Celebrating the 20th anniversary of his debut disc, Long Night Out, Brian Culbertson goes back in time to re-visit those original tracks with the wisdom of a score of years under his belt. He brings together 
contemporary/smooth jazzers such as Russ Freeman, Lee Ritenour, Eric Marienthal, Candy Dulfer, Chuck Loeb and Patches Stewart, just to name a few, and actually not only does service to the music, but adds an extra dash of muscle to the tunes this time around.
Songs such as “City Lights,” “Fullerton Ave.” and “Long Night Out” have an excited hard hitting backbeat, while “Beautiful Liar” dramatically rises and crests like waves at Zuma. The rhythm team percolates under Marienthal and Rick Braun on ” Heroes of the Dawn,” while Culbertson teams with the former on and easy swing acoustic “Twilight.” Culbertson’s piano is quite graceful on “Alone With You,” while the whole band gets into a fervent groove on “Beyond The Frontier.” Smooth jazz has definitely gotten some whiskers here, and looks better for it.
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