Recorded with a bunch of friends jamming and recording in his own relaxed studio setting, Robby Krieger put on few airs and graces here, instead letting the music do the talking. A recipient of America’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as guitarist for The Doors, for whom he wrote many of their hits, a successful Grammy nominated jazz-fusion guitarist in his own right, I’ve a fondness for the much under-appreciated Butts Band with whom he played.
Here, he’s got the Grammy and Emmy award winning Kevin ‘Brandino’ Brandon playing bass with him, a man whose CV includes playing with the likes of James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, and Beyonce. Keyboard player Ed Roth’s another Grammy-nominee and can list Ringo Starr, Coolio, and Annie Lennox among those he’s worked with. Franklin Vanderbilt is the drummer and lists Chaka Khan, Stanley Clarke, and Lenny Kravitz on his resume. Top notch musicians, all involved in co-writing the numbers alongside Krieger.
“This band inspired a style of playing I hadn’t done in a while,” said Krieger, continuing, “And it also inspired me to do new things. For example, in the past, I reserved my slide playing for more of the bluesy stuff, but I stretched out on the album playing slide over jazz, funk, and soul grooves. I want to keep evolving, and these guys really inspire me.” The album is instrumental, with a tendency towards the laid back but within that it reaches out exploring moods, themes and sounds. There’s jazz-fusion a plenty while touching on more atmospheric prog, soulful funk, some late-night movie soundtrack scoring and atmospheric and creative guitar playing from Krieger, albeit it’s the overall sound you’ll be here for.
It opens with ‘Shark Skin Suit’ one of the hard-nosed tracks, like some long lost Steely Dan track awaiting vocals. Tough funked, Roth’s keyboards writhe hither and yonder in melody while adding an intermittent horn sounding section, even as Krieger injects notes that are cheeky, then calmly authoritative, or excited, with a varied tonal approach, especially when he plays slide.
‘Samosas & Kingfishers’ is an interesting one, because you’re immediately picturing distant figures traversing across blistering desert, only you’re left equally with the impression of it being some spaghetti western as much as a lingering David Lean Arabian landscape. Languid, hazily explorative, moving with only little more hurried determination during its final section. By contrast ‘A Day In L.A.’ begins like the sighing stretching of arms to greet a brand new day, then cruises through a suspiciously smog-free bluesy theme, with some choice peaks as the various instruments take the driving seat.
Oddly titled ‘Killzoni’ proves yet another cinematic ride where it’s late-night and a private eye’s trawling through the streets of San Francisco, as with several numbers here, it’s also somewhat reminiscent in style to early English jazz fusion band Nucleus. ‘Contrary Motion’ curiously reminds one of Focus, perhaps by virtue of Bach-like fugues work within the form, but there’s also dizzy-whirling slide that’s the safe side of proving nauseating, and some tougher-loved blues fretwork too. The jazzy-tripping of ‘Never Say Never’ both teases and gets a little cosmic-spacey in places.
‘Bouncy Betty’ is playfully amusing blues noted jazz rock, while ‘Ricochet Rabbit’ adds more serious weight despite its title, nimble-fingered jazz guitar lighting the way with deft tonal variation throughout. ‘Blue Brandino’ is another that kind of reminds you of an instrumental Steely Dan but it also branches off into a bar or two of almost every musical genre you can think, including some metallic guitar wailing in the middle, and it’s very diversity in a number under four minute is likely to prove its downfall for the casual listener. Now, ‘Math Problem’ sounds like we’re ending on a problematic number, but the Stateside grammatical use of a singular math and not maths aside, it’s a satisfying purposeful time signature quest over which deft blues guitar lines are blasted out, tastefully concluding this instrumental funky jazz-fusion smorgasbord.
- Review by Paul H Birch.
- Robbie Krieger And The Soul Savages is released via Mascot Label Group and is available now (from here).
- Official Website
Track List:
- Shark Skin Suit
- Samosas & Kingfishers
- A Day In L.A.
- Killzoni
- Contrary Motion
- Never Say Never
- Bouncy Betty
- Ricochet Rabbit
- Blue Brandino
- Math Problem
