Lenny MacDowell's first recording after a six-year layoff and only his second solo album (following 1984's
Balance of Power), 1995's
Flute Power shows only that the layoff was not long enough. It took until 1997's
The Farthest Shore for the flautist to blend his new age and smooth jazz tendencies entirely successfully, but
Flute Power isn't an uneven experiment, but a complete mess. Suffice to say that the opening track is a oil slick-smooth jazz-pop version of
Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath," but that's not even the album's worst song. No, that honor belongs to an equally inept and inexplicable version of
the Easybeats' "Friday on My Mind," which, being the better song, has further to fall. Even
MacDowell's originals don't make it; his own "Thai Stick" would be much improved in its more ambient remake on 1996's
Radioactive. The arrangements are far too heavy on the popping funk bass and the synthesized drums, neither of which blend particularly well with
MacDowell's throaty, low-toned flute. This album can only be recommended to the most blindly devoted smooth jazz fans. ~ Stewart Mason