Partial song/edit Scored passes to Yoshi’s to see the band Jazz Funk Soul featuring three towering honchos of Contemporary Jazz (keyboardist Jeff Lorber, guitarist Paul Jackson Jr and sax man Everette Harp). I really haven’t listened to this style of music much since high school (straying into much more of a post-punk, power pop, greasy funk vortex from my college years onward), but try to never miss a chance to witness live musicianship of this caliber when the opportunity arises. Back in 1979 (when I was just a teen) Lorber’s Wizard Island LP was almost always stacked up on my record player’s changer spindle. It was an eye opener, or perhaps better said ear opener, to the production and mixing process of recording for me. Cool grooves and stellar playing for sure, but an audio quality that really made me rethink how so much of the Pop music at the time was just tin-can sounding carbon-copy mixes of one another and better options/choices/techniques could enhance the music vastly. Jackson’s guitar work is on many albums you probably own as his session work spans decades and genres aplenty. You’ve heard him on hits like MJ’s “Beat It” or Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls” and lots of crossover R&B artists during the 80s/90s, jazz fusion albums with icons like George Duke and Herbie Hancock, as well as working with newer artists like Daft Punk (he shares the guitar riffs on “Get Lucky” with Nile Rogers). And Harp has worked with Aretha, and do you really need any more credits than that on any resume? Anyway, glad I went outside my usual music box as of late to revisit a style that really highlights musical talent/chops and caught some cats that can show that off while barely breaking a sweat.