★★★★★
Four years in the making, Roseland pushes the boundaries of contemporary jazz by embracing rock, reggae, and folk, along with their contemporary jazz influences. Greg Carmichael and his nylon-string acoustic guitar work are front and center with the opening "Marrakesh," also featuring Ricky Peterson on Hammond organ. Peterson's organ continues with the snappy "One For Shorty," adding nice texture to a release that is as far from the smooth jazz norm as you can get...
- www.jazzreview.com
2011-11-28
★★★★★
Acoustic Alchemy make as radio-friendly a contemporary jazz song as anyone out there, and over the past 20 years the UK institution has created a discography of top-shelf Grammy-nominated jazz-fusion classics. They've undergone many personnel changes in that time, but managed to do something few bands of any genre can: innovate while maintaining a core sound...
- www.popmatters.com
2011-11-17
★★★★★
Acoustic Alchemy, started in the 80's by Nick Webb (who passed away in 1998) and Greg Carmichael, continues to evolve into new and different areas. While some avid fans of Acoustic Alchemy have criticized their newest release (Aart) as a departure from their legacy and roots, I think that they have put together an excellent,although different as compared to some of their others)album...
- www.jazzreview.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
The guitar duo of Acoustic Alchemy has returned to their acoustic roots with Radio Contact. After coming out with a release that earned Greg Carmichael and Miles Gilderdale a Gramm nomination for AArt where they experimented with a more polished and fuller sound, they decided to return to a more scaled back production. Radio Contact foots the bill for those who wanted the emphasis back on the acoustic nylon and steel string guitars...
- www.jazzreview.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
The best smooth jazz is that which plays it close to the instrumental R&B vest by staying happy with a good groove but doesn't look down to the audience. While there is a ton of smooth jazz today that is happy, and a ton that has a good groove, most treats the audience as simpletons and that which doesn't usually can't hold a good groove or be truly and overtly happy...
- www.jazzreview.com
2009-06-08
★★★★★
Nick Webb is dead; the Acoustic Alchemy guitarist succumbed to pancreatic cancer not long ago. In the months before he died, his longtime partner Greg Carmichael worked up these tunes with him. He wasn't able to play on the album (he is credited with "composition, arrangements and inspiration"), so John Parson was recruited to take Webb's place as Carmichael's guitar other half and foil...
- www.allaboutjazz.com
2009-06-05
★★★★★
Following the passing of guitarist and co-leader Nick Webb in 1998, Greg Carmichael has decided to move forward, retooling the band with a new guitarist/co-leader John Parsons and several other new collaborators. (Parsons produced several early AA albums and also provided some supporting guitar.) The result is a little more of a "band" feel; the centerpiece is still the two guitarists, but keyboards and the occasional trumpet or sax push the band in new directions...
- www.allaboutjazz.com
2009-06-05
★★★★★
The point of this band's name isn't that their music is acoustic (which it isn't), but that at the centre of their electrically powered (as in guitar) and electronically worked or generated sound, there have usually been a pair of acoustic guitars. Here, it seems there is at times only the one acoustic guitar, with Miles Gilderdale switching to electric on some numbers . The notes sent to reviewers quote Gilderdale's colleague Greg Carmichael very carelessly (not Mr...
- www.popmatters.com
2009-03-23
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