Four Corners

1	The Drifter 4:34
2	Forbidden Love 5:24
3	Turquoise Moon 4:21
4	Red Rocks 5:08
5	Arizona Daybreak 5:05
6	Somebody to Love 3:53
7	A Mother's Heart 6:02
8	Haight Ashbury 3:18
9	Samba del Rio 5:26
10	Borders 4:32
11	Four Corners 4:31

Barnes & Noble

After 16 years as lead guitarist for Jefferson Starship, Craig Chaquico took his acoustic guitar and forged his own road. His first solo album, ACOUSTIC HIGHWAY, hit pay dirt when it was honored as Billboard'sTop New Age Indie album for 1993. FOUR CORNERS, Chaquico's fifth album, continues his smooth jazz expressions of life on the road, specifically the "Four Corners" of the American Southwest, and life's other junctions. On "The Drifter" and "Arizona Daybreak," catchy rhythms click on the pavement and breezy keyboards are like wind through your hair. Though acoustic, Chaquico's guitar echoes with a sweet-and-sour metallic flair, and his notes savor the air like a bee eyeing a flower. "A Mother's Heart" is especially tender, but Chaquico gets funky on "Haight Ashbury." Smoky blues rise from the saxes of Kevin Paladini, Richard Hardey, and Everett Harp, while the special cool of "Red Rock" emanates from John Halblieb's flugelhorn. While the title and cover art suggests Native American music, Chaquico doesn't stop to let the flutes echo through his canyons. Instead he treats us to a carefree top-down road trip. Carol Wright

All Music Guide

Four Corners works its way backwards through the musical life of this former rock guitarist (Jefferson Starship) and current smooth jazz phenomenon. The disc opens with the sound of a rush of wind leading into the laid-back Russ Freeman composition "The Drifter," which finds the two friends contemplating the universe with swirling, soaring acoustic and electric guitars amid spacy atmospheric sounds and percussive rumbling. Combining a crunchy shuffling hip-hop groove with more organic tribal rhythms behind a cool weave of his guitar and Ozzie Ahlers' bluesy keyboard harmonies, Chaquico explores both the calm and the energy inherent in the color shifts as a "Turquoise Moon" rises over the desert. "Red Rocks" -- featuring the lazy flügelhorn accents of John Halblieb -- and the densely percussive "Arizona Daybreak" also capture that vibe.

Then Chaquico invites listeners back to where it all began, the years before he joined Starship when he was listening to their first incarnation, Jefferson Airplane. His abstract approach to "Somebody to Love" requires more than one listen to catch the familiar melody. He and soprano saxman Richard Hardy spin in psychedelic circles around a marching drumbeat hypnosis created by 3rd Force. "Haight Ashbury," no doubt conceived by Chaquico and co-writer Boney James as an ode to San Francisco and flower power, comes across not as a '60s throwback but simply another radio-perfect hit crafted by producer Paul Brown. And while Chaquico's albums usually tackle adult issues like spirituality and ancient explorations, it's touching to see him convey a more innocent childlike wonder on the gentle sway of "A Mother's Heart." Jonathan Widran