What happens when you jam band members and a producer into a small Brooklyn apartment for a week and task them with recording an album to an eight-track tape machine? The answer might just be Kolumbo’s Sandy Legs, the brilliant new album from Frank LoCrasto and his tight-knit crew of collaborators. Sandy Legs is the soundtrack to whatever world you want to live in, an instrumental journey through vintage lounge jazz, bossa nova, exotica, fusion, and more. Paradise is only an album away, book your stay today. 

LoCrasto has been dreaming up this beach-vacation-as-band since he was a boy living in Dallas, far from any body of water — let alone an ocean. So, he began creating music that conjured up images of mai tais sweaty with condensation and juice sipped straight from the coconut. Sandy Legs is in no way gimmicky, though. LoCrasto and his band are master musicians, a nearly-psychic crew of the highest order. Kolumbo stands at the helm, guiding his first mates to shore through psychedelia, tropicalia, and just the perfect dash of pop whimsy. 

To pull this album off, Frank LoCrasto knew he needed to find a balance between playfulness and rigorous process. The album sounds like a dream getaway, but the Kolumbo project is built around meticulous craftsmanship. The host can’t be seen breaking a sweat, the perfect knitted coat doesn’t reveal any seams. As such, LoCrasto and his band built the album around the idea of soundtracking a perfect night at a tiki bar.

“I was trying to make a party record. This is exotica music. It should be fun. I think it’s really, really good but I am also the first to admit that it’s a little bit silly. I love that,” LoCrasto says. “I learned a lot from doing live shows around our first record that people really, really like to have fun. I do too. So, I wanted to make a record that captured that spirit.”

On “Tropicana” LoCrasto orders up a funk-leaning bassline that also serves as a counter melody to the main piano line. The album should come with a limbo set and open bar, because as soon as the drum groove gallops into the fold through tropical percussion, all worries seem to go away. Even for just a few minutes, Sandy Legs is the respite we all so desperately need. Just as the vibes get established, though, Kolumbo moves ever westward, introducing a guitar-led interlude that sounds like Jimmy Buffett remixing an Ennio Morricone score. It’s the perfect curveball, a quick moment to reveal that beneath the mesmerizing pleasantness of these compositions lie all sorts of tricks and playful odes to different styles.

LoCrasto’s ability to conjure such strong feelings and emotions without uttering a lyric or singing a melody comes from his early days cutting his teeth in New York’s jazz scene. He was playing piano for legendary saxophone player Greg Tardy, and the New Orleans-bred musician taught him a valuable lesson. “We were playing this song that was very lyrical, kind of a bossa nova vibe. I was 19 years old, just maybe getting a little too excited. He was like, ‘Can you play more lyrically on this song?’ That stuck with me and I always think about that when I’m working, whether with Kolumbo or performing with another group,” LoCrasto said.

That lyricalism shines throughout the album, but imbues specific moments in particular, like on “Riviera,” which serves as the emotional core of the record. Thanks to little more than a woodwind synth, guitar vamps, a well-placed whistle, and the effortless groove of a discreet shaker, the track allows the band to play around with improvisation and instrumental conversations. Hearing LoCrasto and his band turn tropicalia into a jazz exercise is a thrilling moment, and brings their sheer musicianship front and center.

Though LoCrasto, co-producer Robin MacMillan, and the band aimed to infuse their work with funk, Caribbean, and lounge styles from across different decades, Sandy Legs is a truly singular collection of songs. “Rob and I were definitely trying to tap into some of the tropical vibes of the 1960s and 70s, but we didn’t want to get lost in any one sound,” Frank LoCrasto explains. “Pretty early on, we realized this didn’t sound like anyone else. On Sandy Legs, we just wanted to sound like Kolumbo.”