Mike Stern has built a career on fascinating summit meetings, having teamed with Richard Bona, The Yellowjackets, Eric Johnson and Lee Ritenour on various albums and concerts. Here, he takes on the oft-maligned and mis-labeled “Master of Smooth Jazz” Jeff Lorber, and the relationship is a wonderfully hip symbiotic affair, with both pleasing in their influence of each other.
Lorber’s band includes Yellowjacket alumnus Jimmy Haslip on bass, drummers Gary Novak, Vinnie Colaiuta or Dave Weckl and Dave Mann’s punchy horn arrangements. You can feel which pieces have been written by who, as snappy and upbeat tunes such as “Righteous,” and the sleek 6/8 pulsed “Runner” are crisp and sleek Lorber signatures, with Stern adding lyrical solos all around here as well as on the pretty “Tell Me.” A Tower of Power punch on “Motor City” has the gents in a funky mood, and Haslip gives a supple line on “Big Town.” Stern’s thumb print is all over the frantic and hectic “Ha Ha Hotel” fueled by Weckl, with Lorber keeping up stride without breaking a sweat, while the keyboardist adds dark hues to his brush on the noir-ish “Slow Change” with the team rocking the blues on the gritty “Jones Street.” More than anything else, this album displays the underrated writing skills of each artists, with new tunes by Lorber and some revamped Stern pens. Also the gents display impressive as the flexibility as they go from Weather Report fusion to polished chrome cruising Cadillacs. A surprising gem! When they tour together (they’re hitting LA in December with Dave Weckl!), get me a ticket!