Guitarist Les Sabler taps into his inner George Benson on this smooth as silk album produced by Grammy winner Paul Brown, best known for his work with Larry Carlton. This album brings in artists including Marco Basci/key, Ron King/tp, Joel Taylor/dr, Lenny Castro/perc, Travis Carlton/b and Greg Vail/fl and Lew Laing/key-b-drprog in a mix and match collection of settings.
On nylon strings, his touch is pretty on a dreamy read of “The Windmills of Your Mind” while plugging in the rest of the way, but still understated on the Wes Montgomery influenced “Moonlight” or the sleek “Over The Top” with some floating flute work. The horns get gritty on a slowly grooved take of “Summer In The City” while the title track b rings out the ax in a romantic mood. There’s a gorgeous lullabye’d “A Child Is Born” while the team gets into a deep rivulet on a muscular take of the soul classic “Compared to What”, with Sabler preachin’ it from the guitar neck. An ax that doesn’t grind.