TOKU DO

Behind this Japanese-sounding name is one of LC's least interesting album for progheads, unless they've got a strong liking for cool jazz. This remark applies a bit to all of the albums where LC teams up with Cowell and Williams, to different degrees, but this writer is not a fan of this line-up. As often with LC's albums, a good deal of the tracks are covers, and this one is no exception and among them Coltrane, Monk, Ellington and the classic Funny Valentine. But let's face these versions are maybe well executed but the renditions lack the power and fail to seduce the listener. There is a cool jazz atmosphere on this album with Coàryell's fluid guitar and Cowell's rollicking piano, but the rhythm section is definitely a jazz one, with absolutely no rock flavour, so the virtuosity of the two frontmen tends to veer demonstrative rather enthralling and powerful. LC's guitar is often in the Django Reinhardt mode, while Cowell's piano sounds like good ol' Duke and Williams only comes through one the bonus track November Mood (a Cowell composition) where he puts the bow to his stand-up bass.

Unless a serious Coryell fan this is typically the type of album that is to be avoided by progheads, because outside a solid but boring dose of cool/lounge jazz, you're not about to get much more than a flurry of yawns from this disc.