The Rippingtons perform Aug. 31 at the Maui Music Festival, taking place
over Labor Day weekend. Other performers include George Howard,
Native Vibe featuring Bill Macpherson and Nee Sackey, Willie and Lobo,
Bobby Caldwell and Rick Braun featuring Pauline Wilson.

Ironically, their success in the adult contemporary music genre has also been fuel for their critics, jazz traditionalists.

"Adult contemporary is a fancy way of saying this is a new form of jazz," said Russ Freeman, the band's leader and creator in a phone interview from Colorado.

"The part of jazz that we're all using is the improvisation, and some of the vocabulary that Miles Davis and the pioneers brought to us," he said. "But we're also adding a new vocabulary and mixing it up with popular styles of music, some jazz, but more instrumental pop. Jazz would have instruments improvising solos over the music, which we do, but the music we play has many other contemporary rhythms and sounds throughout."

And that's what has riled jazz traditionalists.

"They've never liked it," Freeman said. "There's been a raging debate for years as to the validity of this music, but the public sure seems to love it."

Do they ever. Adult contemporary jazz radio stations have been increasing nationwide the last few years while traditional jazz stations are declining.

"There is certainly room for both," Freeman said.

The six-member band - Freeman (guitar), Tony Morales (drums), Steve Reid (percussion), Jeff Kashiwa (sax, flute, electric wind instruments), Kim Stone (bass), and Dave Kochanski (keyboards) - will just about be finished with their world tour when they play the Maui Music Festival Labor Day weekend. The tour promotes "Brave New World," The Rippingtons' ninth album.

The title, of course, is borrowed from Aldous Huxley's visionary novel. But the music is no dark view of the future; rather it's Freeman's attempt "to humanize the whole element of computers."

The Rippingtons was one of the first groups to use electric wind instruments and in December started an elaborate Web site.

"The album ties in the whole computer age and our Web page is a modern day forum for our fans to communicate with us and know what we are doing."

Band members carry laptop computers that they use after most performances to get audience feedback.

"For us, 'Brave New World' is an upbeat thing," Freeman said.

The disc is a lush collection of intricate compositions fusing jazz, pop, R&B, rock, funk, Latin and world music, including a stunning version of the Beatles' "My Guitar Gently Weeps" where Freeman plays sitar and electric guitar.

"We don't just have one groove that we play over and over," Freeman said. "I'm always looking for new musical inspiration and since we travel the world there's a lot of music out there we find."

Staying fresh is not only difficult from an artist's view, but record companies put pressure on acts to repeat past successes, while radio play often depends on what is popular with listeners regardless of quality or creativity.

"The labels are always concerned about sales," Freeman said. "You know they want the new song to be as great as the last good one. I like the success but not at the price of repetition."

The mental tug of war between writing for the critics, the fans, yourself or "nobody" is endless, Freeman said. "A musician has to decide what he wants to achieve. It would be dishonest to say I don't write a bit for my fans. I have to do that since they support us and they're the reason 'The Rippingtons' exist. I definitely do not write for the critics."

So what about the band's name and the "jazz cat" which graces all Rippingtons' album covers?

When Freeman noticed how well the group was playing in its early days at the Baked Potato in North Hollywood, he yelled "Man, you guys are ripping!" and decided to call the group "The Rippingtons." The cat was picked from a 1984 Atlanta Jazz Festival catalog for the band's "Moonlighting" CD. It was liked so much that Bill Mayer, the creator of the first one, was hired to do all the discs.

When: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Aug. 31 and Sept. 1
Where: Kaanapali Beach Resort
Admission: General lawn seating $30 ($25 kamaaina); Reserved $50; Premiere $75; Golden Circle Backstage Package $150 with VIP reception.
Call: Charge tickets via the Connection at 1-800-333-3388. Tickets also available at Kaahumanu and Lahaina shopping centers on Maui