js Gabor Szabo’s albums can range from his ambitious and esoteric “gypsy-raga” virtuoso guitar improvisations, to straight ahead or exotic versions of current pop tunes. On “Rambler”, Szabo seems to strike a median between these two extremes with original pop tunes (composed by bassist Wolfgang Metz) that are open to fairly lengthy workouts from Szabo and his mostly clean sounding guitar. The tunes are well written, but they are often overly bright and glib, the sound is more like Three Dog Night or Carly Simon, not jazz. Still, the rhythm section is fairly funky and most tunes eventually include a lengthy solo from the great Gabor. Its not one of his best albums, but its not a bad one either, it definitely has its moments.

This is one of those classic Bob James produced CTI mid-70s projects, so you can expect a beautiful gatefold album cover, excellent recorded sound and lots of spacious reverb. This is of course the course that will eventually lead Bob James to creating smooth jazz, but “Rambler” is still far away from that sort of generic liteness. Some album highlights include the upbeat and energetic opening song “Rambler”, which sounds like a classic Allmans instrumental, and “Reinhardt”, where the band works with some abstract fusion style chord progressions.