Well, I’ve been to an awful lot of Manhattan restaurants and I’ve never heard music like that in any of them. "Smooth jazz", yes, but the Connors cut is not smooth jazz; as I define it, anyway. "Mr. Cool" is not nearly as "bubble-gummy" as most of what gets passed off as "smooth jazz" and, for me, falls more in the category of "fusion", but without the abnoxious electronic excess of a lot of it. Nice funky shuffle beat on a tune with a couple of interesting twists and turns, and fast virtuosic flourishes very reminiscent of vintage Chick Corea (Return To Forever); nice playing all the way around. Connors shows a lot of restraint in his playing, especially for being the leader, and I appreciate the economy. The rest of the band is recently deceased Latin-jazz-fusion flutist Dave Valentin’s band; all excellent contemporary fusion players and very in demand studio guys. Re the recently brought up subject of bass players: if Lincoln Goines' playing doesn’t prove what a formidable influence Jaco Pastorious was in the world of electric bass I don’t know what is. My only real issue with the clip is that I think the engineer/producer got just a little bit carried away with the micing of the snare. Great snare sound; but just a little bit too big, imo.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DuwzQOP2LXA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CPRMOZ-GITw
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DuwzQOP2LXA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CPRMOZ-GITw