TONI ESPOSITO

Growing up in Canada in the 70's there was only one Tony Esposito, the hall of fame goalie. I was fortunate to receive a copy of Esposito's self titled debut from Todd, who used to frequent this site specializing in RPI. This was years ago. I'll be honest, I was disappointed at how lightweight and percussion heavy this was. Light percussion. Released in 1974, this is in the jazz style, but man the action is minimal. I kept waiting during that first spin for something to happen. Well, it came on the closer but it's also quite funky.

Other than Toni, the most used musician on here is Paul Buckmaster on keyboards. We get guitar on 3 of the 5 songs, bass on two tracks, and sax on 3 tunes. It was cool to see Mark Harris playing electric piano on one song. He also played on NAPOLI CENTRALE's debut that I own and love. The title track is a suite over 18 minutes long. This stays laid back throughout with the first several minutes sounding interesting at least. I could say the same about the relaxed mood on the next two songs. "Breakfast" was a little different with the spoken words before sax and drums take over. And as I said the closer is about the funk, and finally some energy. Wake up Toni! Sorry, I know lots of music fans like that minimalist jazz style. I have a hard time with it.

I do like listening to Toni play, and while it may seem like I'm panning this record, I'm not. 3.5 stars, but I'll stick with the great "Aria" when I want to hear Espositio make an outstanding save. Did I just say that?