Independent record label, Rendezvous Entertainment, has enjoyed an almost unprecedented amount of success in its brief three years.  Their artist roster contains some of the best names in smooth jazz, and there aren’t many weeks that go by when at least one of them is in the top 20 on popular radio airplay charts, and it’s not unusual to see one of them holding down one of the top ten spots.  So in January ’06 Rendezvous released RSVP - Rendezvous, If You Please, a compilation CD featuring tracks from all of the Rendezvous artists – a celebration CD, if you please. 

RSVP contains 14 tracks - most of them very familiar songs we hear on the radio a lot.  But along with these tracks by Kirk Whalum (“Can We Talk”), Jonathan Butler (“Rio”), Wayman Tisdale (“Ready To Hand”), Michael Lington (“Two Of A Kind”), Marc Antoine (“Modern Times”) and Brian Simpson (“It’s All Good”), there are tracks you may not have heard before by Tisdale’s saxman, Tom Braxton (“Bermuda Nights”); chill artists Camiel (“El Alba”), Praful (“Moon Glide”), and Adani and Wolf (“Daylight”); DJ Mark Gorbulew (“Dreamsville”) and bassist Kyle Eastwood (“Big Noise (From Winnetka)” whose famous father is featured whistling on the track).

We’ve reviewed most of the CDs represented on this album, and they are all worth picking up and adding to your collection in their own right.  But RSVP is a great CD to stick in and listen to when you just want a taste of many different artists.  But even more than that, RSVP is the ideal CD to pick up and share with your friends who aren’t familiar with smooth jazz.  It gives them a sampling of some of the best smooth jazz has to offer, and before the CD is over, they might just discover they are smooth jazz fans after all!

- Elizabeth Ware