arm and sublime, like a lover's soft kiss on the
cheek, this is the impression I got from Chris
Juergensen's composition "When Love Greets You".
Beautifully performed and recorded, this is an
enjoyable and relaxing piece of music.
Juergensen displays a supple, graceful approach to the
guitar, at times floating and then darting about in a
playful and sincere manner. The recording notes on his
website describe this as "a blatant love song", and I
found his sense of love very evident in his playing.
Backing Juergensen is a tasteful trio: Dale James on
bass, Touru Nakashima with some delicate and sweet
electric piano textures, and Tetsuya Hoshiyama using
brushes on drums to stay appropriately lithe and
understated.
My only minor gripe would be that I found the bass a
bit buried in the mix; I would have enjoyed hearing the
bass a little more clearly present in the overall
sound. But otherwise, I would say this recording
achieves very well what Juergensen set out to
accomplish, displaying his heart on his sleeve with no
reservation - nothing shrill or flashy, all just soft
and tender, while still clearly skillful and
accomplished. When a pretty piece of soft jazz is
called for, I can't imagine anything working better than
"When Love Greets You".