Richard Marx has spent four decades mastering the art of the hook, the heartbreak, and the perfectly timed chorus. But on After Hours, the Grammy-winning songwriter slips into a different suit entirely for a lush, live-in-the-room jazz record that sounds like it was record just when the title implies, late after the bar lights dim.

Following 2022’s Songwriter, After Hours comes on like a left turn, but one that still finds the way home. Recorded entirely live with a 24-piece ensemble, no studio patchwork or digital trickery, the album is a love letter to the Great American Songbook and the era when songs breathed in real time. Marx doesn’t dabble in standards out of boredom. Instead, he writes new originals as if pitching them to Sinatra in 1948, embracing the discipline and danger of getting it right in a single take.

The album’s tone is set by “Big Band Boogie,” a swaggering opener featuring Kenny G that swings with playful abandon. It’s late-night jazz with a wink, a signal that After Hours is here to have fun. Across the album, Marx surrounds himself with an enviable cast. Rod Stewart, Chris Botti, Randy Waldman, Tom Scott, Drea Tomè, and more drift in and out, adding special touches without stealing the spotlight. “All I Ever Needed,” a sweeping ballad with Botti’s trumpet glowing at its center, leans into romantic grandeur. “Magic Hour,” co-written with Marx’s wife Daisy Fuentes during a secluded escape to Australia’s Lizard Island, captures intimacy with an unforced elegance.

Marx admits he once resisted the idea of a standards album, seeing himself first and foremost as a songwriter. That reluctance is precisely what gives After Hours its spark. These songs do not feel like relics. They feel alive, playful, and personal, shaped by an artist confident enough to step into someone else’s era and still sound like himself.

Outside the studio, Marx remains everywhere at once. His cocktail-fueled podcast and YouTube series Stories To Tell has become a hub for candid conversations with everyone from Paul Stanley to Katie Couric. He recently joined The Voice Australia as a coach and continues to tour globally, building on a career that includes fourteen number-one hits and chart-toppers across four decades.