BIG CITY

It's like Lenny tried to do too much here with his second record "Big City". I mean he invited everyone he knew to play on it as we get over 50 musicians and yes we can drop some huge names that are among them even if most play minor roles. I will drop those names later but man we get strings galore, electronics, orchestration, horns, vocals and on and on. There's multiples on almost every instrument. And while I believe this is a pretty big drop off in quality when compared to his debut released 2 years earlier called "Venusian Summer" this isn't that bad. More about my tastes I suppose. So yeah we get Brain Auger, Jerry Goodman, Jan Hammer, Neal Schon, Miroslav Vitous, Benny Maupin, Herbie Hancock, Pat Gleeson and yikes The Tower Of Power horn section(haha).

The low point has to be "Sweet Dreamer" a ballad with quivering female vocals. I can find good stuff on all the other tracks but also negative things. The closer is a live track surprisingly with prominent organ from Auger. The piano dominates as far as keyboards go along with the variety of synths. "Interludes" is short and a two part track but quite good. I really like the drums and bass on the first section while it's spacey on the second. There's electronics and impressive drumming on "Ritmo Loco" another short piece. "Dreams Come And Go Away" is one I'm not into until it turns heavier after 2 minutes with the guitar soloing over top. Some crazy strings late. "Rapid Transit" is fast and the title track good when those horns aren't blasting away.

I find "Big City" along with the one that follows this to be disappointments after that excellent debut.