Midnight Merced CA

Midnight

Jeff Lorber

Zebra Records, 1998

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 04/27/1999

I'm going to say two words that could evoke one of threereactions with you: Smooth jazz.

Chances are, you fell into one of these groups: those who can'tstand this type of music; those who think it's okay in small doses,and those who are more or less indifferent to it.

I consider myself to be in the middle category; there are someartists whose work would fall into this category that I enjoy,while there are others whose work I wouldn't mind avoiding for therest of my life. But I've developed enough of a palate to learn anappreciation for a form of music that has - often unjustly - beenvilified.

Jeff Lorber is a musician who has only cracked the top 40 oncein his long career, yet he has a name that always seems to ring abell with music lovers. His keyboard work is strong yet peaceful,as his latest release Midnight shows - but this is an album that is best listenedto when broken up over several sessions. (In a way, that's not arecommendation you want to make for an album that clocks in at justunder 45 minutes.)