Mysterious Ways

by William RuhlmannMichael Whalen is known for his nature-oriented soundtracks to television documentaries, extended instrumental pieces of program music that accompany and attempt to complement footage of scenery on The Discovery Channel and other outlets. But he takes a different tack on Mysterious Ways, devoting a disc to the wonders of romance, which, for him, largely takes the form of approximating the kind of light jazz and soulful pop music purveyed by the likes of George Benson and Stevie Wonder in the late '70s and early '80s. Contemporary jazz saxophonists Chris Botti and Bob Mintzer solo over Whalen's keyboard tracks, which are underpinned by a rhythm section made up of bassist Tony Levin and drummer Danny Gottlieb, and on four out of eight tracks on the relatively brief (under 40 minutes) album, vocalists emote the composer's bland love lyrics. Whalen is a facile musician who usually works in a relatively forgiving field, and here he attempts to segue into another musical style that lacks rigorous standards. But the result sounds like such a throwback to an earlier era that you can't help thinking he hasn't paid attention to trends in contemporary jazz and adult contemporary urban music since he graduated from prep school. Mysterious Ways is an old-school exercise from a musician trying to stretch out by embracing a moribund style.