Lenny White

Filled with layered, precise arrangements that jump off the speakers and cut straight to your soul, Lenny White’s Edge (Hip Bop HIBD 8019; 60:40) is a great example of tearing down constricting genre borders and rebuilding from the ground up. Drummer White lays rock solid foundations for short-form artistic dramas like “Mr. DePriest,” a hard-fusion walk spritzed with horns and set up by Bennie Maupin’s dark bass clarinet. “Raiders in the Temple of Boom” builds a multi-layered, somewhat laid-back percussive foundation which peels back occasionally for hard-screaming lead figures to appear. White’s group features the dual bass work of Victor Bailey and Foley, adding to the gritty foundation. Two of the most memorable and surprising tracks here are covers. First, a stunning reworking of Led Zepplin’s “Kashmir” which stings with soulful vocal harmony and bass.

A versatile drummer, Lenny White is still best-known for being part of Chick Corea's Return To Forever in the 1970's. White was self-taught on drums and he largely started his career on top, playing regularly with Jackie McLean (1968) and recording "Bitches Brew" with Miles Davis in 1969. White was soon working with some of the who's who of jazz including Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Gato Barbieri, Gil Evans, Stanley Clarke and Stan Getz among others. As a member of Return To Forever during 1973-76, White gained a strong reputation as one of the top fusion drummers, but he was always versatile enough to play in many settings.

At twenty-five, Lenny White had established a reputation as one of the best drummers in jazz-rock and fusion, having featured as a nineteen year-old on trumpeter Miles Davis' epochal Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1969) and forming one-half of the formidable rhythm team, alongside bassist Stanley Clarke in Chick Corea's seminal fusion group, Return to Forever. In the thirty-plus years between RTF's break up and 2008 reformation….

One of the better entries to emerge from a genre that was quickly growing tired. Return to Forever drummer Lenny White, while not as powerful or talented as counterparts Billy Cobham or Alphonse Mouzon, had an excellent feel for funk and an amazing sense of taste. "Chicken-Fried Steak" contains enough odd-time beats and fills to satisfy any drum fanatic, but White proves to be more than just a technician.