Family is thoroughly enjoying listening to "cousin" Richard's music.

As always, delightful guitars from Richard. Love the style.

The previous reviews have said it all, I just want to add my voice to the choir! As someone who listens to a lot of jazz, this is one of the first jazz guitar CDs that I\'ve listened to over and over again in a long time. This is not someone trying to out-Metheny/Trane/etc. anyone; this is a mature and warm personal expression of jazz, in the best tradition of Paul Desmond, Chet Baker, Bobby Hackett, et al. Compositionally, I hear hints of Mancini, Toots Thielsman (sp?), among many others. Great tunes, by the way. In Richards playing I hear Kenny Burrell, Hank Garland, Johnny Smith; but mostly, I hear Richard Bennett. Also, this is a great sounding recording, very well engineered. Thanks for hitting the nail on the head, Richard!

I started following Richard Bennett shortly after watching him performing with Mark Knopfler in Toronto, at the beginning of July 2005. Up until then, I knew of Richard's existence only through his work with Mark. As I watched him performing live, it occurred to me that I should get my hands on his first album, "Themes from a Rainy Decade". That turned out to be a wise decision. "Themes" featured a collection of wonderful guitar melodies and interesting experiments, as well as Richard's distinctive guitar tone that has later become an integral part of Mark's stage success. It didn't take much time for "Themes" to enter my "favorites" collection. Richard has released "Code Red, Cloud Nine" (CRCN) shortly before embarking on yet another Knopfler tour during the summer of 2008. The album presents Richard's first take on jazz music. I should clarify that I am neither a music reviewer, nor a jazz music fanatic, nor aspiring to be either of those. My experience with jazz, so far, has been very little more than listening to random jazz music over the Internet while doing something else totally unrelated. The first thing I noticed while listening to CRCN was that Richard kept his distinctive guitar tone. This is good news for me, as I happen to like that tone. Being a versatile guitar player is one thing, but being able to "tie" it all up with some common thread (that guitar tone) requires more sophistication. I would proceed to name my favorite tracks however it varies on my mood. Different tracks relate to me in different ways depending on my mood. Some songs there are perfect being listened to on a balcony at night, relaxing with a glass of cold white wine; others would make absolutely no sense on any balcony but would rather give you a great feeling when you want to get something done at work and you know that you need some music to set your mind straight. You get to like this album right off the bat, however it requires some more listening in order to really love it. Having listened to it about fifteen times now, it is already in my "favorites" collection. I had the chance to meet with Richard a few times. I was happy to find Richard an extremely nice and charming individual. Add his charming personality to his guitar mastery and his genuine desire to experiment with various types of music, and you'd realize that Richard is one of those musicians that we are lucky to have around. Another indication that, hidden behind whatever the label industry pumps into our heads in the radio, there still are wonderful musicians out there that use their time to create music rather than headlines. Great job, Richard. Your work is much appreciated. Isaac