The "best-of" concept is more suited to pop musicians than to jazz players, if only because pop stars' more highly regarded works often have quantifiable markers of success, e.g., making the Top 40. Of course, the world of smooth jazz has its charts, too, even if they are only radio charts for industry tipsheets, and over the years musicians learn which tunes their audiences respond to most in concert. Still, the compiling of a highlights disc such as this one, part of Universal's discount-priced
20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection series, remains somewhat subjective. Pianist
David Benoit has been with Universal's GRP label since 1987, and compilation producer
Mike Ragogna, choosing 12 tracks from ten albums released over 16 years, seems to have gone as much for familiarity and variety as anything else in his choices. The material ranges from standard smooth jazz, the sort of stuff that sounds like a
Michael McDonald-era
Doobie Brothers song minus the vocal track, to tunes with light flavorings of R&B, Latin, and classical.
Benoit's affection for
Vince Guaraldi, best expressed on his 2000 tribute album
Here's to You Charlie Brown: 50 Great Years!, is reflected in his versions of two of
Guaraldi's best-known tunes, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" and "Linus and Lucy." "American Landscape," the title track of a 1997 album, allows
Benoit to indulge
Aaron Copland-like ambitions in music evocative of the wide open spaces, complete with keening harmonica. And
Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man," a 2003 performance that closes the collection, cements
Benoit's ties to fusion. Throughout, his sparkling pianism, alternately reminiscent of
David Lanz and
Bruce Hornsby, remains striking and melodic, if only occasionally jazzy. ~ William Ruhlmann