Jeff Lorber, with a pedigree stretching back to the seventies, has come to be regarded as the grand master of what the American record business calls New Adult Contemporary. In musical terms, this translates into light but immaculately realised jazz-funk which scrapes through just on the right side of blandness. This, the latest in a number of Lorber recordings for Verve Forecast, actually leaves a smaller margin of error in this respect than many of its predecessors, including a couple of vocal numbers which are pure disco.
Given that the music is largely a formulaic amalgam of r’n’b, soul and funk patterns which have long passed into the public domain, one has to admire Lorber’s craft and inventiveness. Despite its superficial simplicity, the music is deceptively sophisticated, the familiar devices combined with cunning and precision into arrangements which are everything. In effect, the band becomes the composer’s instrument and is played with as much flair and variation as the accomplished soloist plays his horn. However, while they are not intrinsically excuses for solos, these pieces are liberally sprinkled with effective, bluesy adlibs from Lorber’s Fender Rhodes and the woodwinds of Art Porter and Gary Meek. Not one for the jazz purist, but a superb example of musical craftsmanship for those with a taste for easygoing soul and funk.
Discography
Wide Open Spaces; PCH (Pacific Coast Highway); State Of Grace; Bring It On; Cat Paws; Katherine; Hearts On Fire; Moonterrace; The Island Of Temples; Deep Ellum (45.08)
Lorber (kyb, g, elg, mar); Gary Meek (ss, bcl, f); Art Porter (as); Dave Koz (ss); Michael Landau (g, elg); Stuart Wylen, Marlon McClain (elg); Nathaniel Phillips (elb); Joey Altruda (b); Dirk Richter (mar); Sue Anne Carwell, Eric Benet (v). Pacific Palisades, Ca. c. 1996.
(Verve Forecast 531 555-2)
