Libera is guitarist Marco Bittelli’s debut CD into the world of smooth jazz. With a flare for Latin-inspired guitar riffs and caressive horns, Bittelli shows a liking for unpretentious opulence in his harmonies and tranquilizing rivulets that slip the listener away into a state of complete solace. The music is calming as it resonates serenity in its harmonic forms crafted by saxophonist/flute buff Horace Alexander Young, keyboardist Charles Argersinger, bassist David Snider, cellist Ruth Boden, and drummer David Jarvis.

The snaking lines of the flute in “Vento Sulla Palouse” have a sensual stroking with an island sway, which turns up the heat to a gentle samba shaking in the rhythmic strokes of “Nexus.” The percolating beats and wobbly bass bumps of “Pulses” are trussed up in contemporary jazz cables as Bittelli’s guitar chords forge a blaze of squiggling lines. The lullaby wisps of the title track are blanketed in comfy guitar riffs and shifts into pulsating jiggles along the chord progressions of “Brel.” The romantic images projected in the lounging harmonic forms of “Something To Remember” are attired in tiers of serenely drifting flutes and cordially mannered piano keys which become light and fluffy through the gently roving knolls of “Gennaio.”

Marco Bittelli concentrates on the good feeling vibrations of life on his recording Libera. Its escapist jazz dressed to the nine’s. The Italian-born Bittelli shows many world music influences in his tracks supported by Mediterranean-dance rhythms and overtones of smooth jazz. Libera is an album that injects fumes of solace in the listener’s mind and permeates warmth in every note. It is the best that smooth jazz has to offer audiences.