dreadpirateroberts If you’re a fan of the more laid back CTI Jazz or Deodato then you’ll probably enjoy this album from John Tropea who worked as a sideman for so, so many folks in the 1970s Jazz Fusion and Funk scene.

His self-titled debut as a leader finds him playing more so as an important ‘part’ of the music rather than dominating with endless soloing. (Having said that, I certainly don’t hate the idea of lots of solos at all). I was really interested to see that he both produced and mixed this album too and it sounds really clear and sharp, making great use of the wide range of performers and friends he draws upon.

I think that the funk and jazz on here ranges from energetic to a little too laid back at times – although, that’s not automatically a problem. And based on my star rating, I think this album is objectively better than the amount which I *enjoyed* it, if that makes sense.

Still, I tend to be drawn to some of the fuller arrangements on these songs – like the stellar “Muff’ and the opener too, one of the places Tropea fires up a bit. I also enjoyed the final, more atmospheric piece “Dreams” where I noticed a trumpet solo. Now, I don’t want to rest my whole review on some idea of “solos = jazz” and thus “less or no solos = pop” but it might give you an extremely general idea of the style here, which is firmly pop/light funk and not so much Jazz Fusion as some of Tropea’s other work.

darkprinceofjazz here are 2 kinds of funk, the Hard chuggin variety, that has it's roots in Soul and R&B;, the James Brown influenced style if you will, and then there is this sad excuse for funk, The Muzak vanilla disco style, that has all most any traces of the blues stripped out, I can find no real redeeming qualities in this music, other than maybe some of the orchestrations, maybe a few mood changes here and there, but to me it is just plain Muzak, background music at best, antiseptic sterile bass grooves with no fire, zero stars would be the real rating, Kenny G has made Miliions on this style, sad indeed.