State of Grace
Artist: Jeff Lorber

Also delving deep as ever into the retro, vibin, chillin' atmospheres is veteran keyboard funkateer Jeff Lorber, who was actually around playing and helping create the style in the first place. On the cool explosions of State of Grace (Verve Forecast), one of pop fusion's early forebears shuns the synthesizer effects and again pulls out his... Read More

Show Me What You Can Do
Artist: Frank Gambale
Community Score: 10.00

Gambale and the gang tear it up! Stu Hamm is Levinesque-thundering, Stanley Clarke-kicking bass. Vital Information's Steve Smith's drumming keeps right up when it gets wild and hold things together during spacy chordal splurges. These pros got pumped watching old Mahavishnu Orchestra videos and cranked up the old fusion fires. Gambale surprised... Read More

Kinetic Energy
Artist: Raz

Raz's eponymous debut album is a sterling collection of smooth jazz. Although there isn't anything here that will please jazz purists -- the group doesn't care for improvisation, they only care about keeping a steady groove -- its easy goove, light melodies and polished surfaces make it ideal for fans of smooth jazz radio. ~ Rodney Batdorf, All... Read More

Sun Song
Artist: Tony Darren

Acknowledging that he couldn't roll all of his jazz, rock, country and blues influences into his high-spirited acoustic guitar debut Sun Song, Darren he emerges with a style that is not as jazz intensive as Metheny's, yet snappy along the light funk lines of Benson's trademark "Breezin'" and heavily Brazilian. The one guitarist who is not on... Read More

Another Lifetime
Artist: Simon Phillips

If you took musicians who have worked on projects with artists as diverse as Olivia Newton-John, Vanilla Ice, Tim McGraw, Julio Iglesias, Tina Turner, the London Symphony Orchestra, Ashford & Simpson, the Bee Gees, George Benson, Jimmy Buffett, Chick Corea, the Doobie Brothers, the Four Tops, Stephane Grappelli, Lena Horne, Joe Jackson,... Read More

Standards My Way
Artist: Kimiko Itoh
Starfish and the Moon
Artist: Bill Evans

After providing an abundance of hard-edged, aggressive jazz-funk and jazz-rap on Live and Escape, Bill Evans surprised his followers by being so relaxed on Starfish and the Moon. This excellent, highly melodic CD was hailed as "Bill Evans' acoustic album," which was misleading because Starfish has its share of keyboards and synthesizers as well... Read More

The Heart of Things
Artist: Jon McLaughlin
The Last Dance of Mr. X
Artist: Andy Summers

Though perhaps best (or at least better) known for his work with the Police, guitarist Andy Summers seems to be doing rather well for himself. He may not be filling arenas and attracting screaming teenage girls, but their mothers can scream pretty loud as well, and as it is to them that Summers now appears to be playing, his maturity and ability... Read More

Cause and Effect
Artist: Larry Coryell

Electric fusion returns in a big way on Cause and Effect, featuring one of fusion's pioneering guitarists, one of the second wave's top keyboard contributors, and a fusion Journey-man on the drums. Indeed, Larry Coryell was there at the birth of jazz-rock fusion as a member of the Gary Burton Quartet on the seminal Duster LP; Tom Coster was the... Read More