Jean-Paul Maunick, better known as “Bluey,” is a legend in UK’s acid jazz circles mainly because he practically invented the genre when he co-founded the Incognito band back in 1979. The guitar, composer, singer and producer had long absorbed from the best like Stevie Wonder, George Benson, Earth Wind & Fire, Roy Ayers and Boz Skaggs. He’s distilled all this into perfect blend of funk, neo-soul and jazz, melodic, groove-laden and polished; the kind of stuff that sets your mood right.
That’s what has gone into every recording of the band he’s helmed for over four decades and also into his own solo work. Tinted Sky is the third time Bluey has ‘snuck out’ of the Incognito house to make something that affords him a little more freedom. Since he draws on all the same influences, a Bluey record is going to be just as appealing as an Incognito one, and that can surely be said of Tinted Sky. But when it’s under his name, the songs are tailored for his vocals, his guitar gets out and plays more and the production is a little less layered (but no less smooth).
Bluey put this record together in a sprint, with multi-instrumentalist and past Incognito member Richard Bull. Together, they composed, produced and played virtually all the instruments. That’s all Bluey’s vocals you hear, though.
Bluey consistently exudes sunny vibes in his melodies and his lyrics. Over a bubbling bass line and a disco pulse he coos “windows down, sun shining/daylight to midnight, keep me smiling” on “You Are The One” (video above), providing head-noddin’ satisfaction. Even the breakup song “Don’t Ask Me Why” has a bouncy groove and his singing bounces from a rap cadence to jazz scatting. “Had To Make You Mine” has that same high-steppin’ late 70s disco shake heard on McFadden & Whitehead’s 1979 hit “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.”
We already broke down the breezy instrumental “Back Here Again”, an advance single from the month prior. Bluey’s stacked voices in the chorus add a lushness on top of the tough beat of “From The Break Of Dawn,” and “Nobody Knows” turns uncertainly into positivity as Bluey’s jazzy guitar licks can be heard from behind and then moves up front when he declares, “it’s time to play.”
It’s not until the serious-minded “Unaware” that Bluey even bothers to slow down just a bit, where Bluey takes stock of a rash of recent knife attacks in his hometown London and ponders the wrong turn his own life could have taken. On “Floating World” Bluey sings and raps a message about an Earth we won’t soon deserve to inhabit the way we’re going (and that was before Covid-19).
But those somber missives hardly detract from the overall radiant glow of Tinted Sky. Even when Bluey makes you think, he never loses sight of music’s main mission to make you feel good and make you move.
Tinted Sky is slated for release June 26, 2020 from Shanachie Entertainment
