Yesterday while buying ‘Let It Ripp’ at my local Tower Records, I heard in the background music from Chieli Minucci – ‘Night Grooves’. Never heard of him but his sound caught my attention enough that I stayed and listened to most of the CD. Long story, short I bought it and now I am finding myself listening to it more than ‘Let It Ripp’. Some of you may know of him (he seems to have a few CDs out) but for those that don’t he’s a very good guitarist. His sound is a lot like Russ and the Ripps only a little more funky a little more rhythmic. Truthfully he sounds a lot like Russ Freeman to me. The CD music is smooth and a little commercial but not syrupy sweet like on the radio. I like it a lot. Any way if you get a chance give him a listen I think you’ll like him. Has anyone else heard of him?

You're kidding, right?

Along with George Jinda, he was the other half of a "little-known" group called Special EFX

Just in case you are not kidding us...

He is an amazing artist(PLAYER, WRITER, PRODUCER). You should go to www.allmusic.com and check out his bio. Special EFX has recorded at least 16 cds (that's how many I own), Chieli has released five cds, and he has worked on many other artist cds.

Add as much of his music, that you can find, to your cd collection.

Happy listening,
Lou

He has a nice sound. However, his work, especially his electric guitar stuff, sounds just like Norman Brown in my opinion. Not bad though, I have some of his stuff.

Thanx for the come back info. I must admit I've not listen to much to Special EFX but I'm going to check them out for sure. Thanks again.

CM probably adopted the NBrown sound to be radio friendly..he was around for years before Brown's first CD came out. For a non-Brownish Chieli check out Jewels..his first solo CD and still my favorite because it is really melodic and has a lot of different types of songs on it...
The funny thing is that he and some other Cjazz artists make some pocket change recording instrumental background music for radio commercials, since even though all of us do it it is technically not legal to use actual CDs. So stations get packages of CDs that have 30 and 60 second music beds to read commercials. There is one that I use a lot for mellower spots and I looked on the cover one day and it was Chieli Minucci...

Just pulled out MYSTIQUE by SPECIAL EFX 1987 On Vinyl I think that this one of the first on GRP.
His parner JORGE has M.S. and CHILEI plays a lot of benefits for him....So ..They were a staple on CONTEMPORARY Jazz Charts.

Chieli's album "Renaissance" is brilliant! On the JVC label.

Sadly, George Jinda died last year after a long illness...

Chieli worked with Jay Beckenstein on "Eye Contact." I can't think of which one, but I know I've got at least one other disc where he's a guest musician.