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goinplacescoverGoin’ Places
New Foundation
Label: New Foundation Music
Reviewed: July, 2011

I don’t know about the rest of you but I think there’s just something about jazz that can set a multitude of moods within one cut from any album of that genre. Jazz can elicit feelings of happiness, sadness, togetherness, loneliness, romance and isolation in the few short minutes of a single tune.

These are the thoughts that percolated to the surface of my ever increasingly feeble brain as I listened to the delightful debut CD, Goin’ Places, by the jazz duet, New Foundation. Formed by two friends of almost 20 years, Curtis Harmon and Bennie Sims, these men have put together a world class CD. The challenge for these guys will be to follow this project up with another disc that meets such high standards of excellence.

Harmon and Sims first worked together as the drummer and bassist, respectively, for the globally renowned smooth jazz group, Pieces Of A Dream. Between the two of them, they have played for or shared the stage with such huge artists as Count Bassie, Al Jareau, George Benson, Aretha Franklin, Sarah Vaughn, Lou Rawls and many, many, many more.

When you press play on Goin’ Places, from the first lick on the drums by Curtis on the title cut to the closing guitar licks by David Cullen on the last song, Max Anna Split, this album is pure jazz delight. Each number on this CD is smooth as silk and sweet as fresh honey right off of the comb.

My personal favorites from this album are:

Holdin’ On, benefitting from the beautiful vocals of the legendary Phil Perry, this tune is destined for the repeat button when you listen to it. I guarantee it.

Chocolate has got a great, steady groove that has phenomenal sax work by Greg Riley to but an extra layer of sinful, musical icing on this melodic cake.

Sincere is an incredible, intricately mellow tune that I would suggest setting the repeat button to when you go to bed. The cut will cradle you in its arms and lull you to a restful, peaceful sleep. If you don’t like music to go to sleep to, then play this song as your commuting in that rush hour traffic that gets your blood pressure spiking.

You can download Goin’ Places by clicking on the icon at the top of this page. I can’t resist this play on words because they truly fit: I’m going to follow New Foundation because they are definitely goin’ places.

Written by Randy Patterson
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