Bickley's Seductive Chillin'

Bickley’s Seductive Chillin’

Bruce Von Stiers

When you think of steelpan drum music, you might not be thinking of a sleek smooth jazz sound. But that is just what an album I heard recently had. The album has sleek smooth jazz songs that are enhanced by too cool steelpan drum music. This music has the current buzzword styling title of Nu-Jazz.

The title of the album is Chillin’ After Five. The artist behind the album is Tampa, Florida based steelpan drummer Bickley Rivera. Not only does she play the steelpan on the album, Bickley also provides some sultry, sexy vocals.

Helping out on the album is some pretty extraordinary talent. There is international sax and flute player Praful. He provides soprano sax and flute on a song on the album. Also helping out on tenor sax for a song is Ed Calle. On that same song Magnus Borges plays the caxixi, pandarao and Amazon drums. Richard Brookins plays flute on a song and Paul Messina on a different one. And Paul Bozzi is on congas and percussion for another. Bass is covered on two of the songs by Mark Harris. Nelson Rivera played bass on one song and provided supporting vocals on two others.

Greg Minnick co-produced the album with Bickley. He also played guitar on the album. The album is being released on the LevelBlu Records label, which Minnick owns.

As for the vocals on the album, I already mentioned Bickley’s and Nelson Rivera. Bickley is also assisted by the wonderful vocals of Dawn Basham and Kendall Dees. A wonderful vocalist I reviewed a few years back also makes an appearance on the album. Her name is Robin Avery.

All of the songs were either written by Bickley or co-written by her and Greg Minnick. That is all except one very special and seductive cover.

First up is the title track, Chillin’ After Five. It is a slick, seductive piece with cool steelpan, tough flute and sultry harmonizing vocals by Dawn Basham and Bickley.

Going for a bit of samba styling, the next song is Groovin’ In Rio. It has a nice light beat and some decent backing vocals. The congas and flute music in the song are an added bonus.

Kicking it to a slightly tighter groove is Pan Funk. With the sax and guitar work the song reminded me of something The Rippingtons might do.

Slowing things down a bit is Sending My Love. Nice sultry vocals by Bickley and Kendall Dees permeate this song that features great steelpan music.

A slight Spanish touch can be heard in Dreams of Ibiza, especially in the guitar and sax music.

The one cover on the album is of Minnie Riperton’s Lovin’ You. The main emphasis on this rendition is the music, but the vocals are very sultry and seductive. It is one of the best covers I’ve heard of this song.

Step Into My Lounge is a light, moderate tempo jazz piece.

Transformation has a tight steelpan sound with a light groove built in behind it.

Take Me Away features Robin Avery on vocals with Bickley. Sweet, saucy, sultry and ultra seductive are the vocals that move in and out of this great light groove song.

Caress is another song that has ultra seductive vocalization in front of light groove music. The steelpan here is nice and easy.

Then there is Engage In The Universe. It has more of an other worldly sound, kind of like you’d find in one of Will Ackerman’s Windam Hill albums.

And the last song on the album also might fall into that other world music sound. It is seductive with a touch of whispery clouds and angels. The title of the song is In The Night.

Bickley Rivera is a great steelpan drummer. I hadn’t heard the steelpan as the main instrument in a jazz album before, so this made for a unique listening experience. With the addition of top tiered musicians and vocals by Bickley, Dawn Basham, Kendall Dees and Robin Avery this is a very sultry and seductive album.

Chillin’ After Five can be purchased online at places like CD Baby and amazon.com. You can also order it directly from Bickley on her web site. Her site is http://www.bickleyrivera.com/ You can hear music from the album on the site. And you can also check Bickley out on MySpace Music at http://www.myspace.com/bickleyrivera

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