Céline Dion’s backing band impressed me almost as much as the hitmaker’s celebrated voice when I saw the diva perform at the Sprint Center last year. The musicians were as slick as black ice on a Canadian turnpike.
The affable trifles of Heart to Heart, the 12th studio album by the former Kansas City resident Norman Brown, resemble the frothy anonymity of the vamping that accompanied Dion’s off-stage costume changes. Brown’s improvisation-laced blend of diluted funk and subdued pop is luxuriantly utilitarian background music.
Brown hasn’t forsaken the exceptional guitar prowess that made him one of the biggest names in smooth jazz. His playing on “She’s Mine” and “Unconditional” places him squarely in the crossover lineage of Wes Montgomery and George Benson.
“Outside the Norm,” the closing track of Heart to Heart, comes as a bit of shock after 40 minutes of unobtrusive murmuring. The unexpected burst of unvarnished smooth jazz hints at a tantalizingly different aspect of Brown’s talent that doesn’t elicit comparison to an easy listening act.