Doc Powell

Considering that guitarist Doc Powell's Laid Back album was one of 1996's biggest airplay hits in the genre, and was about as smooth as soul- flavored pop-jazz gets, it seems bold to go the tongue and cheek route and call his latest, Don't Let the Smooth Jazz Fool Ya. Is he promising us something a bit edgier, funkier, in your face? He gets off to a good start with a slamming take on the normally staid, "Chariots of Fire," based on Ernie Watts' version and featuring the potent electric guitar/sax synergy of Powell and Dave Koz over a pulsating groove laid by bassist Sekou Bunch, drummer Michael White and percussionist Munyungo Jackson. He hits the mid-tempo funk mark on the bluesy breezes of the synth-horn splashed "Good Intentions" and "Here's To You," which features Powell in synch with Everette Harp's sax and a short but luscious Bobby Lyle piano solo.

After a long, rewarding career on the soul sidelines, Doc Powell's emergence into solo territory finds him in an Alphonse Mouzon-like bandleader mode, albeit slightly more inspiring mood and melody-wise. A skilled multi-instrumentalist, Powell on Inner City Blues comes across on his snappy core guitar strains like a chilled version of Norman Brown, complete with those fun and breezy vocal scats. Too often, however, Powell as producer relegates his punchy prowess to the background, settling for radio friendly simplicity in lieu of sustained funk whallop. Each truly potent revelation (such as Ronnie Foster's simmering B-3 solo) is balanced by a calculated commercial turn like the fluffy DeBarge cover "All This Love." Too many all-star guest vocals simply get in the way of the sterling instrumental passages which dominate.

Legendary Tower of Power founding member, Stephen 'Doc' Kupka presents a smoking collection of East Bay Soul music featuring Edgar Winter, Huey Lewis, Lydia Pense (Cold Blood), John Lee Sanders, Fred Ross, and Frank Biner on lead vocals.

A pleasant album by the drummer Michael White, featuring a lot of stars from jazz-funk as Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, Gerald Albright, Byron Miller, John Beasley, Doc Powell and many others.

Rhino repackaged and re-released five George Duke LPs on Warner Bros. – Snapshot, Illusions, Is Love Enough?, After Hours, and Cool – as a slipcased box set. It's not a bad way to acquire the albums if you don't already own them, but isn't recommended for the casual fan.

The least enviable aspect of being a successful artist in this genre is no doubt trying to meet three sets of expectations. First, there's the ongoing desire to evolve disc to disc and challenge oneself creatively. Then, there's heeding the criticism of purists and cynics who may hold a kernel of truth when they say your music's a little lightweight. And finally, the matter of not straying too far from everything that's proved magical and successful in the past, lest you alienate your precious supporters. How to strike a balance between all three? Ask Gregg Karukas, whose melodic touch and diverse sense of style have bound him from first generation Rippingtons circa 1987 to one of this decade's most popular performers.

Albums came less frequently from Stanley Clarke in the 1990s as film scores took up more and more of his time. Not only that, the ideas and functions of film music play a large role in East River Drive, where selections come as often as not in the form of cue-like vamps, as well as two actual themes from Clarke's scores for the films Poetic Justice and Boyz N the Hood. Oddly enough, Clarke's music benefits from his film immersion, for his compositional ideas are sharper and more sophisticated here, and he applies them to a range of electric music idioms.

Started his career in Poland and Scandinavia in the 1960's and formed the Michał Urbaniak Group in Poland in 1969. Emigrated to the USA in 1973, and formed Fusion in 1974. Has worked as a session musician with many jazz greats such as Herbie Hancock, Weather Report and Miles Davis.