Over the past few years, Chieli Minucci has faced breakups of the two marriages that defined most of his entire adult life -- both from his wife and, more to the musical point, from percussionist George Jinda, his longtime partner in the band Special EFX. It's Gonna Be Good, the guitarist's third solo album, is an aggressive, multi-faceted, self exploratory work -- a musical testament to the notion of moving on with a positive attitude. Though parting ways with Jinda was a bit of a tightrope walk for Minucci -- the duo was for years one of the genre's most popular outfits -- he's conquered his own doubts by attacking fresh ideas that reflect the full range of his musical tastes. Not to say that Minucci doesn't, on occasion, pay homage to his roots. The slappin' live percussion, combined with the easy blend of Armsted Christian's wordless vocals with subdued electric guitar on "Endless Summer" smacks of a Special EFX outtake. But overall, Minucci charges into meatier territories like acid jazz, trip-hop, rock fusion, Delta blues, even Indian music -- mostly over ultra-hip, fully urban machine-generated grooves. The effect is a bit scattered, with Minucci playing kid in a stylistic candy store, and yet that sharp mix of R&B grooves runs throughout. This makes for a less hodge-podge experience than Jewels, his first post-Special EFX recording in 1995. That album, an attempt by Minucci to reflect for the first time all the different facets of himself, included new age-flavored pieces and a reggae jam. While he took a more laid-back approach to most of the material on 1996's Renaissance, Minucci here offers a complete picture of himself within the context of machine-generated rhythms. While "Dreams," the sugary duet with saxman Warren Hill, will help this disc's commercial potential, Minucci goes much deeper. He digs into the many layers of his musical identity by connecting three distinct areas of interest into a whole -- "Beginnings," on which he noodles around and improvises on an electric nylon while finding the right key; "On the Border (Part 1)," where he taps lightly into folk music over a shuffling hip-hop groove; and "On the Border (Parts 2, 3)," a potent rock jam and culmination featuring a sly conversation with Regina Carter's violin.
© Jonathan Widran /TiVo