Slam Dunk
True Colors
Because of You
It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World
The Duke
Sparkle in Your Eyes Interlude
Sparkle in Your Eyes
Where Did We Go Wrong?
Fiesta Interlude
Split Decision
The Gospel Interlude
The Gospel
Gerald Albright (saxes, flute, bass guitar, drum programming, vocals ); Chris Davis (keyboards): Rick Watford (guitar); Jerohn Garnett (drums): Selina
Albright and Dawn Tallman (backing vocals); Asa Livingston (bass guitar on Sparkle in Your Eyes); Peabo Bryson (vocals on Where Did We Go Wrong?)
Recorded at Bright Music Studios, Castle Rock, CO and CDS Studios, Wallingford, CT
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[48:49]
Saxophonist and bassist (also flautist and vocalist) Gerald Albright is pretty much a one-man band when the overdubber’s art gets to work on his music but
the core of his band is himself, Chris Davis, the keyboard player, guitarist Rick Watford and drummer Jerohn Garnett. They are joined by other musicians
along the route of Albright’s latest, disappointing disc.
Those versed in the lexicon of 1970s funk may welcome this relentless groove more than others who may yearn for greater variety – not of instrumentation,
or indeed tempo (there is some of that) but of ethos. Even Phil Collins’ True Colours can’t quite escape the stylistic straitjacketing imposed on
it. The results, via the frequent overdubbing, backing vocals and pumped up sax are mired even deeper by the synthesized horn backings. There’s no doubting
the leader’s excellence as a sax player, in this kind of music – his bass playing is more uneven – but it’s telling that Chris Davis’ piano playing in the
slow but brief Sparkle in Your Eyes Interlude – which prefaces the interlude-less Sparkle in Your Eyes proper – comes as a welcome
relief. The fatuous parlando of guest vocalist Peabo Bryson doesn’t do very much.
A rawer sound would have served Albright better, as would less studio knob-twiddling.
Jonathan Woolf
CD Reviews
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