Jeff Lorber Fusion

Released in 1980, Wizard Island is the fourth album by keyboardist Jeff Lorber as leader of his band "The Jeff Lorber Fusion". The album was Lorber's first to reach number one on the US Jazz Album chart.

Soft Space is the second album by Keyboardist Jeff Lorber as leader of his band The Jeff Lorber Fusion. Released in 1978, this album featured special guest artists, Chick Corea and Joe Farrell. This was the group's last effort for Inner City Records before moving on to Arista Records the following year.

The Jeff Lorber Fusion's 1970s grooves were hip enough for Nelly to sample them on his 2003 "Pimp Juice" remix. On Lorber's latest CD, the Philly-born keyboardist delivers some of his trademark funk, albeit with musical twists, and a slew of guests from saxophonists Kirk Whalum and Tom Scott, guitarist Russell Malone, and trumpeter Chris Botti to the horns from Blood, Sweat & Tears. His smooth-jazz fans will dig Lorber's lovely rendition of Bill Wither's "Grandma's Hands," graced with Eric Benet's impassioned vocal, and "The Other Side of the Heart," the quiet storm duet with Benet and Holly Cole. But, like a few of his contemporaries, Lorber unplugs and takes to the acoustic ivories on the orchestral, Aaron Copeland-esque overture "Anthem for a New America." He increases his swing cred on the Gil Evans-ghosted "Surreptitious" and "BC Bop" and proves that some smooth stars still have a little hard bop left in them.

Jeff Lorber reached his commercial peak with Private Passion, an album that has more to do with urban contemporary singing than it does with instrumental pop-jazz. Because it features R&B singers so prominently, Private Passion is a perfect example of what Lorber meant when, in 1998, he complained that the mid-'80s found him becoming "a sideman on my own records." In the 1990s, the keyboardist would return to giving himself a lot of solo space, but on Private Passion, Lorber the soloist/instrumentalist isn't the main attraction.

Grammy Award winning pianist, composer, and producer Jeff Lorber releases new single "Elevate", featuring guitarist Erick Walls. The track comes ahead of Lorber's new album of the same name.

After a seven year layoff, feisty veteran funkmaster Lorber steps out from the producer's chair with a fun filled all star project. The keyboardist, best known for his fusion years, has been far from idle during that time, producing for pop jazz sax gods Kenny G and Eric Marienthal, and mixing for U2 and Paula Abdul. His latest lives up to its title…though not resoundingly so. As he did with Marienthal's brilliant Oasis, Lorber divides his keyboard time between punchy, soulful rhythms and mellifluous textures that pour on the romance. Easygoing exercises like "Yellowstone" and the Latin tinged "Punta Del Soul" inspire a cool charm, but it's danceable cookers like "High Wire" and "Jazzery" that keep the disc spiraling

How's this for a definition of a smooth jazz elder statesman: one whose career spans an entire generation, whose hit album in 1999 uses the same instrumentation and stylistic approach as his first demo 24 years before, only now those old instruments and style are hip again as part of a retro movement? Listened to side by side, Midnight and his 1977 breakthrough Water Sign are like twin sons born to the same family years apart. In addition to the hypnotic clicking wah-wah guitar grooves, both albums focus on Fender Rhodes and Hammond B-3, the attractive one-two keyboard punch Lorber has favored for all of his career but the mid-'80s when he experimented with techno sounds. Lorber sets the tone on the hiss-and-pop LP effect before the music begins on "Down Low."

This is without question Jeff Lorber's finest and most consistant album of the 1980's and is very difficult to locate on CD.The classic title track,featuring the dynamic vocals of singer Audrey Wheeler is the main centerpiece of this album and most of the material tends to be very similar-uptempo vocal funky R&B/fusion with a few light touches.