Jeff Lorber has become one of contemporary jazz’s brightest stars since bursting on the scene in the late ’70s.
His early efforts were directly influenced by Chick Corea, who even guested on Lorber’s second recording Soft Space. Today, he boasts more than 30 albums to his credit as a solo artist, with the Jeff Lorber Fusion and the cooperative band effort Jazz Funk Soul.
He currently leads two bands, the revamped Jeff Lorber Fusion with Jimmy Haslip and Gary Novak and Jazz Funk Soul, with Everette Harp and Paul Jackson Jr., who replaced original guitarist Chuck Loeb after he died. Lorber continues to perform, compose and produce for himself and his friends and contemporaries such as Marion Meadows, Carol Duboc, Dave Koz, Richard Elliot, and Herb Alpert.
“I’ve always loved music,” he says in an exclusive Something Else! Sitdown. “My mother was an accomplished piano player. She liked Gershwin, Debussy.” He took lessons as a youngster, and says from an early age he could figure things out on the keyboard. As he got older, he began absorbing even more influences, from Broadway and television themes to the Philly soul sounds of Cameo, Gamble & Huff and others, as well as the Beatles, Blood Sweat and Tears, Pink Floyd and – well, most everything.
Jeff Lorber is happy to share the names of all those who inspired and influenced him, but trying to get him to narrow it to three is a challenge:
HERB ALPERT – THE LONELY BULL (1962): I was an early Beatles fan. “You Can’t Do That” (from The Beatles’ Second Album) was my second record. This was my first record. [Lorber has since worked on a half-dozen Alpert recordings and performed with him, as well.]
MILES DAVIS – IN A SILENT WAY (1969) and BITCHES BREW (1970): Those were real crucial records for me. They were way more revolutionary for me. The still and quiet [parts] are really different. Joe Zawinul took a tone poem approach to composition, like in Weather Report.
HERBIE HANCOCK – FAT ALBERT ROTUNDA (1969): That’s what I wanted to do: funky keyboards and jazz. Unlike Headhunters, it was more boogaloo. [With] Joe Henderson, Buster Williams, you had jazz guys playing funky music, simple grooves with solos. Herbie and Chick, a lot of great stuff like the Crusaders, they would take grooves from pop and R&B and redo it, turn it into jazz. Joe Sample had such a marvelous sense of composition. [Trombonist] Wayne [Henderson] wrote and produced lot of hits.
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