One can probably infer from the cover art that the RJ in question (Reginald Johnson) is a keyboard player, and the title refers to the way he mixes together the genres of electric soul, jazz, r&b and gospel influences to create his own accessible form of music. It is fairly safe to say I listen to very little of this type of music, but there is something about this which is incredibly appealing. He often uses an electric piano and singers Klaiton Johnson, Kiara Brown, Aja Hawkins, and Alisha Webster are all happy to provide wonderful solo performances or blend their voices when the time is right. There are also instrumental numbers, where RJ takes soft jazz on a journey back in time to the mid Seventies. I was somewhat surprised to find a few covers on here, as his own material is strong enough to stand on its own, but the version of “Everyone Wants To Rule The World” with some delicious scat from Kiara Brown is transformed into something one can imagine being performed by Earth, Wind and Fire. While it is an album far removed from something I would normally play out of choice, there is no doubt I actually enjoyed listening to this and there was no desire to remove it from the player, so even though I feel more unqualified than normal to write about this, that in itself is some statement.

Rating: 7/10

Links:
https://rjandtheassignment.com/