Search - Craig Chaquico :: Midnight Noon

Craig Chaquico's best CD since "Acoustic Highway"!

Distant Voyageur | Io | 06/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Craig Chaquico is the former member of the 1980s supergroup Jefferson Starship. His 1993 solo debut album "Acoustic Highway" was and remains the best solo album of his career to date and blended the best of New Age, with rock and a stunningly beautiful 12 string guitar played in many different ways. The album was a powerhouse that has lost none of it's enjoyability in the years since it's release. However, following releases, while still enjoyable, saw his music drifting more and more towards predictable smooth jazz and less of the spark of AH even though "Four Corners" was his best in the Smooth Jazz era.



However, his 2004 comeback album entitled "Midnight Noon" comes as his strongest set of songs since his debut and after waiting so long, brings back the incredible sound that made his early solo music so amazing to listen to. Listen to the incredible pop/jazz anthem "Always With You" with it's beautiful vocals as well as it's great sunny melody! Another incredible song is the opening track "Her Boyfriends Wedding" with it's fast high-speed drum rhythm as well as it's incredible keyboards and great guitar sounds. Even if you despised his 'smooth jazz' works from immediately before this, "Midnight Noon" is a must-have. I haven't heard Chaquico sound this great and energetic in so long. Welcome back Craig!"

Lukewarm Strings

D. Hill | Lexington, KY, USA | 12/30/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Midnight Noon is the 2004 release by jazz guitarist, Craig Chaquico. According to his Wikipedia file, Chaquico has enjoyed musical success largely in rock music before shifting into smooth jazz and new age music in the 1990s and this decade. Though hailing from northern California, this album made me think much more of Florida, specifically a heated Miami vibe. Go figure.



I picked up this CD as a Christmas present. I included it on my wish list because of air play for one of his most popular tracks, Her Boyfriend's Wedding, which is definitely worthy of the attention. It has a solid melodic line and distinctive sound, and it's definitely car-friendly. Great to roll down the windows and turn up the volume. I think it also helps establish a signature piece to the CD, which, unfortunately, becomes so distinctive that you can't help but "hear" it over and over again in other tracks. I'll get to that in a moment.



The most prominent features of the album include a consistent use of warmed guitar strings and synthesized scatting, usually relying on percussive sounds to get the point across. Although he is best known for orchestrating solid guitar riffs, I think that smooth jazz music as a whole tends to soften that down. Perhaps the longest ones are played in his fourth track, Bobby Sox, but they tend to blend well with the rest of the sounds. They don't really stand out. Jazz Noon is great because it features a lot of well-placed ambient noise, such as cups and saucers being placed, spoons stirring into coffee, background conversation, and so on. Very well placed.



What really sinks this album, unfortunately, is that the tracks really don't do much to distinguish themselves from each other. You get a couple of exceptions like I've discussed earlier. You'll also get a mistake like Equinox, just over a minute of random playing around on a keyboard, testing stuff out. The most rotten tomato goes to Always with You. It's his longest track, stretching over six minutes, and it's really dishonest. It should've been dubbed a slower, incomplete remix for the first track. I listened to it a few times to be sure, but it's basically half of the chord progression for Wedding, slowed down, and featuring a female voice repeating, "Our love is so strong. I'm always with you."



Now you wonder why the dude got married to another chick from the first song...



But for the rest of the tracks, you'll basically hear a few neatly plucked chords followed by the last two or three being drawn out with a whammy bar. And it's solid. Wedding does six notes and two whammied ones; the count's pretty close on the rest. It's neat when you hear it the first time, but it feels cheapened a few tracks in. Outlaw in the City provides a nice conclusion to the CD. It does what it needs to. It wraps with a bit of a fun beat. Unfortunately, taking the CD out of the player, I realized that I had high hopes that were all but extinguished.



It's a mediocre CD, and it can get boring after a few playthroughs. I'm glad I got it as a gift, but I wouldn't have purchased it on my own. I don't know if Chaquico has put out a new album since this one -- actually, just one holiday CD in 2005 -- and I would hope that he put a little more effort into it."

Craig Chaquico - As Good as it Gets in Music

L.A. Scene | Indian Trail, NC USA | 01/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Craig Chaquico might not only be the best guitarist you never heard of, he might be one of the best musicians you never heard of. For fans of the Jefferson Starship and Starship, they are most familiar with Chaquico's work. Chaquico was brought into Jefferson Starship by founding member Paul Kantner in the early 1970s. Chaquico is probably best known when Jefferson Starship morphed simply into "Starship" and scored a huge number one hit with "We Built This City". "We Built This City" is a song that is often thrashed - and unfairly. This song does personify the 1980s, but it is also a very good song. This song featured some outstanding guitar rifts. These rifts were played by none other than Chaquico himself. While the video was cheesy, I do remember Chaquico and his long brown hair jamming on the guitar. "We Built This City" was what introduced me to Craig Chaquico - and ever since then he has become one of my favorite guitar players. The 1990s saw Chaquico built a new career for himself - this time as a Smooth Jazz artist. Chaquico would establish himself quickly in the Smooth Jazz community - even garnering a Grammy nomination for his 1994 sophomore album, "Acoustic Planet". Chaquico would continue to stamp his footprint in the Smooth Jazz community releasing many critically acclaimed albums at the rate of nearly one per year. By 2004, Chaquico would release his ninth solo album, "Midnight Noon". This album not only solidifies Chaquico's standing as a Jazz guitarist, but cements his reputation as one outstanding musician.



Throughout his career in the Smooth Jazz world, Chaquico has collaborated with Ozzie Ahlers from both a songwriting and production standpoint. It is clear that the duo has great chemistry when it comes to creating music. In general, while Chaquico focuses on his guitar, his albums bring in all of the elements of a modern Smooth Jazz band. There is a heavy infusion of keyboards, which has almost become a necessity in Smooth Jazz and Ahlers brings some outstanding keyboard work to the table. Chaquico and Ahlers seem to have a knack for bringing in the right musicians. Musicians such as bassist Jim Reitzel and drummer Wade Olson go back to Chaquico's sophomore album and are also present on the "Midnight Noon" album.



Many may argue whether Smooth Jazz is really Jazz or not. Whether you believe the term "Jazz" belongs in Smooth Jazz or not, I do believe this genre has established itself on the music scene. I look at Smooth Jazz as primarily an instrumental music style that is an incorporation and fusion of several instrumental styles. Some of the fusion may be classic Jazz brass sounds (such as the sax), but others may be modern music styles of electric guitar or synthesizers. All of this is very prevalent in Chaquico's work - and in particular "Midnight Noon". You will hear some classic Jazz sounds (such as on "Jazz Noon"), some Latin elements ("El Gato" and "Dia Del Zorro") - and even a mix of electric and acoustic guitar work on "Outlaw in the City".



Instrumental artists seem to have difficulty succeeding on today's modern music landscape. One thing that really helps Chaquico is for "Midnight Noon" is that he really attempts to build a concept album. This often hard enough to do with music that contains vocals, but I think it's even harder to do when you are an instrumentalist. On "Midnight Noon", Chaquico helps to communicate the concept of "Midnight Noon" through the liner notes. Some may argue that this takes away from your imagination of listening to an instrumental, but I think it does the opposite. It helps you realize what Chaquico's vision is for the songs. Chaquico has done this in the past, and he continues the trend on this collection.



Chaquico communicates his concept two ways. At a "macro level", Chaquico explains the concept of the "Midnight Noon" album as a whole. He explains that in our modern day society, there isn't much of a traditional "9 to 5" work day. He explains that a lot of people now don't start working until after midnight - and throughout his music, he clearly puts the Smooth Jazz artist as someone who falls into this working shift. As you listen to the songs on this album, you can almost feel how this music fits into that "late night shift" that he is explaining about. Chaquico then explains the concept at a more detailed "micro level". For each of the ten tracks on this collection, he will not only explain what the song is about, but he also finds a way to fit things into the macro, "Midnight Noon" concept - whether it's a bunch of girls going out and wrecking havoc on "Girls Night Out" or a woman out at a late night wedding reception on "Her Boyfriend's Wedding". Chaquico does an outstanding job at communicating this message - and it really enhances the listening experience.



While Chaquico does a great job explaining the music on this collection, he backs it up with some outstanding tracks. This is a very strong album - there is not one weak song on this album and you can enjoy listening to it over and over. Possibly the strongest song is the last song, "Outlaw in the City". The song showcases Chaquico's guitar work as well as any song he has done. In the liner notes, Chaquico explains the concept behind this song as someone playing an acoustic guitar in a sea of electric guitars that are reminiscent of the city. The whole "city" theme blends very nicely with the "Midnight Moon" theme. I'd even go as far to say that "Outlaw in the City" might be as good a Smooth Jazz instrumental as I ever heard.



Overall this is a great album. Even if this collection didn't have the outstanding liner notes that it does, it still would be a must have. Highly recommended."