At his worst,
Creed Taylor
had a way of smothering a potentially great jazz album by producing it to death. But when he didn't overproduce -- when he gave musicians the right amount of guidance and direction yet let them have enough room to stretch out and improvise --
Taylor
created some real winners. One of them was
Fuse One
's
Silk
, an all-star jazz-pop-funk project that boasted
Stanley Turrentine
on tenor sax,
Tom Browne
or
Wynton Marsalis
on trumpet,
Ronnie Foster
on electric keyboards,
Stanley Clarke
on electric bass,
Eric Gale
George Benson
on electric guitar,
Sammy Figueroa
on percussion, and
Leon "Ndugu" Chancler
on drums. With
doing the producing and
Clarke
serving as musical director, congenial pieces like
Foster
"Sunwalk"
and
Chancler
"Silk"
offer a healthy blend of jazz, R&B, and pop elements. It's interesting to hear a 19-year-old
Marsalis
letting loose on
's Latin-flavored
"Hot Fire"
(which originally appeared on
George Duke
Reach for It
album in 1977), and note how he sounded in 1981 -- at that point, he wasn't emulating
Miles Davis
and had a big, brassy sound along the lines of
Clifford Brown
Freddie Hubbard
. Considering how strident a jazz purist
would become, it's surprising to hear him playing crossover. Not that
is "watered down" or anything like that. Though the material proved to be accessible to pop and R&B fans, it's also quite creative and doesn't toss jazz considerations to the wind. Unfortunately, this LP remains out of print and has yet to be reissued on CD. ~ Alex Henderson