Amparo

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Sweet, stylish sounds
Amparo starts off with a very seductive rhythm that takes you to a mellow mood. Lee has put together a great selection of mellow music for a rainy day. Hearing James Taylor in, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" really threw me at first, but I like it! The musicians on this are some of the best alive. Check it out!

underwhelming
Here's my super-sophisticated way to judge music -- do I find myself wanting to play a song again? I can't say that ANY of the tracks on this CD compelled me to listen more than once. Since I received it for evaluation, I tried to keep an open mind and played the whole collection several times with the intent to write a detailed, brilliant review. Each time, I was simply bored. That's a shame, because I do own other CDs by several of the featured artists, and I expected to be charmed. This one isn't a keeper.

Background Music
11 tracks--the piano is dominant and with various orchestra instruments accompaning, including guitar. The music has a nice smooth sound--with very talented musicians. This could be good background music for a movie or TV show. It could also be nice background music for an afternoon cocktail party where people are socializing and munching (not dancing). It is not an album to sing with or to rock your boat, just nice background music.

Background music for a lazy Sunday
Some of the tracks are outstanding, others are very good, and others are just OK. The concept is a good one, but perhaps impossible to pull off throughout an entire CD. The musicianship and talent are consistently high, the material is well-chosen, but about halfway through, you start to get a bit restless. Not bored or annoyed, but already thinking about listening to something else. I think that part of the problem is that the classical tracks don't involve you as fully as the real thing, and the jazz tracks seem a bit too watered down. Some reviewers have called it "elevator music", which may at first sound a bit too harsh, but I knew exactly what they meant after I'd listened to it once. I give the artists credit for tackling an intriguing concept, and all of them performed admirably, but it's just not a CD that I'll be listening to very often.

Not Jazz
Lee Ritenour and Dave Grusin are known for their contributions to the genre of "smooth" jazz, but here they depart into the equally odd and unsatisfying world of classical crossover. There are a variety of big name guest artists featured here (ultimately, what initially intrigued me), but the sum of the parts unfortunately does not equal the whole. Some musicians, Yo-Yo Ma comes to mind, can pull off this type of collective, ecclectic affair, but "Amparo" falls well short.