But Beautiful
Boz Scaggs has been one of the elder statesmen of blue-eyed soul for quite a while now. Like Peter Wolf, whose praises I sang in this space a month or so ago, Boz has sipped from some of America’s most nourishing musical streams over the course of his long career—R&B, country, and pop. Now he’s taken a dip into jazz on his latest release, But Beautiful. This is straight stuff—there is no ready-to-play single for adult contemporary radio here. It’s just Boz and a free-swinging quartet doing classic songs like "How Long Has This Been Going On" (the one by the Gershwins, not the 1975 Ace hit), "Sophisticated Lady" (the one by Duke Ellington, not the 1976 Natalie Cole hit), and "What’s New" (OK, the 1983 Linda Ronstadt hit). The All Music Guide is quite possibly one of the five most indispensable sites on the entire Internet, but in his review of this disc, AMG’s estimable Stephen Thomas Erlewine is off base. He calls it pleasant listening, but also dismisses the album as a give-up move on par with Ronstadt’s Nelson Riddle albums and Rod Stewart’s critically ripped foray into the American pop songbook last year. Erlewine writes, "…even longtime Boz Scaggs fans may not find a reason to spin this more than once." Well, this longtime fan—who is admittedly also a fan of smoky, late-night jazz—has had it home since the day after it came out, and it hasn’t been out of the CD player yet. At my house, at least, But Beautiful is destined to join the pantheon of great makeout records. [posted 5/19/03]