Review: Ronny Smith – Just Groovin
April 6, 2009 - Baltimore-born guitarist Ronny Smith is back to the Smooth Jazz stage with his brand new CD ‘Simply Groovin,’ set to be released in May 2009. It’s his fifth album and displays great musicianship with a fine balance between sophisticated rhythmic grooves and fluid melodies. On this one you’ll find lots of original tunes and two covers.

In an interview with Smith he told me, “My intent was to approach each tune, rather up-tempo, mid-tempo or slow, with a specific groove or rhythmic structure.” And the result is a well crafted album served by Smith’s brilliant guitar skills and inspired instrumentalists. Besides playing guitar, Smith also handles some keyboards and programming. As Smith explained, “I laid down all of the parts how I would like to sound anyway. It just happened that some of the parts that I laid down turned out half decent and could go into the final product.”

The tune ‘Smooth’, is one of my favourite, you easily get into Smith’s groovy and melodic environment and you gotta love the great organ Hammon B3 sound. This upbeat funky track displays Smith’s rich guitar loops

Smith also does a rendition of the famous Stevie Wonder’s smash hit ‘Superstition’ (1972). As the track had rarely been performed on guitar, Smith chose to handle things via funky clavinet riffs performed by great pianist Alan Alexander and great horns by the Martin Brothers (Stan on trumpet, Scott on saxophone and Andy on trombone).

On ‘95 Drive,’ Smith chose to compose an easy going groovy tune that any smooth jazz lover would play on his car’s CD player while driving to a sunny destination. I liked it’s infectious spirit.

‘Just Groovin’ is a mid-tempo track enriched by the Martin Brother’s great work on horns. They have performed for various Grammy Award winning artists such as Quincy Jones, Barry Manilow, Ray Charles and many others. Smith says, “the Martin Brothers opened up the piece and made it phat with great horn bips and bops.”

‘I am beside you’ is Smith’s assertion of his religious faith. “I have been really blessed with not only an opportunity to sport my talents,” he said,  “but to make a few CDs and all that goes with that process. I know I’m getting the go-ahead from a higher source than I.”

‘Groove 106’ is a fun piece that Smith developed while fooling around with various tempos. As Smith did not really have a name for it, he titled it after his metronome setting at 106 beats per minute.

The last three tunes, ‘Forever Friends,’ ‘Ticket to Miami’ and ‘Blue Bossa’ have a more Latin flavour. Indeed Smith has always been intrigued with the rhythms, the horns, the bass and just the overall sound of musicians such Arturo Sandoval, Jobim, Ponco  Sanchez and Tito Puente. ‘Forever Friends’ demonstrates Smith’s acoustic guitar skills. ‘Ticket to Miami’ is a slow tempo that will drive you to the Latin sound of this south-eastern Florida city. The album ends up with a great cover of famous trumpeter and composer Kenny Dorham’s Bossa Nova standard ‘Blue Bossa,’ originally composed in 1965.

This CD, as his previous ones, has been a growing process for this talented guitarist. And this continuous quest for the best guitar sound results in a highly recommendable CD, which gets him closer to greatest jazz guitarists such as Wes Montgomery and George Benson. - by Akbar Nour