The music of Jeff Lorber has over the years transcended musical boundaries with a unique brand of fusion jazz. Well into the 1970s Lorber was already making a name for himself with this cross genre which had elements of rock, R&B, funk and other electrified sounds. The fusion worked; it won over a whole new bunch of listeners from other genres. More than that Lorber’s popular “Rain Dance” from his 1979 compilation called “Water Sign” has been at the center of many sampling mixes in the R&B and rap world, and it is one of Lorber’s proudest moments. “I feel great about it. I play it a lot live and the arrangement we do is like the rap version: it’s minimalistic and doesn’t quite have the chord type music. I like it when people recognize it.”
These days Lorber has dropped the term “fusion” from his billing and is offering nothing short of some smooth contemporary jazz. But not before giving us another generous helping of his fusion beats, Lorber has released “Now is the Time” which revisits older works as well as introduces new ones. Ask if there was a difference between the remake on the new CD as oppose to the originally recorded tracks Jeff said “one thing they share is that the basic tracks were recorded live in the studio for band sound. But some of the songs have been radically reworked; some not.”
The idea for the CD actually came together while Lorber and his band were touring in Europe. “While in Europe the promoter there was referring to the band as “Jeff Lorber Fusion” and they really liked it in Europe. I don’t know how it came about exactly; we sort of had the idea of doing a Jeff Lorber CD and thought it would be fun to revisit some of the earlier songs.
“I took a modern look at it with all the experience I have had with (the help of) some good players and modern technology so the record sort of represent reinvention of some new songs and the old that fit in with it.”
The result is an engaging compilation that has Lorber working with producers like Jimmy Haslip and Bobby Columby, the latter the founder of the group Blood, Sweat and Tears and Chris Botti.
The set of the old songs chosen for this compilation was not by mistake; Lorber explained the process. “I made 18 solo records since the first in 1976 and I think of only six of those are Jeff Lorber fusion songs. It’s a combination of some songs that were well known like “Water Sign which I covered a few years ago.” Lorber added that they also chose songs that were fun to record and play live as well.
On this CD one would find the familiar hip-shaking strains of “Rain Dance” with vocals done by Barcelona native Irene B. Irene who now lives in Florida is responsible for adding the lyrics to the well known instrumental track. The fantastic musical voyage continues with “Dr. Moy” and the funky “Pixel”.
Wayne Shorter and Weather Report’s “Mysterious Traveler” is also included in this compilation and compared to the original track Lorber has optimized this version and made it his very own “It’s hard to compete with the original version of this song because it’s so interesting. But our version is much funkier and hard hitting.”
The 1978 “Black Ice” from the “Soft Space” album is also included here; it’s the kind of invigorating song that would get your morning started just right. “Las Rosas” is unpretentious and sweet and here is where you can hear Lorber’s piano work up close and personal. “Chinese Medicinal Herbs” is this writer’s personal favorite and a track that Lorber describes as “really obscure” “It’s adventurous with time signatures and I got great performances from Dave Weckl (on drums) because it’s perfect for his style”.
Asked about his favorite tracks on this compilation Lorber said that both “Black Ice” and “Chinese Medicinal Herbs” get him excited. “I love the way they turned out. They have a lot of energy. That is sort of the theme of the whole album.
“There is exciting music (here) that has cool changes and rhythms and I hope that’s what people would feel when they hear this music.”
Lorber has a quite a few tour dates lined up with a tour to Europe, Germany, Italy and at the Capital Jazz Festival in DC from June 4-6 as well as the Syracuse Jazz Festival which takes place on June 25-27. Visit Lorber’s website for a full tour schedule.
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