(ACT Music, Vocal Jazz, Guitar, Crossover) Torsten Goods (feat. Wolfgang Haffner, Ida Sand, Viktoria Tolstoy, Nils Landgren, Till Bronner, Jan Miserre a.o.) - Love Comes to Town - 2013, WEB, FLAC (tracks), lossless

'I feel like a propeller on an aeroplane from 1975,' says Berlin-based singer-guitarist Torsten Goods at the end of the opening track, You Wind Me Up. His 2008 CD 1980 took songs from the year of his birth as its theme. This summery, breezy recording seems to go back to the 70s for inspiration, though half the tracks are co-written by Goods himself.
His guitar style has been compared with George Benson, and the three instrumentals have something of Benson's virtuosic joie de vivre: precise phrasing with a cool, laid back feel. Goods' own Weekend at the A-Trane and Berlin P.M., could be from Benson's Breezin' era, with guest Felix Lehrmann's fine funky drumming on the latter. (Wolfgang Haffner drums superbly through the rest of the album in tandem with bassist Christian von Kaphengst) The Crusaders' Put it Where You Want It has a Steely Dan-like Fender Rhodes groove; Goods moves from BB King-like bluesy soloing to some speedy gypsy jazz lines.
Goods sings on most of the tracks. In recent years he's been working with soul singers Narada Michael Walden and Sarah Connor, and some of his songs have a jazz-dipped-in-soul sound, a little like Jamie Cullum. Swedish soul singer Ida Sand guests on her composition Brutal Truth. Here and on several songs Goods scats brilliantly in unison with his guitar solo (again Benson-like), and you always wish it would last just a little longer. Sand also guests on U2's much-covered soul-rock When Love Comes to Town (A fine arrangement that could be straight off a Bobby Bland album). Goods' voice sounds very like James Taylor here- also on his own Unlucky Like Me and You Wind Me Up, with his lazy warm tone, but his guitar style is more Pat Martino.
At times Goods has Michael Bublé’s soft plush tone and superb timing; Goods' Freedom Every Day recalls Bublé's Haven't Met You Yet. He covers Richard Marx' ballad Right Here Waiting with a gentle breathiness over Jan Miserre's excellent modern jazz piano reharmonisation and mellow trumpet solo from Till Brönner. (Miserre’s also co-written several tracks with Goods.) His voice sounds smooth and buttery as he duets with Viktoria Tolstoy on his Motown-ish Summer Lovin’ and the only standard, They Can't Take That Away From Me. Perhaps the jazziest track is a cover of Willie Nelson's Night Life, in slow 12/8, sung with a low-key vulnerability, the way Peter Cincotti does, with rich tenor sax from Marcus Lindgren.
The album's pleasantly retro sound comes in part from the fab Blood Sweat and Tears-like horn arrangements (by Miserre, Lindgren and trombonist Nils Landgren) though they're quite low in the mix. I'd love to hear Goods at a summer festival with a big band blasting out the horn lines. This album should appeal to fans of Jamie Cullum and Michael Bublé, but Torsten Goods has a sassy energy all his own. (Alison Bentley)

The drums provide the heavy groove, the Fender Rhodes tunes in with a resilient theme, a tender brass section fills in excitingly, then the clear soul voice resounds through the song, accompanied by the mellow sound of a jazz guitar and both support the song “You Wind Me Up” up, ending in a final improvisation. Right from the start, Torsten Goods’ CD ”Love Comes To Town” is cool, funky and energising. Since his first ACT album “Irish Heart”, a homage to his Irish mother, it has been no secret that he is an outstanding multitalent, who grew up in Franconia, matured during his studies in New York and was nurtured by the “masters of the jazz guitar” such as George Benson, Les Paul, Bireli Lagrene or Mike Stern. While the “Evening Standard” once wrote about his “talent galore”, experts couldn’t agree which to give preference to: the virtuoso guitarist, the endearing singer and entertainer or the songwriter Torsten Goods. This question is of no further interest once you have listened to “Love Comes to Town”: effortlessly mastering all these fields, Goods has never been more laid-back.
It could mainly be because Goods, who gives the impression of being an easygoing showman, is in reality a hardworking, wholehearted and introspective artist: Five years ago, after his second ACT-album “1980” and the following tour, he decided at just 28 to reexamine his fast moving career. Stepping back from further album offers for a while, he took a chance to make guest appearances with the German HR and SWR radio big bands, with Till Brönner's band as well as Larry Coryell. He left jazz territory to play R&B with Narada Michael Walden and with Sarah Connor. "I always had the urge to break out of the world of jazz a little. But after playing in big venues I knew that I belong just there but with my own projects. That’s who I am at heart”, says Goods looking back. "Love Comes To Town shows exactly who I am and what I want". His tribute to the small every day pleasures is best expressed in “Freedom Every Day”.
Another effect of his time out was that Goods has composed more than ever before. “I wrote more than 40 songs: Two years ago I spent some time in London to compose in different surroundings - working with other composers was very inspiring”. So out of this rich store he was able to create “Love Comes To Town”. From the exhilirating sunshine-and-ice café anthem “Summer Lovin’” to the driving guitar instrumental “Weekend At The A-Trane” there’s no song that hasn’t what it takes to become a standard. His seven originals easily meet the standard of the seven cover versions.
Goods knows about his qualities as a performing artist as well as a composer. However, never before has the spectrum of the material been wider: Whether you think that the easy marching version of Joe Sample’s Crusaders’-Hit “Put It Where You Want It” or the modern adaptation of Gershwin’s “They Can’t Take That Away From me” still sounds typically Torsten Goods, you would never have reckoned with a “jazz-is-in-the-air club revival version” by Willie Nelson’s country-ballad ”Night Life”. The same goes for the pop song “Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx or Goods’ spectacular and totally reduced Blues version of Adele’s “Someone Like You”.
Goods sings the heavy soul tune “Brutal Truth” as well as his title piece with the composer: Ida Sand. Sand is only one example of the pure competence that Torsten Goods has brought on board for this project. Starting with the European “funk man“ Nils Landgren, who Goods got to know as a producer, playing on Mo Blow’s “For Those About To Funk” and who has now produced Goods’ album. Landgren heads up the guest-horn section with trumpeter Till Brönner and saxophonist Magnus Lindgren (who plays a sensational flute solo on “Put It Where You Want It”) as well as Ingolf Burkhardt, who are all hard to top in the present jazz scene. Drummer Wolfgang Haffner, Germany’s unerring “groove metronome“, and Victoria Tolstoy, whose clear voice demonstrates in two songs why she is the star she is, complete the “Landgren clan”.
Last but by no means least, Goods’ own “musical family”. As pianist, keyboarder and co-composer since way back, a good friend and companion, indispensable for Goods, the great Jan Miserre. Rounding off the rhythm section, Christian von Kaphengst is a celebrated producer, composer and arranger – Goods’ man for the low notes ever since he moved to Berlin seven years ago. Felix Lehrmann from Berlin, the young shooting star on drums, appears on one title, too. These three form Torsten Goods’ live band. Berlin! City life acts as a guiding theme throughout the album. “This wasn’t planned, it just turned out that way”, Goods says, but there is no such thing as coincidence. Berlin’s seething jazz scene including clubs like the A-Trane show an unmistakable, new influence in Torsten Goods’ music: A vital, vibrating, enviably young element, not least found in “Berlin P.M.”, the closing title of the adventure “Love Comes To Town”: An adventure that is a delight to listen to, accomplished by this mature, ambitious artist.