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The highly respected, highly-professional journeymen hornsmiths return with their second effort to lead a band and man! do they gather together an ensemble of all-stars!

1. "Keep It Steady (Brecker's Bunp)" (6:24) funk at its finest from the very first notes, with choral vocals (courtesy of the young and unknown Luther Vandross and Patti Austin) and plenty of really tight and crisp play from the horn section. There is a lot of similarities here to the music of Average White Band and Earth, Wind & Fire, only a level more sophisticated (which is what you'd hope for, even expect, from these amazing musicians)--until you get to the solos: Steve Khan's awesome guitar solo first, then a sax solo that I'm going to assume comes from co-composer David Sanborn, all the while the Brecker brothers keep things very tight, funky, and, yes, steady. Pretty awesome song (though it could have developed a little differently--with more great solos or even some more horn interplay). (9.333/10)

2. "If You Wanna Boogie.....Forget It" (3:56) Bassist Will Lee really gets into his vocals (though they are supposedly arranged by Luther Vandross), while, at the same time, he's playing the funk out of his bass as the b vox and horns engage with great activity and enthusiasm (both). This is, however, a song that really is oriented toward the vocals: meant to be a dance/R&B radio friendly tune. While it may succeed as such, I'm really looking and hoping for more Jazz-Rock Fusion stuff. (8.75/10)

3. "Lovely Lady" (6:16) now moving into the domain of laid back, late night seduction songs, brother Randy leads us into and through this one (with the help of co-composers Allee Wilson ["September," "Boogie Wonderland," "Neutron Dance"] and singer Charlotte Crossley). There are suitable background soul vocals from the lovely, delicate voices of the esteemed array of singers the B brothers have employed, but it's really the Smooth Jazz music and performances of the musicians that are on display here--especially Randy and keyboard maestro Don Grolnick. (8.875/10)

4. "Night Flight" (6:14) early or pre-disco of the Kool & The Gang funk-type fused with an attempt at a kind of big band approach to some dynamic Mahavishnu Orchestra-level music. The layers of activity are excellent and each quite interesting in their own rights: keyboards, bass, percussion, horns, and composer Michael Brecker's lead saxophone. A very entertaining and admiragble song, even if it does enter the realm of that which will become stereotypic Dave Sanborn-style music. Some pretty wild effects used on the horns (especially Randy's trumpet) as well as the synths. (9/10)

5. "Slick Stuff" (4:46) now Randy's turn to express himself through his own composition, a fast pace with full horn and percussion complements, some very funky bass, synth bass, and clavinet play, a bit of the disco beat, and some cool use of Michael's flute play for some of the leads (alternating with some saxes). Randy's solo seems to arrive in two parts: the first quite dynamic, the second (flugelhorn?) more smooth and melodic, and then back to show-off dynamic. Then brother Michael steps in to take a turn on his tenor sax. (I much prefer the trumpet.) Very tight both compositionally and performatively. (9.125/10)

6. "Dig A Little Deeper" (3:58) back to radio-friendly funk, this time laid back and lyrically entertaining like something from Kool & The Gang or Parliament, this is another composition coming from outside the Breckers: from singers Allee Wilson, David Lasley, Don Grolnick, and lead singer/bassist Will Lee. The vocal arrangements (courtesy of Luther Vandross) are quite sophisticated--and excellent--and the song is certainly funky and heavily horn-accented, but, ultimately, it does little to engage me, personally, as I am looking for the jazz elements, less the R&B. (8.75/10)

7. "Grease Piece" (5:46) another funky instrumental song that has great performances everywhere one looks, and grooves with some syncopated AWB-type funky jazz-rock but then suffers from the alternating motif of what I call the Dave Sanborn generic pop instrumental jazz (too repetitive and marred by those multi-track multiple saxophone riffs. (8.875/10)

8. "What Can A Miracle Do" (4:14 ) a song that is composed by Don Grolnick and Luther Vandross turns out to be a very easy-going Pop-Soul vehicle for Luther (with some very piano/keyboard dominated music backing him). A little medieval fanfare-like horn play (trumpet) fills the spaces between the verses, but this is really a mostly-hornless song. Still, this is quite an engaging, likable, and even memorable song. (9/10)

9. "I Love Wastin' Time With You" (6:32) Michael teaming up with Allee Wilson and Charlotte Crossley to compose this jazz-rock vehicle for vocals (with Will Lee and Allee covering the lead vocals). The jazzy parts of the music feel a lot like STEELY DAN and even a little of THE DOOBIE BROTHERS' Michael McDonald era. The finish feels like a jam on the Saturday Night Live theme or something from Dave Letterman and Paul Shaffer's World's Most Dangerous Band. (8.75/10)

Total Time 46:06

My overall impression from this album is that the Brothers are excellent composers, have hired an ensemble of top notch musicians to help them realize their visions for these songs, but that they're a little too spread out with as many/more songs aimed at pleasing the Funk/R&B audiences as the Jazz-Rock Fusion (and even less toward the Jazz lovers). The opening song had me so very excited but the rest of the album, for me, failed to live up to the same high standards of J-R Fusion.

B+/four stars; an excellent Funk-R&B-dominated album of Jazz-Rock that falls a little short of qualifying as a true Peak Era Jazz-Rock Fusion album.

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