| Product Summary | | Label: Warner/reprise/maverick | | UPC: 00093624830023 | | Release Date: 6/24/2003 | | Buy.com Sku: 60603376 | | Item#: MT37RP | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Intro ~ Brian Culbertson |  | | 2. Say What? - (featuring Steve Cole) ~ Brian Culbertson | | | 3. Midnight - (featuring Marcus Miller/Steve Cole) ~ Brian Culbertson | | | 4. Playin' ~ Brian Culbertson | | | 5. Days Gone By ~ Brian Culbertson | | | 6. What Up B? ~ Brian Culbertson | | | 7. Serpentine Fire ~ Brian Culbertson | | | 8. Fly High - (featuring Rashaan Patterson) ~ Brian Culbertson | | | 9. Last Night - (featuring Rick Braun) ~ Brian Culbertson | | | 10. Come On Up - (featuring Norman Brown) ~ Brian Culbertson | | | 11. Our Love ~ Brian Culbertson | | | 12. Funky B ~ Brian Culbertson | |
| | There can be no doubt that Brian Culbertson is hitting his artistic stride in Come On Up. While maintaining his own identity, he broadens his vision by carving out a niche undaunted by commercial influences or format boundaries. Brilliantly focused and holding nothing back, he adeptly threads pop, soul, R&B and urban sounds into smooth jazz, creating an uplifting musical mosaic - and enticing even those who claim to shun instrumental music. The CD includes an inspired cover of the Earth Wind & Fire hit "Serpentine Fire," and spotlights the soulful vocals of R&B crooner - Rahsaan Patterson on "Fly High" and the sexy, sultry sound of trumpeter and labelmate Rick Braun on "Last Night". Covering the full gamut of human emotion, Culbertson allows his personal vulnerability an appropriate place in his body of work. Dedicated to his wife, Michelle, "Our Love" was originally recorded for their wedding's first dance.
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel: Brian Culbertson (trumpet, trombone, flute, piano, Fender | | Rhodes piano, keyboards, synthesizer, shaker, programming); Ricky Peterson (vocals, Wurlitzer piano, Hammond B-3 organ); Norman Brown (vocals, guitar); Rahsaan Patterson (vocals); Steve Cole (soprano saxophone, alto & tenor saxophones); Brian Ripp (baritone saxophone); Rick Braun, Jim Culbertson, Jerry Hey, Gary Grant (trumpet); Bill Reichenbach (trombone); Carly Bauer (flute); Stephen Lu, Dave Hutton (keyboards); Paul Jackson, Jr. (acoustic & electric guitars); Michael Thompson (electric guitar, E-bow); Steve Rodby (acoustic bass); Marcus Miller, Richard Patterson, Alex Al (bass); Oscar Seaton, Jr. (cymbals); Lenny Castro (shaker, percussion). | | Producers: Brian Culbertson, Stephen Lu, Rahsaan Patterson, Scott Steiner. | | Personnel: Brian Culbertson (trumpet, trombone, piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Clavinet, keyboards, bass synthesizer, shaker, drum programming); Norman Brown (vocals, guitar); Ricky Peterson (vocals, Wurlitzer organ); Rahsaan Patterson (vocals); Paul Jackson, Jr. (guitar, acoustic guitar); Tony Maiden (guitar, wah-wah guitar); Glenn McKinney, Gerey Johnson, Jorge Evans (guitar); Michael Hart Thompson (electric guitar, E-bow); David Earl Taylor (violin, strings); Kevin Case, Yuan Qing Yu, Russell Hershow, Rika Seko, Naomi Hildner, David Hildner, Peter LaBella, Susan Synnestvedt, Marlou Johnston, Laura Chen, Jennifer Marlas, Stefan Hersh, Teresa Fream (violin); Karen Dirks, Terri VanValkinburgh, Baird Dodge, Catherine Brubaker, Kou Li Chang, Robert Swan (viola); Stephen Balderston, Gary Stucka, Brant Taylor, Katinka Kleijn (cello); Steve Cole (flute, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Carly Bauer (flute); Brian Ripp (baritone saxophone); Jerry Hey (trumpet, horns); Gary Grant, Jim Culbertson (trumpet); Bill Reichenbach Jr. (tenor trombone, bass trombone); Kenneth Crouch (Fender Rhodes piano, Clavinet); Stephen Lu (keyboards, drum programming, turntables); Dave Hutten (keyboards); Monty Neuble (synthesizer, talk box); Steve Rodby (acoustic bass); Lenny Castro (congas, clay drum, shaker, timbales, percussion); Todd Sucherman, Oscar Seaton (cymbals, hi-hat); Justin Hori (scratches). | | Audio Mixer: Craig Bauer. | | Recording information: BCM Studios; Hinge; Megatrax. | | Photographers: Julie Ray; Daniel Ray. | | Arrangers: Jerry Hey; Stephen Lu; Brian Culbertson. | | A bit of free-form studio doodling opens Come on Up on a promising note: players try out their licks, joke semiaudibly among themselves, and create a sense through their banter that you're in for some exceptional interactions in the give-and-take tradition of jazz. What follows, though, is a typical performance for the smooth genre, in which the musicians either play what's on their charts, solo within stylistic limits of almost biblical rigidity (i.e., saxophone solos must adhere to the gospel of David Sanborn), or play against the relentless backbeat rather than anything less predictable. Technically, every note here is crisp and every ensemble part is tight -- but given the idiom, it couldn't be otherwise, any more than a bluegrass band could feature a less-than-lightning-fingered banjo wizard. What's most revealing about the material on Come on Up is how it doesn't create any sense of destination: songs breeze along without significant variations of intensity or dynamics; melodies tend to not end on the root note, which contributes to a sense of verses cycling endlessly, with no resolution; and everything fades at the end, like a wistful memory. There's not even any strong sense of personality: though Brian Culbertson is all over each track, there's little that brands his playing, in the sense that four bars are all you need to recognize any major jazz soloist. This, too, isn't surprising, since the point of this music isn't to draw attention to the star or, for that matter, to anything in particular, but rather to lay out a kind of tranquil, anonymous urban reverie. This being the mission, it has to be said that Come on Up qualifies as a success. ~ Robert L. Doerschuk | | Though young jazzer Brian Culbertson's boyish good looks make it tempting to lump him in with Harry Connick, Jr.-like neophytes Michael Buble and Peter Cincotti, this Illinois native is actually an instrumentalist who's been plying his trade since putting out the self-released debut LONG NIGHT OUT. COME ON UP is Culbertson's seventh album, and for this outing, he goes for a funkier sound that harkens back to a childhood spent cutting his teeth on the sounds of early Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Tower of Power. Weaving an R&B-flavored thread throughout these dozen songs, Culbertson cuts loose with a few special guests including saxophonist Steve Cole, (the brassy "Say What?"), trumpeter Rick Braun (a sultry "Last Night"), guitarist Norman Brown (the crackling "Come On Up"), and R&B vocalist Rahsaan Patterson (the soulful "Fly High"). The centerpiece of this album turns out to be a sinewy instrumental reading of the Earth, Wind & Fire nugget "Serpentine Fire." Despite the lite-jazz designation this album will undoubtedly get when it hits record store bins, COME ON UP is trimmed with enough funky snap to put it beyond the flavorless stereotype this genre sometimes conjures up. |
Engineer: Eddie King; Craig Bauer; Steve Johnson; Scott Steiner; Brian Culbertson |
Musical Guests | | Steve Cole | | Marcus Miller | | Rahsaan Patterson | | Rick Braun | | Norman Brown | | Paul Jackson, Jr. |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 06/24/2003 | | Original Release Date : 2003 | | Catalog ID : 48300 | | Label : Warner Bros. Records (Record Label) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00093624830023 |
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