Special Efx

Combining Latin and African rhythms with the light textures of MOR jazz, Special EFX emerged as one of the most prominent world fusion groups of their era. Formed in New York in 1982, Special EFX was essentially a duo comprised of guitarist Chieli Minucci and Hungarian-born drummer/percussionist George Jinda; debuting in 1985 with the album Modern Manners, they often recruited other musicians to help flesh out their state-of-the-art sound, among them Dave Grusin, Omar Hakim, and McCoy Tyner.

Released in 1988, Double Feature is the fourth and best album of Special EFX.

Chieli Minucci & Special EFX, (2010), " Without You" CD represents Chieli's masterful and emotion invoking, guitar playing. This CD comes with an additional Bonus CD. After listening over and over again, it is very hard to pick the favorite songs out of 22 selections. This CD has a wonderful blend of jazz fusion, funk, rythmic and international flavors.

George Jinda must have forgotten he was doing his latest Special EFX project, because his use of an all-star cast on Here to Stay might be better suited to one of those Fantasy Band discs he was involved in before his debilitating stroke. Not that there's anything sonically wrong with the mainly mellow fare on this disc – Mark Whitfield, Chuck Loeb, and Gerald Veasley do stellar jobs conveying the melodic thoughts over Jinda's gentle percussion.

Their most popular release, with the radio hits, "Daybreak", and "Your Love Has Lifted Me". Setting the pace for what was to become a revolution in contemporary jazz radio, this landmark release continues to explore the cutting edge of instrumental pop!

Guitarist Chieli Minucci and percussion maestro George Jinda come pretty close to the lofty status as far as the pop instrumental genre goes, having been cranking out solid hit after hit for GRP and JVC since the early '80s. They cornered the market for a long time in that tasty area where melodic, breezy jazz meets easy worldbeat, but apparently started hitting a few creative walls — as potent as each new disc was, it was merely an attractive variation on previous ones.