By the time guitarist
John Tropea had recorded his solo debut on the tiny Marlin imprint in 1976, he had been a session guitarist for nearly a decade. His understated, decidedly non-show-off playing graced records by everyone from
Laura Nyro to
Deodato (including
Prelude and
Deodato 2), from
Ashford & Simpson to
Bo Diddley, from
Billy Cobham to
Peter Allen, from
Roberta Flack and
Donny Hathaway to
Paul Simon,
Van Morrison,
Luiz Bonfá, and
Ray Bryant. After this he played with everyone from
Alice Cooper to
Lalo Schifrin and
Kurtis Blow and way, way beyond.
Tropea's cast of studio players is a who's who of the '70s, '80s, and '90s. The core band on this funky, squeaky clean, keyboard, horn, and guitar driven set are bassist
Will Lee, keyboardist
Don Grolnick, percussionist
Rubens Bassini, and drummers
Steve Gadd and
Rick Marotta -- one in each channel. Some of the guest appearances are stellar:
David Sanborn's trademark emotionally rich saxophone is heard on "Muff," and
Bob Mintzer's wonderful flute playing on his "Cisco Disco" (which is truly funk and not disco), and
Deodato plays keyboards on the beautiful "Dreams." There is a heavyweight reed section with
Mintzer,
Sanborn, and
Michael Brecker among its members and horns that include
Randy Brecker,
Sam Burtis, and Dave Taylor, to name a few. Yes, this was the 1970s: there are strings with
Gene Orloff among them. The tunes? Hip, funky numbers like "Tambourine," with a restrained but toothy fuzz solo by
Tropea, great congas by
Bassini, and a well balanced but dynamic horn chart. "7th Heaven" is a smoother workout, with punchy actual and keyboard basslines, with great breakbeat work by both drummers. Despite its mid-tempo jaunt, the thing is deep with enough of an uptown soul chorus to make it a popular stepper with the club crowd. It's tunes like these, as well as
Mintzer's and
Tropea's "The Jingle," that place records like this more on the CTI side of things than in the hardcore Fuzak realm. These selections are songs, not collections of riffs, vamps, and solos. When solos occur in these tunes, they do so with respect to arrangement and groove. It also sounds more lifelike than a lot of what was coming out of L.A. at the time, because it has a decidedly East Coast sensibility.
Tropea's production job is expert and tight, but it's his arrangements and orchestrations that are really impressive. The opportunities for excess here with all these superchopper players are many, but not once does any of this album lapse into mere glossy show and sheen. This is one of the truly great forgotten jazz-funk sets of the '70s. ~ Thom Jurek