Hornsby

Bruce Hornsby is on a roll. After taking the music world by surprise with his wide-ranging, critically acclaimed 2019 album Absolute Zero, the singer, songwriter, composer and bandleader returns with a follow-up that picks up where its predecessor left off. Non-Secure Connection features 10 new songs exploring a broad range of themes, from civil rights to computer hackers, mall salesmen to the Darwinian aspects of AAU basketball.

The type of warm, sophisticated jazz-inflected pop/rock proffered by Bruce Hornsby & the Range was probably the last thing anyone expected to find at the top of the charts in the late '80s. Yet Hornsby, with his virtuosic piano playing and mature song craftsmanship, placed six consecutive singles into the Top 40 between 1986 and 1990, among them the number one "The Way It Is" and the equally solid "Mandolin Rain" and "The Valley Road," both of which reached the Top Five. Hornsby's career has taken many turns in the two decades since his first appearance, and while his commercial fortunes have dissipated, his willingness to grow as a musician, to dodge stagnation, has only expanded. That's what Intersections 1985-2005 is all about…

Long considered among the finest and most distinctive piano players in rock, Bruce Hornsby's resume expanded even further when in 1990 he joined the Grateful Dead. Though many scoffed at the move, such a union made perfect sense: Hornsby's playing had long patrolled similarly unspecific musical waters as the Dead, lodged between the avant jazz-pop universe and the diverse traditions of musical Americana. The aptly-titled HOT HOUSE is thoroughly situated at this crossroads of experimental and folk styles...

Bruce Hornsby's hardest-rocking album, A Night on the Town announces that he is heading into a different direction in its first few notes. John Mellencamp's producer Don Gehman gives the sound, especially John Molo's drums, a feel reminiscent of Mellencamp's best work. The material here is among Hornsby's best, and guest players include Jerry Garcia, tenor saxman Wayne Shorter, banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, vocalist Shawn Colvin (before she was known), and jazz bass legend Charlie Haden. The arrangements still include the mix of synthesized and real percussion, and the trademark piano licks are sprinkled abundantly throughout, but the overall feel is much more rock & roll than anything before or since.

There isn't a second of Bruce Hornsby & the Range's The Way It Is that suggests it's a debut album. On the contrary, the record sounds like the culmination of a band's efforts over many years. The group has a distinct sound of its own, often led by Hornsby's bright piano chords and elastic tenor, with cohesive and evocative arrangements; there is new age music here, as well as jazz and country, and the mixture is presented naturally by musicians who seem to have been playing with each other for some time…