Jeff Lorber's label debut on Samson Records is a typical jazz fusion effort that will sound familiar to fans of his band of the 1970s and '80s, the Jeff Lorber Fusion. Teaming with co-writer/producer/arranger
Steve Dubin,
Lorber constructs a series of upbeat rhythm tracks over which he plays melodically on either acoustic piano or Fender Rhodes electric. He is joined on nearly every track by a guest saxophonist and/or guitarist. Tenor saxophonist
Gerald Albright sits in on "Snakebite," "Keep That Same Ol' Feelin'," and "Kickin' It" (with guitarist
Stuart Wylen); soprano saxophonist
Dave Koz on "Happy Endings" (with guitarist
Michael Landau) and "The Bijou"; tenor saxophonist
Steve Cole on "Chopsticks"; soprano saxophonist
Gary Meek on "Reflections" (with
Wylen) and "What It Is"; and tenor saxophonist
Richard Elliot on "The 'In' Crowd."
Lorber cedes considerable space to his guests, but he still finds room for his own improvisations. He also brings in a horn section on several cuts, notably "Keep That Same Ol' Feelin'," which sounds enough like a lost
Steely Dan track that you keep expecting
Donald Fagen to start singing on instead of
Siedah Garrett, who intones the repeated lines "Keep on/Keep that same ol' feelin'." "Ain't Nobody" is the 1983
Rufus and
Chaka Khan hit, here rendered with an appropriately funky feel, and "The 'In' Crowd" is, of course, the 1965
Ramsey Lewis Trio hit, a nod to an obvious predecessor of
Lorber's. The keyboardist slows the pace for "Reflections," but most of these tracks are lively pieces with lots of interplay that is only ended when they fade out. ~ William Ruhlmann