By the 1990s, smooth jazz had become such a commercial powerhouse that some established jazz artists were tripping over themselves to get in on the action. It had its own format on the radio, and records were selling briskly.
Spyro Gyra
,
Grover Washington, Jr.
George Howard
Gerald Albright
Jeff Lorber
, and countless others were knocking out near platinum discs almost without trying. As a band,
the Brecker Brothers
were part of the initial contemporary jazz flowering in the late '70s and early '80s, with their seamless, driving melange of jazz, funk, pop, soul, and fusion. Saxophonist
Michael
and trumpeter
Randy
had issued a slew of records between 1975 and 1982 as
, but studio and touring commitments with other units and individuals kept them from recording as a band again for 12 years.
Return of the Brecker Brothers
was released in 1992 on
Dave Grusin
's
GRP
imprint.
on saxophones and the Akai EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) and
on trumpet and fluegelhorn were supported by a rhythm section that included drummer
Dennis Chambers
George Whitty
on keyboards, and bassist
James Genus
. The set's guests include guitarists
Dean Brown
and
Michael Stern
, percussionist
Don Alias
, saxophonist
David Sanborn
, and bassist
Will Lee
. This star-studded affair delivers an excellent jazz-funk record that has far more teeth than other smooth jazz efforts of the period.
While some of the big, programmed beats soon sounded a bit dated,
Chambers
' drums and tough horn work more than compensate, and the quality of these compositions -- written by the
Breckers
either singly or together -- is almost timeless. These guys understood the value of employing a catchy melody as a jumping-off point for improvisational excursions. Check
"Song for Barry,"
the opener, where
Armand Sabal-Lecco
's piccolo bass begins a pattern to be further unfolded by
's EWI and then layered with a polyrhythmic entrance by the rest of the band, before he takes off with
Whitty
on a Caribbean-touched melody that resembles the work
Weather Report
were doing in the mid-'70s. The production is clean, and each instrument has its own voice in this meld. The solos are tough, big, and quite tasty. By contrast, the big drum funk in
"King of the Lobby,"
with its samples, clashing synth programs, and three-horn front line (with
Sanborn
) teamed with a pair of electric guitars, delivers a groove so infectious that it's almost impossible to resist. The sheer imagination on this set reflects
the Breckers
' immersion in all schools of popular music, but they retain their identity as jazz musicians. The rhythmic palette on this disc is rich, varied, and inventive. Rather than simply blow melodic solos over fixed rhythms, these cats get into the knottiness they established a reputation for --
's adventurous hard bop voicings and phraseology are especially attractive, even though
was at one of his creative peaks in 1992. Other standouts include
"On the Backside,"
with its roiling piano groove; the labyrinthine
"Spherical"
; and the elaborate fusion tune
"Above and Below."
This set marked a fitting return for
, who never let the fashionable tenets of the smooth jazz '90s totally appropriate their creativity or their sound. ~ Thom Jurek