Love Vacation

Just because Pat Benatar's longtime guitarist and husband Neil Giraldo gets top-level billing here doesn't mean anything has really changed. Giraldo has backed her since her heyday and while he may have changed his brand of instrument - it looks like a custom Tele copy, judging by the cover - they still turn out music that is essentially the same as the arena rockers of the early '80s, and Benatar sings it the same fashion as before. Which means that Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo Live is part of that celebrated tradition, the "greatest hits live" album, and that may not be a surprise since it is subtitled the "Summer Vacation Tour Soundtrack" which kind of implies that it taken from an oldies tour.

Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo have spent most of their summer vacations with their fans. From Long Island, New York, to Anaheim, California they've been touring for more than twenty-five years playing the hits that have earned them Four Grammy's and Nine Grammy nominations…

Together with jazz legend and Grammy award winner Bob James, trumpeter Till Brönner – Germany’s most successful jazz musician – has transformed holiday moods into a multi-layered sound painting. Close your eyes and dream: “On Vacation is first and foremost a feeling for me and we have transformed this feeling into music,” explains Brönner Virtuosic, full of creative love for refined details and at the same time of the greatest possible nonchalance, Brönner and James create an imaginative and sonorous music for inspiration, reflection and daydreaming.

With links to Survivor, Alias, Jeff Paris, Carl Dixon, Jonathan Cain and Russ Ballard, for those in the melodic rock know, the announcement on the 7th of July 2013 that singer and songwriter Brett Walker was to release a new solo album was reason to celebrate. However a mere 24 hours later the tragic news was released that Walker had died, turning those shouts of joy, to tears of sadness. On the insistence of Brett's wife, AOR Heaven went ahead with the release, providing the fans of this unsung hero one last opportunity to be captivated by a songwriter capable of being downbeat in an upbeat fashion, while offering lyrics and melodies to tug at the heartstrings and live long in the memory.

Trumpeter and singer Till Brönner and legendary keyboardist/pianist Bob James met at the equally famous “La Fabrique” studios in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, close to Marseille, in September 2019 to record “On Vacation” (Sony Music), an album of music that is supposed to get you to the places you want to go to for a holiday. And thus, the album closes with a very relaxed and easy-going version of “Basin Street Blues”, less bluesy, more swinging. And it opens with an equally sophisticated version of the Buddy Johnson classic “Save Your Love For Me”, with Till on flugelhorn and Bob’s signature touch on the piano where you think his hands only vaguely touch the keys. Harvey Mason‘s drum work complements softly, and a lyrical bass by Christian von Kaphengst adds to the elegance.