bwb consists of contemporary jazz cats Rick Braun (trumpet), Kirk Whalum (saxophones), and Norman Brown (guitar), who collectively honor the lush jazz-pop-R&B sound of Creed Taylor’s 1970s projects with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, guitarist George Benson, and saxophonist Stanley Turrentine for Taylor’s CTI label. Nearly all of those projects included jazz translations of contemporary pop hits by Taylor, Don Sebesky, or other arrangers (Benson’s album White Rabbit, for example). “It was all about having fun and being funky,” says Whalum, who first met Braun at rehearsals for the 1999 Montreux jazz festival. “The throwback to the CTI era was an obvious thread throughout, and we really rose to the challenge.” “Those CTI days were all about capturing a certain energy and a unique ensembling of players,” Braun adds, “Doing some new material while making well known songs come to life once again.”