JAZZ ALBUM REVIEWS

** David Benoit/Russ Freeman, “The Benoit/Freeman Project,” GRP. There’s a lot more pop than jazz in this musical joining of two well-known contemporary stylists, who play piano and guitar, respectively. With the exception of one or two feisty works such as “Swept Away” and “Smartypants,” most of the originals float through space so easily that they quickly slip into the category of pleasant background music. Ironically, it is two vocal numbers--sung by Phil Perry and Vesta (“After the Love Has Gone”) and Kenny Loggins (“When She Believed in Me”)--that give the album its most intriguing moments.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).