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Terrific Music From Russ Freeman And The Rippingtons + An Expanded New Releases Page To Accommodate Lots Of New Music

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Starting this week I am temporarily reducing the artist segment in order to allow more time to expand our new releases page to accommodate a plethora of brand new releases that is our good fortune to be experiencing right now. The shortened artist section will concentrate on some of the smooth jazz groups.

This week I will look at Russ Freeman and his group The Rippingtons. The Rippingtons were formed (and have been led ever since) by guitarist and keyboardist Russ Freeman. With 21 albums and lots of terrific music they have remained one of the most popular groups for now a period of over 30 years. The band name came from a music session where someone said they were ripping. This group has featured a revolving door of musicians that could be best described as a who's who of smooth jazz. At various times players have included Kenny G, David Benoit, Jeff Kashiwa, Paul Taylor, Nelson Rangell, Eric Marienthal, Kirk Whalum, Gregg Karukas, and the list goes on. The constant, remaining the leader through all the years, has been Russ Freeman. He writes all the music for The Rippingtons.


  


I will play Billboard’s top three songs in smooth jazz this week. We have a pleasant surprise at number two.



Our expanded segment featuring the absolute latest in smooth jazz, includes new 2018 releases from vocalist Lindsey Webster’s brand new album Love Inside (released March 16th), trumpeter Lin Rountree’s album Stronger Still (released Feb. 9th), guitarist Nils new album Play (released March 15th), the sax of Marion Meadows from the album Soul City (released Feb. 16th), and pianist Dan Siegel from his album Origins (released Jan. 15th).


In the second hour we have Diana Krall, Euge Groove, The Crusaders, Chris Botti, Grover Washington Jr, Jeff Lorber with another selection from this years Grammy Award winning album Prototype, Jim Brickman soon to perform in Redding, Pieces Of A Dream, Adam Hawley, Special EFX, and a classic David Benoit song from his debut album.


Played at the end of the show is my favorite Rippingtons song.

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