Dad's Album of the Week is back.  This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.

Al Di Meola - Elegant Gypsy

The name of this album has aged poorly, as I understand that the Roma people, elegant as they might be, do not prefer the exonym used here.  This album was released in the year of my birth.  Yes, I'll make you look that up.

Al Di Meola is a guitarist - which should be obvious from the cover.  He was in Return to Forever before releasing his own music.  This is his second solo album.  It is wordless.  There is a great deal of guitar playing, very jazzy, lead bits, and such.  It's not my thing.  Maybe that's because Stanley Clarke isn't on this album, though I mean no offense to Anthony Jackson.  Maybe that's because the music is not as incendiary as what I have heard from Return to Forever.  This gentleman is a virtuoso at his chosen instrument, so if you play guitar, it might very well be your thing.

Dad's Album of the Week is back.  This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.

Return to Forever featuring Chick Corea - No Mystery

Another fusion album from my father's collection.  There is funk here.  There is rock here.  There is jazz here.  Why did my dad like this so much?  Well, he was a drummer.  The drums on the opening track, "Dayride", are insane... there are brief periods of frenetic fills and explosivity... it's much more than just keeping time.  Oh, and look, that first track was written by bass legend Stanley Clarke. 

It's an interesting approach to collaboration here.  On the first side of the album, each member of the band gets a song, and the last song is credited to all four of them.  On the second side of the album, well Chick Corea wrote all of those, but that's ok, as he put this band together.

The bass lines are awesome, and mostly so advanced that I don't know if I'll ever have the chops to play them.  There are blistering guitar solos.  There are all sorts of interesting keyboard licks from both normal acoustic pianos and all kinds of electric pianos and synth.  Even congas and a marimba show up on this album.   

Summary:  I very much dig.  If you are a musician, go listen to this.  The musicianship on display here is outstanding.  If you're the sort that is swayed by critical acclaim, this won a Grammy.

Dad's Album of the Week is back.  This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.  

Jean-Luc Ponty - Open Mind

If I were to hear this without any context, I would say this is a product of the 80s.  It sounds so very 80s.  Heavy synth, computerized percussion... well, that's not too terribly different than modern pop and electronic music now, is it... heavy synth, computerized EVERYTHING these days... but this sounds like exactly when it came from... 1984.

Jean-Luc Ponty (who I had to Google) is a classically trained jazz violinist, and his discography is very very long.  Open Mind shows up kind of in the middle of it.  This isn't my genre of choice at all, so this album name is fitting, as it required that I have an open mind to get through all six tracks.  (Can't really call them "songs", as there isn't any singing.)  The instrument that takes most of the solos here is violin, but it doesn't often SOUND like a violin.  This is probably because they are all electric instruments on this recording, and also because of Ponty's approach, filling the space in the compositions that trumpet, trombone, or saxophone would normally occupy.  This is especially the case in "Modern Times Blues", where I would swear that there is a saxophone in there, but no, it's a zeta violin bringing saxophone tones.

"THIS ALBUM HAS BEEN MIXED ON A TWO TRACK DIGITAL MACHINE" is clearly stated in the liner notes.  That seems like a lot of work.

I find myself wondering what these compositions would sound like with more traditional jazz accompaniment, but keeping the violin in place as the lead instrument.  That's probably something I'd pay money to see.  If you are into jazz or the sounds of 1980s synth, you'll probably dig this album.

Dad's Album of the Week is back.  This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.  

The Brecker Brothers Band - Back to Back

You're not supposed to judge an album by the cover or inside artwork... but I totally did that here.  Ok, so there is the cover above, and here is a picture of the inside of the jacket once you fold it open.  (The below picture looks much better because I took it with my phone instead of finding an image on the Internet.)

Look at those guys.  They look like an out-of-uniform college marching band.  I see a trumpet and saxophone, and from reading the liner notes, I see they are heavy on the woodwinds.  Ok, this is going to sound like that easy listening smooth jazz stuff that I can't stomach.

Well, no, all of this album doesn't sound like that.  The first two songs are a lot funkier than you would expect from such un-melanated musicians.  More careful reading of the liner notes is required, and look here, Luther Vandross arranged the background vocals for this album and also sang on it.  (Is that him on the front cover drinking a beer/soda?)  The third song is exactly the kind of content I was dreading... and then it moved on to pretty straight-forward jazz, very heavy on the saxophone solos and jamming that isn't going anywhere.  I am intrigued by the synth sounds I hear on this, as I'm curious what kind of gear they were using. Full disclosure, I am not generally into this genre unless I am seeing it live.

It turns out that the songs on this album that I actually like were NOT written by the Breckers.  No, the ones I like were written or co-written by the other folks in the band.  My favorite member of this band I just discovered -which should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows me - is bassist and lead singer Will Lee (the FAQ on his site is great).  Check out his work on the song "I Love Wastin' Time With You".

My summary:  The songs aren't great - especially the slow ones - but this genre is apparently not about songcraft.  The musical performances are fine, and if you're into jazz or saxophone solos, you'll probably dig this.