Bill Ortiz is an acclaimed session trumpet player based on the USA’s West Coast. He is best known for his role as the trumpeter in the current Santana line up and his other credits include work with Destiny’s Child, Lauren Hill and a wide range of other popular artists across a variety of genres. Jazz musicians he’s played with include Don Cherry, Chick Corea, Ravi Coltrane, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter and even Cecil Taylor.

Ortiz’s début as a leader touches most of his bases. There’s a strong jazz flavour courtesy of his trumpeting, probably the best thing about the record, and the thirteen tracks also dip into soul, hip hop, rap, reggae and the kind of pop that passes for r’n'b these days. There’s a large cast of supporting musicians and singers and the lush arrangements and an over reliance on programmed beats entail that much of it doesn’t really qualify as jazz. It’s music that has obviously been made with a high degree of skill and care but “From Where I Stand” is a little too smooth and slick to appeal to hard core jazz listeners. Whether Ortiz’s name is sufficiently well known to appeal to the pop/soul constituency that is probably his natural audience is anybody’s guess. 

The album kicks off with the Latin flavoured jazz funk of Ortiz’s “Ayejaye”. Ortiz’s velvety,  Miles Davis influenced trumpet and flugel are prominent sharing the limelight with John “Jubu” Smith on guitar. Smith is a fairly ubiquitous presence throughout the album and his playing is another plus point. He adds a distinctive and effective solo here and keyboard player John Seppala also shows up strongly. A decent enough start, if not particularly inspiring..

Things regress with “Little Sister, Little Brother” a retro fusion ballad with wordless vocals by Regina Espinoza. It’s the kind of smooth jazz/funk once purveyed by the GRP label, not a recommendation as far as I’m concerned. Once again Ortiz’s warm flugel playing is the highlight and Smith and Seppala turn in some nice figures but on the whole it’s all a bit too slick and cloying.

“Word Play” is co-written by Ortiz and Lloyd Richmond and introduces sampled vocals to the mix. The overall feel is still defiantly retro though, with Ortiz’s trumpet playing again the chief pleasure.
Richmond himself appears on keyboards and adds some interesting textures but in general it’s still all a bit too smooth.

Richmond is also the co-author of the song “Ease My Mind” a soul/r’n'b ballad written with singer Kenny Byars. Byars adds his soulful vocals to the tune but Ortiz’s soaring trumpet aside there’s little here to make the song stand out from the crowd.

Ortiz is back in the composer’s chair for “Full Circle” another slice of tepid smooth jazz enlivened only by the leader’s trumpet, Peter Horvath’s Wurlitzer Piano solo and Jesus Diaz’s Latin percussion colourings.

The trumpeter’s “Highest Wish” is more groove based and features Smith’s soaring guitar and Matt Clark’s trilling Fender Rhodes. Ortiz’s trumpeting is as assured as ever and he solos strongly but the programmed drums and ARP synth washes keep the music firmly rooted in smooth jazz territory.

Richmond is responsible for “Slip Into This” a vapid piece of fluff featuring the vocals of Monet Owens. Peter Apfelbaum’s reggae flavoured “Judgement Day” is a marked improvement but although he solos well Ortiz does seem in danger of getting sidelined on his own album.

“In Every Breath” is Ortiz’s tribute to seventies soulster Donny Hathaway and features the wordless gospel inspired vocals of “Church Boy”. The keyboard work of Horvath also impresses with solo features on both synthesiser and Wurlitzer.

“Slip Into This” is then reprised in far more convincing fashion. Richmond gives the thing a weightier, punchier more contemporary groove and the thing immediately makes more sense. I’m not a rap fan at all but here Fivehunnet’s rap adds hugely to a piece that in it’s earlier incarnation just didn’t appeal at all.

We’re clearly well into remix territory by now and there’s a brief instrumental reprise of “Word Play” based around the keyboards of Richmond and Paisley Hinton in which Ortiz doesn’t feature at all. There’s then a remix of “Judgement Day” which adds dub elements to the original.

Finally “I Still Believe” adds a sample of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech to the spoken words of Linda Tillery to bring a political dimension to the album.

“From Where I Stand” is a frustrating, curate’s egg of a record. Ortiz’s talents are undoubted but he spreads them too thinly, wasting his considerable chops on what,  for me, is often bland and unchallenging material. The poppy sheen masks some very good playing and I’d like to hear Ortiz make an authentic acoustic jazz album. Given the jazz talent that he’s mentioned as playing with this shouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility and should stretch him rather more.

I appreciate that the music on “From Where I Stand” encompasses the full range of Ortiz’s musical interests and that other ears may enjoy the album more than mine. But I can’t escape the feeling that he’s played it safe and as a jazz fan I can’t help but find this album anything other than disappointing.

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