lenny white

[Guest akanalog]

i don't know why i am posting this-

but for anyone who likes later 70s fairly cheesy fusion, this album is tops.

the riffs are more memorable than on most similar albums and the guitarist never gets too wanky-mostly just playing the nice short riffs.

the disco is kept to a bearable level too. one overtly disco-ey track but it's no worse than any herbie hancock of the time.

i think alex blake is a master of the electric bass and he is the only who blows me away the most on this album and lenny white himself never does anything too obtrisuve. he has one brief and propulsive solo towards the end, but it makes sense in it's context.

in fact, i would say this album is my number one commercial fusion album. as opposed to SOUL fusion which is what i classify the more spiritual stiff like mwandishi. second for me might be jean-luc ponty's enigmatic ocean but the sound of the violin and too much guitar isn't really for me.

but this lenny white albums rocks. songs aren't too long either-it's really not wanky. it just rocks. it's also a concept album (supposedly) about some outer space crap but who knows about that. there is about 30 seconds of swinging jazz on here too. the main theme is a bit cheesy, but in a sort of cheesy outer space dramatic theme way. not like flash gordon good, but i dig it. and the final tune, where the cheesy theme is repeated, goes into a pleasant and airy jam.

a word for don blackman too, who has written a funky funky song or two but on this album shows he is capable of playing anything from piano to organ to synth with aplomb.

thumbs up if you're in the mood.

but the riffs really rock on this one-especially towards the end of the album.

[JSngry]

I knew a few cats who swore by this album back in the day. I wasn't one of them, mind you, but it sure seemed to have a cult following of sorts. Guess it still does!

[Michael Fitzgerald]

This one never thrilled me - maybe I'll give it another spin. I just remember it as being...unmemorable.

Mike

[Guest akanalog]

well as far as crappy commercial fusion i find this album to be MEMORABLE.

not a classic, but for instance far superior to return to forever post the airto and flora years.

[RDK]

I remember reading about this in Starlog!

Didn't Mike Kaluta do the art?

[Michael Fitzgerald]

Yes, he did. I guess he must be some kind of known quantity in the comic world.

Compositionally, this album is WEAK. Lenny White's idea of a tune is a five-note idea repeated over and over while the bass note shifts around. There are a number of such things to be heard on this album. I strongly disagree that this album is in any way superior to the RTF albums with White. Come on, "Song To The Pharaoh Kings," anyone? Corea runs rings around White in terms of composition, Stanley Clarke does too. Whatever input "Captain Keyboards" Don Blackman had didn't do much to improve things.

There's some seriously lame stuff on here - just amazingly corny. Like the keyboard stuff at the end of "Mandarin Warlords" - I mean, is that *supposed* to be goofy or is it accidental? With so much pretentiousness in this album, I tend to think it's accidental.

I find musical personality seriously lacking here - Nick Moroch is a no-taste-having-string-overbending-wannabe. The DiMeola impression in the last piece is probably his finest moment. White went from working with a hack like DiMeola in RTF to hiring second- and third-raters like Ray Gomez and Neal Schon and then going down from there in this case. In terms of drums, I like Lenny White when he's got something challenging him, but here it's too straight. There's a lot of rock mentality in this material; it feels like Rush. And that's not a good thing.

I mean, if groove is your thing, then "Universal Love" probably works - but forget the lyrics. They're just plain bad. All in all, I'd rather listen to "Planetary Citizen".....

And the less said about the "concept" and story, the better. "A musical space odyssey" indeed.

As I recall, there were more interesting things on Venusian Summer and Big City. But it was spots, not like the entire albums were great. It's very obvious to see White's shortcoming's as a leader when he does a piece with Jerry Goodman and Jan Hammer. I know Mahavishnu. Mahavishnu is a good friend of mine. You, sir, are no Mahavishnu.

Like I said, I'm a big fan of White as a drummer, but I don't see any need for him to write or lead sessions. In terms of tunes the best thing he ever did was "Guernica." Of Corea, Clarke, DiMeola, White, LW is the one whose records I want to hear the least. And that's saying something because Al DiMeola makes my skin crawl. But he does get some good musicians and he'll come up with some decent tunes (I'm strictly speaking of the Columbia period).

Mike