From then on, though, it’s plain sailing as Golub dusts off the classics and settles into a tight and very tasty groove. Matters don’t improve much with the saloon car cassette anthem “On the Beach” - acceptable if you like the tune but a little redolent of the elevator or shopping mall. That sub-JBs style, which everyone once thought so impressive, has not worn well and this flat reading does not help. That initial wobble comes firstly from a lackluster take on AWB’s “Cut the Cake”, no masterpiece in the original. Producer Rick Braun and an excellent band add authority to what is, after a shaky start, a very solid set indeed.
Other axe-men could profit greatly from his example. What is especially impressive is that while Golub is very much the dominant voice (his guitar is hardly ever silent), he manages to remain economical and understated. On the evidence here, Stewart’s taste was better than his output in that period suggests. Before the SJ boom brought him fame in his own right, he was probably best known as Rod Stewart’s guitarist of choice between 19. Golub has a crisp, clean style that owes something to ’60s blues-rock, something to Wes Montgomery and a lot to a long career as session man and sideman to various rock and soul acts.
The resultant sound is easy on the ear, a little unadventurous but beautifully crafted, with the distinct bonus of Golub’s penchant for blues-drenched guitar licks. Which is to say that Do It Again mostly consists of highly competent instrumental versions of well-known tunes, all with a strong ’60s/’70s funk-soul feel to them.
If you remember albums by the likes of Cornell Dupree or Eric Gale, session men occasionally let out of the shadows to do their thing, then the feel of this recording will be familiar. Although he is a mainstay of smooth jazz charts and radio schedules, Jeff Golub belongs to one of the genre’s precursors rather than the fully formed beast itself.
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