jeff Naideau
Shine
Altered Records (CD)
At one point in his press materials, Jeff Naideau is described as an artists whose "...vocals and playing will move to tears and then amuse the listening audience." Clearly whoever writes Jeff's press isn't into damning with faint praise. I've got to admit that I neither cried my eyes out nor collapsed to the floor in paroxyms of paralyzing laughter while listening to "Shine", but I also didn't wander around the room liberally exhuming the contents of my stomach onto the furniture. Naideau seems steeped in that late seventies/early eighties sound (a la Styx, Elton John and perhaps Steely Dan), music from a time when what we now know as Smooth Jazz felt free to wander into rock songs and stay as long as it liked. Naideau and his band are extremely competent at crafting this sort of piano and saxophone-laden rock (often injecting it with more than a little blues), and the disc is eminently listenable, full of anthems and big thoughts and musical references both intentional and unintentional ("Sweet Marie" sounds like the theme from "Mad About You" and there's that bit of the Pink Panther theme on "Metro"). On "Nothing Inside", we even get to hear Naideau's "modern" side -- and I wouldn't mind hearing more. If that seventies Adult Contemporary thing presses your buttons, check this one out. -- gz