July 29, 2009. Jeff Lorber and Jeff Golub became the latest contemporary jazz imports to grace the intimate stage of the Pizza Express Jazz Club when they played a four night residency in the heart of London’s Soho. Smooth Jazz Therapy was there to catch the third night where, despite what at first glance seemed an unlikely pairing, Lorber and Golub struck upon an instant synergy that they used to feed off each others musicality and share highlights from their respective discographies with the often vocal crowd. Indeed, although the music of Jeff Lorber is rooted in jazz fusion and Golub draws his influences from rock, blues and jazz, the two of them worked together previously on Golub’s 2003 release ‘Soul Sessions’ for which they co-wrote several tunes and Lorber played keyboards. The comfortable familiarity that the two players share was immediately obvious and, ably supported by Andy Newmark on drums and Jamiroquai’s Paul Turner on bass, they launched a sizzling set with the the retro tinged ‘Tune 88’ from Lorber’s 1979 album ‘Water Sign’.
It proved to be a precursor for an evening of high octane funk and as Lorber returned to ‘Water Sign’ for both ‘Rain Dance’ and ‘Toads Place’ they served as a delicious reminder of his early days with the Jeff Lorber Fusion. In complete contrast was Lorber’s orchestral tour de force ‘Anthem For New America’. Taken from his 2007 project ‘He Had A Hat’ it afforded him the opportunity to dazzle on the Steinway and when he switched back to keys for his 2008 gem ‘Heard That’ the result was the sumptuous ‘Night Sky’.
Golub was quick to add his own magic to the proceedings with the title cut from his 2000 release ‘Dangerous Curves’ and, much like Lorber, demonstrated a penchant for rolling back the years with the evocative title track from his 1996 CD ‘Naked City’. Subsequently he revisited ‘Dangerous Curves’ for the funkily Latin ‘Step Aside’ and cool groove of ‘Drop Top’ which he informed the audience was written with his car in mind. Although with ‘Shuffle Board’ Golub offered a sneak preview of his soon to be released album ‘Blues For You’, when the duo was called back to the stage for a well earned encore, the choice of ‘Pick Up The Pieces’ took him all the way back to his 1994 ‘Avenue Blue’.
Throughout their 110 minute performance Lorber and Golub made a statement that it is not always necessary for great contemporary jazz to be smooth and in so doing showed the audience another side of the genre.
This was the latest in a series of shows at the Pizza Express to be backed by Sky FM and the way it is bringing headline musicians to the contemporary jazz starved confines of the United Kingdom is to be applauded. However the approach of combining seemingly unrelated artists with differing musical styles has its risks. In May, Colionne, Koz and Simpson functioned like a dream, after all theirs was a marriage made in heaven, while with Lorber and Golub that worked too. The real test will come in September when the diverse talents of Bob Baldwin, Steve Oliver and Michael Lington are forged together. Whatever the outcome Smooth Jazz Therapy will be there to see it so check back soon for some of the best gig reviews around.