Jan Hammer: Seasons Pt 2

Once upon a time, keyboardist Jan Hammer was the match that lit the fusion fuse, playing on albums by Jeff Beck and John McLaughlin. Since those days, he’s delved into soundtracks like Miami Vice and satisfied with breezy smooth tones, as reflected in this recent album. Except for one tune, he plays all of the instruments, and if you take the music on its own terms, it works well, with 80s synth pulses on “Streaming” and “Summer Solstice”, the Enya-ish “Suite Atmosphere” and even the disco funk of “Waves”. There’s a nice folksiness to “Truth Heals” and some tunes made for a 90s flick on “Black Diamond Run”. Drummer Simon Philips joins in for one song, the muscular “Oceans and Continents” almost as if to show that Hammer can still hit the nail on the head pretty hard with some intricate digital work. Coplandesque jazz atmospheres.

www.redgaterecords.com

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