Olukayode Balogun 2008-12-02
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Fourplay have done really well. Of the plethora of jazz "super groups" that were formed back in the early 90s - and I won't name any names - this one seems to be the only one still standing. Or at least, the only one still putting out consistently decent music, after 17 years and a dozen or so albums.
Bob James (keyboards), Larry Carlton (guitar), Nathan East (bass & vocals) and Harvey Mason (drums) are all well known and respected in their respective fields and have all had, and still have, successful solo careers. Together, I think they're something pretty special. This album is pretty much what I expected from them, which is not a bad thing, and in places, has touches of the old-school sound effects James used to employ on his albums back in the the 70s and 80s. For example, the whistling sounds on "The Whistler". Again, not a bad thing.
I really wanted to be able to give the album five stars but "Cape Town" and "Prelude For Lovers" marred my overall enjoyment of it. I found the beats - they sounded way too mechanical to be real drums - on the former song too clunky and I enjoy East much more when he provides vocal effects, which he does brilliantly on the album closer "Sebastian", than when he actually sings, as he does on "Cape Town" - with members of his family providing backing vocals, apparently. Actually, now I look a bit more closely, "Cape Town" is produced and arranged by Fourplay and Marcel East (Nathan's son, presumably), and that explains a lot. Marcel also takes responsibility for additional programming, percussion, engineering, keyboards & guitar on the song. I'm thinking maybe it should have gone on Marcel East's album.
The latter song features Esperanza Spalding on vocals and I know she's getting a lot of buzz at the minute but her vocals did nothing for me. It's quite possible that I just didn't like the song. I will be checking out Spalding's recent album (Esperanza) though, as it's been getting a lot of praise from people who know what they're talking about. I'm just hoping that I'll enjoy her bass playing and songwriting more than her singing.
But back to Fourplay and this CD. Standout tracks for me include the album opener, the jaunty "Fortune Teller" (written by Nathan East, Bob James & Jeff Babko); "Look Both Ways" (Bob James), which surprised me with its urgency, energy and vitality, as I always found Fourplay to be known for a more laid back sound; and the aforementioned "Sebastian" (also written by James).
All in all though, a pretty decent album.
