James Hollihan - The Funky Misfit
(Nuevotron)
Lounge lizard Hollihan treats us to a smooth collection of loose, Happy Hour attitude adjusters so tasty you can smell the gin and tonic dripping out of your speakers. So grab a tumbler full of ice and shake your groove thing to the opening title track, a funky stomper with some gnarly guitar licks, the sprightly, organ-driven "Groove DeVille" and the George Benson-inspired cha-cha, "Across The Desert Sky," which tosses in a stray, Bacharachian (and Bacchanalian!) string and piano tinkle for good measure.
"The Hush of Love" (another nod to Sir Burt?) is as smooth as a pink squirrel—just grab your sweetie for some cheek-to-cheek dancin' and romancin'. The remainder of the album is in the same smooth groove/mood, with occasional forays into late-night romantic orchestration a la Jackie Gleason, Les Brown, Lawrence Welk, et. al. I particularly enjoyed the vibes on "Cypress Shores" and the Francis Lai samba action crawling all over "It Came From Brazil." If you enjoy romantic film scores in the Henry Mancini mold (dig the closing trilogy of "Solitude," "Café Blue" and "Angel Noir"), or the more upbeat "new lounge" licks of last year's wonderful Roamin' Gabriels' Smile CD, you owe it to yourself to strap this on and become a Funky Misfit yourself.
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