Artist Soloist Series - Jeff Lorber Fusion Soloist from PG Music Inc.
Voted Keyboard Magazine's "Session Player of the Year," Jeff Lorber has helped define "Smooth Jazz" with his amazing keyboard playing and producing talents. With this signature Soloist disk, Jeff has personally created a dynamic Fusion / Swing-16ths groove soloist for Band-in-a-Box. Let Band-in-a-Box create an exciting solo for your tune based on any chord changes you enter or generate a solo for study and analysis.
Jeff Lorber Biography
Philly-raised and Berklee-educated, Jeff Lorber had no specific design in mind when he recorded his first album in 1976. In those days, artist experimentation was encouraged, and Lorber set no limits on his own freewheeling expressions. He simply drew from artists he admired - from Herbie Hancock, Tower of Power, Miles Davis, to The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - combined those influences, simmered slowly and somehow discovered a sound that has withstood the test of time.
Lorber fondly refers to the wealth of music he created on his earlier album as "second generation fusion," starting with Jeff Lorber Fusion's self-titled debut. During the first half of the following decade, the band became one of the most popular jazz acts of the period, touring non-stop and even scoring a Best R&B Instrumental Grammy nomination for their radio hit Pacific Coast Highway. 1984's STEP BY STEP was their most successful outing yet, but at the Fusion's peak, Lorber disbanded the group, instead turning to production and session work.
He explains, "The early fusion of the '70s, the sounds I was influenced by like Return to Forever and Weather Report, tended to feature awesome, hard-rocking grooves behind the jazz improvisations. My group, Grover Washington, Jr., and Spyro Gyra crafted more of a synthesis of jazz, R&B, and latin rhythms where melody was as, if not more, important than wailing solos and hardcore chops. The composing took on a shape closer to pop songwriting. I saw it as the bridge between that hardcore movement and today 's smooth jazz sound."
After the heyday of Jeff Lorber Fusion (a band which featured a then little-known sax player named Kenny G. whose first album Lorber produced), Lorber produced R&B artists like Karyn White (including her Top Ten hit Facts of Love) and entered his remixing phase. Getting back into the instrumental groove in the '90s, he produced tracks on Dave Koz's first two albums (and later, 1999's THE DANCE) and other projects for Eric Marienthal, Eric Benet, Art Porter, Michael Franks, and Herb Alpert.
After re-emerging as a solo artist with 1993's WORTH WAITING FOR, Lorber went on to release WEST SIDE STORIES (1994), STATE OF GRACE (1996), and MIDNIGHT (1998) - proving that he is a top jazz artist in his own right. KICKIN' IT, Lorber's 2001 spirited and funky release, showcased his refined talents as a songwriter and his amazing chops. Traditionally producing his own albums, Lorber wanted to experiment on a few tracks for KICKIN' IT with an outside producer and contacted Steve Dubin. Best known for his work with Peter White, Richard Elliot, and Najee, Dubin - like Lorber himself - worked in the '80s and '90s as a remixer. The chemistry was immediate.
"The reason I wanted to work with Steve was to inject some new ideas and get a fresh approach to writing and production," Lorber recalls. "Things went so well that I wound up completely scrapping the other material. He's a terrific drum programmer, and he had a great point of view about style and sonics."
For Lorber's Narada Jazz debut, it was an easy choice to collaborate again with Dubin. "We actually grew up in the same north Philadelphia suburb, went to the same high school, and we played during the '70s and '80s at The Bijou, a small club in Philadelphia, but we never met until we worked together on KICKIN' IT." The Philadelphia connections grew stronger as Lorber gathered players for recording. Drummer and fellow Philadelphia native "Little John" Roberts unknowingly supplied the title for the new album: his personal brand of drumsticks is called Philly Style. Everything after that started to fall into place for the new album.
"Steve (Dubin) and I would reminisce about the old neighborhood and smile at the happy coincidence that PHILLY STYLE had become." Naturally, a number of the tunes on the album reference Lorber's old stomping ground and the music that came from the burg. "Philadelphia is such musical city, going back to TSOP, Teddy Pendergrass, Gamble and Huff, and now Jill Scott, the Roots, and Musiq." The title track, Philly Style (co-written and guest performance by Richard Elliot on tenor sax) and Regardless Of fit right in. The latter tune features vocalist Naila (who has been on tour with Beck) who also performs on Soul Food. "We used the chorus from Goodie Mob's original, and built a whole song around it," Lorber recalls.
Laissez Faire and Serpentine Lane turn more to the jazz side of Lorber's repertoire of style. "We went back to a fusion jazz style on those songs. While we were recording it, we kept on re-writing and re-mixing. The final result took us to some unexpected places."
Artist Soloist Series
Band-in-a-Box Solos Created by Top Musicians. The soloist databases in the Artist series are created and designed by the performers themselves! Using the Soloist technology, Band-in-a-Box will create a great solo for you for any chord changes, allowing your solo to sound like it was played by a top studio musician.
Four titles available in this series:
- Andy LaVerne Mainstream Jazz Soloist
- Andy LaVerne Pentatonics Jazz Soloist
- Jeff Lorber Fusion Soloist
- Jeff Lorber Screaming Rock Guitar / Synth Soloist
Please Note:
- All Artist Soloist Series software requires Band-in-a-Box software.
- Requires Band-in-a-Box Version 2004 or higher (Windows)
- Requires Band-in-a-Box Version 12 or higher (Macintosh)
- Band-in-a-Box software is sold separately.
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