German born Nils Jiptner, better known as simply Nils in the smooth jazz circles, is no new- comer to the music scene. Moving to the Los Angeles area back in the mid 80’s, Nils released his debut Blue Planet back in 1998 and since then he has released too many titles to keep count. However, the high quantifying does not translate to a low quality output. In fact quite the contrary as Feelin’ Good reflects its title by living it out with another super smooth selection of songs from Nils.

Clocking in at 50 minutes plus, with the exception of the Earth Wind & Fire cover of “That’s The Way Of The World”, the remaining 11 tracks are self composed and show the typical high quality arrangement and well developed melodies that would sit really nicely next to the work of his well respected peers Peter White, Russ Freeman and Jonathan Butler.

From the opening track of “You Keep Me Up” all the way to the concluding title track, there is no let down in the quality of music presented here. Nils essentially avoids the doodling that some jazz guitarists get caught up in and he focuses on the song structure and melody. Not that he is incapable of technical wizardry but it just does not seem to be his style. While the emphasis is smooth Nils is more than capable of bringing on the funkier quality found in the toe tapping “Celebration” spiced up with the horns of Johnny Britt.

Closing out with the delicious mid tempo title track sprinkled with some vocal enhancements, Feelin’ Good is essentially that from beginning to the end. As a result, Nils once again executes with the emphasis on melody and if you were not feeling good prior to the beginning of this album allow these 50 minutes of smooth rectify that. You will be feeling good.