Their music is crisp, flirtatious and original in approach without the copycat style often heard on many other smooth jazz recordings
—Jazzreview.com
Main Gazane, an old jazz term meaning my "main man" or my "main thing" is a new Contemporary Jazz group made up of Keyboardist Mark Minchello and Multi Instrumentalist Bob Magnuson. The group's new CD Hip Space is a mixture of covers and original songs spanning many different styles of music. R&B, Brazilian, Electronica and Funk all find their way into this fresh new approach to Contemporary Jazz.
Mark Minchello is no stranger to the Smooth Jazz world. He started his career by touring with Luther
Vandross and has since gone one to work with many other Jazz and R&B greats.
Bob Magnuson is a fixture on the New York studio scene. He has performed on countless radio and
TV commercials. He has been featured on CDs by Patti Austin, Whitney Houston,
Phobe Snow and B.B. King. He most recently has been touring with the 3 MO TENORS
and Broadway R&B diva Jennifer Holiday.
Mark Minchello (keyboards, programming), Bob Magnuson (tenor & alto saxophone, alto flute, wind synthesizer), Mike Hogan (guitar), Michael Degostino (percussion), Eric Goletz (trombone), Kenny Davis (bass)
The first time I heard Main Gazane's CD entitled
Hip Space, I knew beyond the shadow of any doubt that I had hit the mother
load of smooth jazz compatibility. Although I have my concerns about the
relevance of smooth jazz as an art form, sometimes the music can be entertaining
when some degree of creativity can be attached. In my mind, that is exactly
what Main Gazane has done on 13 successive tracks of beautifully crafted
tunes.
Bordering on the contemporary style, Hip Space features one cover song
coupled with 12 original compositions written by keyboardist Mark Minchello.
Saxophonist John Coltrane wrote the first track entitled Naima. Main Gazane’s
version has saxophonist Bob Magnuson taking the lead for Coltrane, which
features a nicely-woven electro-modern groove incorporated into its presentation.
The cut also features an underlayment of accenuated vocal reminders of
John Coltrane built-in to Magnuson's saxophone melody. From then on, Minchello
and Magnuson skip the smooth jazz fantastic with a multitude of highly
evolved melodic transformations.—Jazzreview.com