Buzz Feiten

A little gem from the late 70's by this LA based keyboards player and generally reckoned to be his best, well worth hunting down. Jungle Fever features the likes of Buzz Feiten (guitar), Willie Weeks (bass), Andy Newmark (drums), Mike Brecker (tenor sax), Larry Williams (alto sax and flute), Ralph McDonald (percussion) and Jerry Hey (trumpet & flugelhorn). The whole set is original Larsen material except for a quite acceptable cover of Gato Barbieri's 'Last Tango in Paris'. Not a vocal in sight, either. Recorded and mixed by Al Schmitt at Sound Labs and Capitol Recording Studios in Hollywood and produced by maestro Tommy LiPuma. Engineer and producer teams don't get much better than that and, on this album, it certainly shows.

A '92 session mixing fusion, R&B, and light jazz by Art Porter with a host of guest stars and participants, including Jeff Lorber, Paul Jackson, Jr., Buzz Feiten, Paul Pesco, Paulinho Da Costa, and Valeri Davis. There are also some vocals and elaborate production.

Although Dave Weckl is an excellent drummer, not all of his recordings have been excellent. In the 1990s, you never knew if you would find something exciting or mundane on a Weckl album. But this fusion/soul-jazz disc turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Synergy, in fact, is the drummer's most consistently satisfying CD. Excessive producing was a major problem on some of his previous releases, but this time he generally avoids overproducing and goes for a real band sound. Joined by tenor and soprano saxman Brandon Fields, keyboardist Jay Oliver, guitarist Buzz Feiten, and electric bassist Tom Kennedy, Weckl has a solid team to work with and emphasizes improvisation and honest-to-God playing not high-tech studio gloss.

2008 digitally remastered two CD set containing a pair of albums from Felix Cavaliere and The Rascals: Peaceful World (1971) and Island of Real (1972), both originally released on Columbia Records. These recordings, sadly, were to prove the last for the band, though founder Felix Cavaliere went on to a solo career. Comes housed in a slipcase with extensive liner notes.
What's remarkable about both these recordings is how far ahead of their time they were. Cavaliere had become deeply interested in the writings and teachings of the great Sufi master musician Hazrat Inayat Khan, who - through his own tradition - looked at music holistically, as an integral part of earthly and spiritual life. He also came under the sway of the emerging sounds of jazz, gospel, and the emerging uptownfunk and soul of the period…

Neil Larsen is a great keyboardist and composer and his 2 previous efforts are among the few fusion records released in the 70s that hold up after time. This was largely due to Neil's avoiding the trendy synth stuff and using a Hammond organ as his instrument of choice. His partner, guitarist, Buzz Feiten also contributed his stellar talents to these recordings to make them even more enduring. This Cd released in the late 80s suffers from some of the synth crazy sounds he had previously avoided, but still has its moments which include a searing tenor solo from Michael Brecker on "Carnival" and great playing once again from Larsen and Feiten.

It is believed that the rush hour lounge music falls on the 50-60s. Then it executes unknown bands, but the rooms were great friends. While implementing lounge music could be called any musician who played in a cafe or restaurant to the public. In the 60s there were ensembles, records which are related to Lounge. Among them - the bands of James Last, Bert Kempferta, Paul Mauriat, Herb Alpert. Distinguished as a lounge music and musical design films, because this style of music can rightly be called the background.