On his first solo album, Total Blue member Anthony Calonico continues to mine the Los Angeles instrumental trio’s refined, streamlined take on chilled-out lite jazz and pop ambience. But he also makes some moves, singing on several tracks with a slightly murmurous, no-big-deal felicity. As an exploration of introspective grooves and buttery inner-ear tones, Spacious Heart unsurprisingly delivers; as a subtle reinvention of the once-maligned adult contemporary genre, it may have something new up its sleeve.
Category: Total Blue
Total Blue :: S/T
The Los Angeles-based trio of Nicky Benedek, Alex Talan, and Anthony Calonico have been making music together in various configurations for well over a decade. Their newest project, the outstanding Total Blue, takes the ingredients of smooth jazz and world fusion–fretless bass, muted horns, piles of synthesizers, global rhythms–and vaporizes them into a shimmering mist. The result is one of the most alluring things to come out of LA’s adventurous post-jazz scene.