Brian Culbertson | XII

Brian Culbertson | XII By Terrill Hanna

For many of you who are well aware of the various capabilities great keyboardist Brian Culbertson is able to conduct, whether it be on a jazz tip, on a smooth jazz tip, or on the trombone tip, Mr. Culbertson’s diverse reach for soul music isn’t much of a big surprise here. In fact, we shouldn’t be too startled to hear most of the R&B connections dished up for serving from the new project, “XII“. Considering the wide range of popular artists that came out & participated on this album, Brian’s tenacity for pushing the envelope of soul music on & off the stage is arguably unquestionable. From the early contemporary jazz days of “After Hours” (1996) all the way up to a more modern hip approach in “Nice & Slow” and “Come On Up”, for some reason or another, I always knew the cat was going to take his music to mainstream R&B.  His music was to me, ‘too soulful’, and yes, a bit spiritual. To know this attribute, you must listen to ALL of his discs. All 11 of them before this new appetizer…

You see, on the kitchen table with “XII” comes some well prepared dishes, coming with assistance from Chuck Brown, Kenny Lattimore, Brian McKnight, Avant, Faith Evans, Earl Klugh, & Ray Parker Jr. Take a look at those names again. Need I say any more??

Track Listing:

~ Feelin’ It (feat. Chuck Brown)
~ Another Love (feat. Kenny Lattimore)
~ It’s Time
~ Out On The Floor (feat. Brian McKnight)
~ Waiting For You
~ Stay Wit It
~ Skies Wide Open (feat. Avant)
~ Forever
~ Don’t U Know Me By Now (feat. Faith Evans)
~ That’s Life (feat. Earl Klugh)
~ I Wanna Love You (feat. Ray Parker Jr.)
~ I Don’t Know

The CD jumps right at you with a surge of energy coming from Mr. Soul Searcher himself, Chuck Brown in “Feelin’ It” – which also involves Ray Parker Jr, Faith Evans & Comedian, Sinbad. And yes, you got to hear this one groove the funk! Stick around & don’t step away to grab something cold from the fridge yet, because Kenny Lattimore jumps into this affair with a old school sounding, R&B groovin’ “Another Love”, which easily became one of my fav’s on this disc.

“It’s Time” was a typical jazz standard from Brian. Nothing too new here to introduce, but the R&B grooveline comes back in check in “Out On The Floor”, feat. Brian McKnight. The track was too easy to create folks. Polished & delivered to perfection. A very nice head bopper, that’s fa sure.

Keep it steady T.U.M.S. readers.

“Waiting For You” contains the ever so sensual, sensitive & romantic variables Brian seems to drop on each one of his albums – the slow jam. And it is repeated here. Nice and slow. Not too slow, but enough to ‘move you’. You can almost tag this track as ‘feel good’ music. Touchy, organic kind of deal.

Other tracks to consider: The nice connection between Brian & R&B crooner Avant in “Skies Wide Open”, which is already receiving a considerable amount of radio airplay all over.  Yes, Big producer Rex Rideout lent a helping hand on this one. Faith Evans flowed graciously to “Don’t U Know Me By Now” – a mid tempo ballad with a slight tickle of the ivories, of course. The harmony came in full effect after playing back “That’s Life” feat the great guitarist Earl Klugh on acoustic. And don’t leave out Ray Parker Jr. when he comes to play in “I Wanna Love You”, a composition chilled on ice. Listen to the melody & background vocals, as it all came together for a beautiful playback.

A change of direction for Brian? Um, maybe. For many of you who are fully aware of his music like myself, not really. Maybe more R&B cuts on this album than the previous. But Brian has always, in my opinion, kept it consistent with soul music. As for Jazz, there’s a couple of tunes here too. It’s a nice collection all together. I would say, 50/50. In any event, I give my “Go Get It” pass to you with no worries. It’s a solid project with a lot of participation.  It has a lot of cross-over appeal and maybe, just maybe it is the step of direction Mr. Culbertson felt compelled to go after. The smooth jazz industry may still be out there, but I have a strong feeling Brian has other interests.

Terrill Hanna
The Urban Music Scene