Dare to Hild

Dare To Dream is a tour de force of Onaje Allen Gumbs' talents as a composer, producer, arranger and keyboardist. Co-produced by V.Jeffrey Smith of The Family Stand,the opening track,"No Question," is propulsive funk in the style of The System and Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon." The mellow Sunday afternoon groove of "Second Thoughts," is led by the tenor sax of Roger Byam,the engaging interplay of drummer Buddy Williams,the shaker,tambourine and soft conga of Steve Thornton and gently,plucked bass of Oscar Carataya as Gumbs interweaves tasty piano solos and lays down warm,sustained digital piano.

Dare to Dream is Yanni's first new material in three years and finds the new age composer fitting his unflinchingly romantic arrangements into tighter song structures. The surging synth backgrounds, insistent piano lines, and general grandiosity that mark Yanni's sound are still intact. But tracks like "Love for Life" or "Nice to Meet You" harness that famously epic energy in smaller stables. This tactic works especially well on the latter track, which is led by the wail of an electric fiddle. Elsewhere, Yanni plucks the heartstrings with "In the Mirror" and "So Long My Friend" – two weepy ballads that cascade like sheets of rain on a lonely city street. The seven-minute "You Only Live Once" becomes the only really epic piece on Dare to Dream, and it's pleasant enough.