Was jazz this good actually popular? Hard to believe!
The famed Brecker Brothers of trumpeter Randy and tenor saxist Michael fame are caught at a July 1980 gig in Hamburg, Germany, on the heels of there then-recent release Détente. The gig includes a big chunk of the material from that album as well as a taste from Heavy Metal Be-Bop and Can’t Stop The Music. The team includes Mark Gray/key, Barry Finnerty/g, Neil Jason/b and Richie Morales/dr, with everyone in an extroverted mood. Newer material such as “Tee’d Off” and “Baffled” have a definite Steely Dan feel, with Michael tearing into the former like a ravenous wolf and the rhythm team creating an avalanche on the latter. Michael wails on the bluesy “Funky Sea, Funky Dew” and brother Randy Sears on the exciting “Inside Out”. The horns and rhythm team sound like they’re at a Stevie Wonder session on the soulful “Don’t Get Funny With My Money” and they create more sharp angles than a geometry class on the charging “Some Skunk Funk” with a wacka-wooka back beat on “I Don’t Know Either.” The two disc set is a heat seeking missile of soul.