Prime Time for Franks

The cover of Michael Franks’ new album, “Barefoot on the Beach,” includes a sticker identifying the veteran singer-songwriter as the “Voice of Smooth.” On the back of the album, a photo depicts a buff-looking, bare-chested Franks, his long hair tangled, his chest flecked with drops of water.

In combination it’s an interesting presentation--one that provides a quick overview of the current status of Franks and his career.

“Voice of Smooth” is an apt description; Franks’ laid-back, cool-toned singing has been a staple of the smooth jazz field since the release of his first album, “The Art of Tea” (with its hit, “Popsicle Toes”--now a hit once again for Diana Krall).

And the poster-boy shot of Franks is clearly intended to let his fans know that--at 54--he’s still at the peak of his powers. That’s a point particularly worth making now that he’s recently departed from Warner Bros. Records after 24 years and more than a dozen albums.

On Friday, Franks performs in Newport at the Hyatt Outdoor Theatre, and on Saturday in Pasadena at the Old Pasadena Jazz Festival. Both appearances are in support of his first album--”Barefoot on the Beach”--for his new label, Windham Hill.

“Windham Hill was excited about having me join the label even before I wrote a single note for this project,” said Franks. “That enthusiasm and warm welcome put me in a great, confident mood. . . . It’s a whole new beginning.”

A new record company, for sure, but musically more of a continuation than a new beginning. Although his present work is a bit more upbeat than his last studio album, “Abandoned Garden,” which was a tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim, it still retains the blend of lyricism, sophistication and wistful whimsy that is Franks’ stock in trade.

In addition, the new album’s title is yet a further link to the overall arc of his career path. He was born in Mission Beach, Calif., and now resides on Sanibel Island in Florida. In between, he earned a master’s degree in English literature before embarking on his musical journey.

Although he had been hired to score the music for a Gene Hackman movie, “Zandy’s Bride,” in the early ‘70s, and had released an album on an independent label, Franks was completely unprepared when Warner Bros. executives approached him about signing with the label.

“I didn’t even have a demo tape,” he said. “I just took my guitar and notebook and played in front of these people. I remember I left ‘Popsicle Toes’ till last because even I knew what a strange song it was.”

The enthusiasm that greeted the first Warner Bros. album, “The Art of Tea,” was as surprising to Franks as it was to record business observers. The ‘70s were not precisely the era in which laid-back singer-songwriters were favored--especially those with cool-jazz backup ensembles.

But Franks found his niche, however indefinable it was. And it may be his beyond-category style that has sustained him through the waves of disco, punk rock, alternative, fusion, hip-hop and rap.

Equally important, he clearly has tapped into his own participation in the aging of the boomer generation. His lyrics, which he usually writes after he has laid down his melodies, reflect the changing currents of boomer concerns. Underlaid with a subtext of romanticism, they express the multilayered qualities of mature relationships rather than the one-note cries of teenage angst.

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On his new album--which he’ll feature in this week’s appearances--Franks’ wit surfaces in such lines as “Love is never obbligato/Love is always improvised.” And, with existential resignation, he concludes the album with a song that notes “Lady, lovely as light, you lie beside me/While I dream, but at dawn you disappear.”

It’s all grown-up stuff, music that harks back to the models Franks has chosen as his inspirations--Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer.

More than smooth jazz, more than the product of a buff-looking guy in his ‘50s, it’s the music of a talented artist, still very much in his prime.

As Franks himself noted, “It’s great place to be in my career.”

* Michael Franks plays Friday at the Hyatt Newporter, 1107 Jamboree Road, Newport Beach. 8 p.m. $30. (949) 729-6499.