Jeff Kashiwa – Back In The Day

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When you are hired by a major entertainment organization to represent them in all-star college band, it is an extreme honor to interact with a future generation of elite music makers.  When that same group asks you back to teach another generation of musicians, that’s extra validation in one’s musical adeptness.  Those two aforementioned statements apply to Jeff Kashiwa, a well-versed saxophonist that is easily at home with nearly any genre.  His main claim to fame was his stint during the nineties with The Rippingtons, a fusion band that meshed world, ambient, and other tones into their jazz phrasing.  The band was also a solid breeding ground for world class saxophonists like Dave Koz, Eric Marienthal, and Kenny G.   To mark the band’s twentieth anniversary in 2006, former members including Kashiwa, joined The Ripps on an extensive tour.  Of course, many of his loyal fans know his reputation with The Sax Pack, a recent collaboration with Steve Cole and Kim Waters, who add extra funk and soul layers to Kashiwa’s sweet manner.

Before he established his professional success, Kashiwa was attracted to the gurus' of what eventually grew to be the smooth jazz movement: Chuck Mangione and Spryo Gyra.  Yet Kashiwa got his feet wet during his college days playing with the ska band, The Untouchables.  The Seattle, Washington native added to his musical languages by learning about back to basics jazz theory at The Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.   The Disney Organization recognized this apparent talent by choosing Kashiwa as part of The Disney’s All-American College Band.  Because of his strong belief in the education system and a gigantic heart for students, Kashiwa was invited back by Disney as an instructor for the same band.  After transferring to Cal State Long Beach, he looked to CSLB’s saxophone teacher Leo Potts for guidance on tonal concepts.  Ever the consummate musician, he also refers to the modern jazz great Stan Getz, a masterful practitioner of melodic playing, one of Kashiwa’s standing trademarks.

When he first scored on the charts in 2000 with his top ten entry, Hyde Park (The Aah Ooh Song), Kashiwa’s star with the smooth jazz community rose sharply.  Sometimes, just like The Rippingtons, he will depart from the box to let down his musical guard.   His 2007 release, Play, a tour-de-force of roots jazz, reggae, rock, and so much more beyond the occasionally safe smooth jazz confines, finds Kashiwa bouncing ideas off his long time band Coastal Access.  

Just recently, Kashiwa released his greatest hits package, The Very Best of on his long time label, Native Language.  Now with Shanachie Entertainment, label home of The Sax Pack, his latest disc Back In The Day offers magnificent technical skill, what anyone should expect from a passionate student and music clinician.  There are also some funky strokes and uncluttered melodic lines on “When It Feels Good” - the title track; “You’re The One,” and “Creepin’."  The closing piece, “Honesty,” boasts Kashiwa’s warm expressive strengths on tender ballads.  The positive aspects, however, are weighed down by the uninspired vocal track “Somethin’ Real;” the musical backgrounds which are stuck in neutral gear as the project progresses; and those dreaded robotic drum programs that can strip the power of the rhythm section in a heartbeat. 

This disc certainly can not be classified as a complete dud, but some of Kashiwa’s work in the past fares better as a whole, especially the risky musical formats and band camaraderie behind Play.  Taking into account all of the elements of Back In The Day, I will say it is an average effort at best.  Here’s hoping for his upcoming recordings that the all-star quality in Kashiwa will make future musical generations proud by stretching his improvisational voice and deemphasizing those mechanized beats.   

Peggy Oliver

The Urban Music Scene