Smooth Jazz pioneers The Rippingtons will release their latest album, Modern Art, on March 10th via Peak Records (Concord Music Group). With a legacy firmly rooted in smooth Jazz, The Rippingtons’ ...

The Rippingtons, featuring Russ Freeman, have undergone numerous personnel changes over the years. Although the band has been more stable since Let It Ripp (Peak, 2003), it's still evolving. Modern ...

Hot Summer Nights looked like an agreeable package for a nine-stop tour of outdoor facilities and casinos of the West and upper Midwest. The music was mostly celebratory, sprinkled with some familiar ...

Guitarist and bandleader Russ Freeman laughed as he considered the idea of an identifiable sound for his jazz group, the Rippingtons. “I remember a huge, longtime fan basically told me, ‘I can tell it ...

Ed Gordon talks with Russ Freeman, founder of the jazz group The Rippingtons, about the band's new CD and DVD, Twentieth Anniversary, which marks their two decades of making music. Russ Freeman and ...

The new album by the Rippingtons featuring Russ Freeman arrives March 10 from Peak Records; Blue Note/EMI compiles singer Cassandra Wilson's best covers of pop/rock hits on "Closer to You: The Pop… By ...

Musicians don’t really become members of the Rippingtons. It’s more like they serve time there. The institution is still run by its founder and principal architect, Russ Freeman, who recruited the ...

The Rippingtons, keyboardist Brian Culbertson and saxophonist Mindi Abair duly revealed the strengths and weaknesses of presenting contemporary instrumental music in concert. On this particular night, ...

When Russ Freeman formed The Rippingtons 21 years ago, he looked at it as a part-time gig for a few of his fellow musicians. “I was always surprised when we had more opportunities to make more records ...

Guitarist Russ Freeman had no idea of the impact his group, The Rippingtons, would have on a new radio format called "smooth jazz", when they released their first album in 1987. The Rippingtons can ...

Longtime fans of The Rippingtons are likely to react, on first listening to the group’s 25th anniversary release, with “Wow!” or “What?” Because this group, noted for smooth jazz, breaks new ground ...