Dear everyone,

Isn't it nice to be surprised for once?

The new "Modern Art" mini-site is up and running at the new Rippingtons' Web site.

The new CD has some pleasant songs on it, gauging from the samples.

The song titles are as follows:
1, Modern Art
2, Paris Groove
3, Pastels on Canvas
4, Black Book
5, One Step Closer
6, I Still Believe
7, Body Art
8, Age of Reason
9, Sweet Lullaby
10, Jet Set
11, Love Story

"Modern Art" is a classic-sounding track with Jeff Kashiwa fronting on saxophone.

"Black Book" has an urban feel with some haunting vamps, and Bill Heller's killer keys and piano.

"Jet Set" features Russ Freeman and Bill Heller trading bars and chords as if at an open-air market.

"Paris Groove" has accordion and classical guitar strains. Very European, as expected.

"One Step Closer" is an upbeat track with lots of passion.

"Age of Reason" will remind fans of a song from the "Wild Card" CD a little — "Spanish Girl."

Trumpeter Rick Braun is a special guest star on the recording, which is fantastic.

So far, so good. Liking this groove a lot.

Signed,




Eric Viccaro
Peak Records — The 2008 Smooth Jazz Label of the Year. Period.

It comes out on Tuesday, March 10, my mother's birthday. I like the samples, too. I can't wait to hear the whole thing.

I'm having some difficulty with the Rippington's website. Am I the only one?

So wait.....is Jeff Kashiwa back in the band full time?

probably not. It depends upon the browser version that is integrated with the Flash player on your computer. Flash player 10 and above broke a lot of websites.

Adobe has yet to address the problem.... I've been re-writing websites for months. Adobe did not ensure that the player was backwards compatible with their previous versions of Flash development software, and that has been the major complaint of developers. We shouldn't be forced to upgrade our software for this...

I popped into the site - it was a bit slow for me - and I gave up trying to get into a few areas - but after I disabled my pop up blocker I did manage to take the Guru quiz! : ) As Kat well knows, I am computer challenged, so I am going to have one of my resident computer experts help me out when they get home - and I hope to have a new Ripps ringtone on my cell by the end of the day! Overall, I do like the updates to the site - and, from what I can tell from a quick glance, the new CD looks and sounds great!

Gotta go - I'm getting my hair cut this morning - so (all four inches of) it will grow in just right in time for the Ripps cruise! ; )

Rick with the Ripps. Sweet.

I was having trouble using Mozilla Firefox, but I was able to view the site using IE.

I enjoyed listening to the previews and can't wait for the new release!

I could get to the site at work, but I did not have time to really enjoy it. Now that I am at home, I can only get to the page with the picture of the guys standing there, and there is nothing to click on to do anything else. Sheese.

Mark, move your curser slightly below where it says enter. The script doesn't have it positioned right.