Recorded live at La Maison de le Culture in Frontenac, Montreal, Canada. Espace Musique, Radio-Canada's Music Radio Network has managed to capture the very essence of Brian Hughes in concert. BRIAN HUGHES LIVE is one of the best live recordings I’ve ever come across. The sonic quality glistens… it’s stellar; the expression of Brian’s guitar playing is nothing less than brilliant, the band is on and the audience, truly appreciative.... -Sandy Shore

You could call it aconcert hangover. The way you feel for a few days after experiencing an incredible live performance. You want to recapture the experience and share it with your friends, family, co-workers and even strangers you pass on the street. You load up your player with their music but the studio songs sound too polished, tweaked and restrained and live albums tend to rely more on delivering a series of hits than replicating a live performance. Brian Hughes has bypassed all that and captured an incredible live performance intact on his new self-released live CD. Simply titled Brian Hughes Live, it is a chance for fans to hear him in a completely natural setting where he can cut loose and show all the facets of his artistry. It is also a chance for those who aren't fans yet to catch up on one of the best and most unheralded guitarists in out there. An added benefit - play this for anyone who believes that smooth jazz is grandfather music or that jazz in general is too technical, pristine and academic and it will shake those preconceptions away in the span of any given solo. Recorded in Montreal by Espace Musique, Radio-Canada's music radio network in 2005, this CD is packed with moments of brilliance and genre-shifting depth. There are blistering rock guitar solos, pulse raising percussion jams, speedy flamenco runs, thumpin' bass breaks, keyboard solos that veer from atmospheric to fired up fusion. Through it all there are a group of innovative, seasoned musicians playing real instruments in a live setting. Hughes' guitar is upfront but this is an ensemble project. Every member of this tight-knit group gets their chance to stretch out and show what they can do, and what they can do is play with a wide range of nuance and style, seamlessly shifting from subtle to fiery to flashy and back often within the course of a even the briefest passage. The program is beautifully paced. The energized tracks and power solos are bridged by songs that are more meditative and nuanced. There are so many amazing moments and thrilling solos on this CD that I actually did start writing them down at one point. It was tempting to list them here in the spirit of you've gotta hear this..go to 4 minutes into track X! Especially since they are such good reference points for people who roll their eyes when you use the words jazz, instrumental, or smooth, or adult oriented. The list got long and ended up encompassing about 71 of the 72 minutes of music here so the best thing to do is just start anywhere on any track and prepare to be blown away. Three of these songs clock in at over 11 minutes and the rest hover in the eight minute range but there is never a moment when any song drags or becomes overindulgent. As a matter of fact there is so much going on that it actually seems to run shorter than it really is. One thing for sure, you'll return to these songs time and time again and probably dig in and replay some of the solos repeatedly too. It's quite a package and quite a gift he has given us. Real live music with nothing filtered out by some gatekeeper that feels like they have to underestimate the listeners and stay in an artificial safety zone. Hughes does not underestimate us at all. Hopefully the reward will be substantial sales driven by word of mouth buzz. Theres no way to be quiet about this one after you hear it. That's how music gets out there these days. Buy it, listen, then spread the word. -Shannon West --Shannon West Smoothviews