The Rippingtons – Open Road
For us continental Europeans it is a difficult undertaking to see The Rippingtons live in Europe. I had the pleasure to attend a concert of this group at the Apollo Theatre in London/Hammersmith several years ago. In the meantime a lot of water has flowed down the Rhine and the group around guitarist Russ Freeman is now forming up with drummer Dave Karasony, saxophonist Brandon Fields, bassist Rico Belled and keyboardist Bill Heller.
The new album Open Road (2018) is just taking the Billboard charts by storm. Bill Mayer has anew created the cover like he did on all previous albums, the common denominator since the beginning. Russ Freeman, founder and spiritual guide of the group, has composed, arranged, recorded and produced all tracks.
Russ performs keyboards, guitars, bass, percussion, rhythm programming. Dave Karasony plays drums, Brandon Fields saxophone on the tracks 3, 7 and 10. Remarkably, Russ does not go much into the cast in his interviews. After all, the tracks are played live by all members.
One thing a credits geek looks for in a new recording is to see who the musicians are and what instruments they’re playing. One thing that jumps out to a credits geek when perusing Fountain of Youth (Peak, E-One, 2014) by the Rippingtons featuring Russ Freeman is the absence of any musicians other than Freeman. It looks and feels like a solo project.
Listening to Côte D’Azur, by the Rippingtons featuring Russ Freeman, is like watching a half each of two different movies. Several songs sound like they’re set in dance clubs where techno or electronica reigns. The rest depend less on electronic effects.
The Rippingtons are a formation with a high impact on the smooth jazz genre. No other group has gained such a great popularity in the last twenty years. Guitarist and band leader Russ Freeman formed the group in 1986. Current members beside Russ are Dave Karasony (drums), Bill Heller (piano), Ricardo ‘Rico’ Belled (bass) and in addition a sax player.
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