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On a CD titled Beautiful Mistakes, one would expect a collection of first or second-takes of songs, all benefiting from the immediacy and ?in the moment? aspects of the performances. One might also expect to hear songs containing ironic lyrics, songs about disconnection, songs used to state the culture?s misguided amount of attention on beauty and perfection. Maybe even a few laughs. Ken Maffeo?s Beautiful Mistakes is none of the above, which is the most beautiful mistake of all.

Maffeo has assembled a fine group of musicians to assist him on this recording of his original songs. Each song features Bill Bentley on electric and nylon-string guitars and keyboards, Daxter T, Williams III playing bass, and Bumper Clyde on drums. Maffeo plays acoustic rhythm guitar, sings all parts, and plays piano on one song. These songs are all well-constructed rhythmically and in a ?Mel Bay book of guitar chords? sort of way, with plenty of ?maj7″ and ?sus2/sus4″ chords into the changes. The arrangements are polished and meticulously charted.

The recording sounds like it was probably created with digital equipment, perhaps something like Cakewalk or Garageband software, which gives the engineer the ability to omit unwanted aspects, note to note and measure to measure. If the result was intended to be a mistake-free CD, then Maffeo and company have succeeded. This CD is as clean as an unused petri dish.

The CD booklet contains Maffeo?s explanation of a ?beautiful mistake,? which is from a conversation with someone telling him about how the end results of artwork never matched the conception. He states how this conversation led him to realize that he has no control in final outcomes, and a greater force was ?guiding the final product.? A fair perspective; however, this statement did not match up with what seemed to be overworked arrangements on the CD’s songs. This music could have used a little rhythmic looseness now and then and a little less click track. It is played flawlessly, no question, but the overall effect was one of individual tracks mixed together, not of a group interacting together. No beautiful mistakes.

One of the songs is titled ?Jessica Rabbit.? In the film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” Jessica Rabbit tells detective Eddie Valiant, ?I?m not bad ? I?m just drawn that way.? One could say the same thing regarding this CD. “Beautiful Mistakes” contains many fine moments. The harmony vocals multitracked by Maffeo are bright, full-sounding, and clearly one of his strengths, especially in his song ?Have To Do.? He has a good sense of melody and is a solid rhythm guitarist ? no lagging in his playing, which separates the ?can? from the ?can?t? in rhythm guitar. His use of dynamics during the ?this is where I change my direction? section in ?Chase My Tail? was a nice touch; more moments like that one would have been welcome on this recording. So would an expanded instrumental palette. So would a lyricist or collaborator who could bring a wider range of subjects and ways to express them. I look forward to hearing how his music evolves on his next CD.

For ordering and additional information visit www.kenmaffeo.com.