Over the years,
Doug Cameron hasn't been above recording insipid, boring elevator Muzak, but the violinist has also shown flashes of inventiveness at times. And he's far from a bad musician. One of his more noteworthy efforts,
Journey to You could generally be described as soft pop-jazz with a difference. Sounding a bit like early
Spyro Gyra (although lighter), congenial tunes such as "Let It Loose," "Simple Pleasures," and the Celtic-influenced "Flavor of Ireland" have more substance than most of the other music heard on new adult contemporary (NAC) radio in the early '90s. One cut that didn't make any NAC playlists was "Cool It," a rare example of
Cameron recording post-bop and playing in a more straight-ahead vein. A few of the songs are a little too sugary for their own good, but the CD's more decent selections indicated that
Cameron wasn't someone that serious jazz listeners should dismiss altogether. ~ Alex Henderson