Jeff Lorber Fusion - Now Is The Time (2010)

Keyboardist and producer Jeff Lorber has wrapped up production of a new CD that delves back into his early catalog and reinvents some of his compositions from the Jeff Lorber Fusion heyday. The CD, Now Is the Time, is Lorber’s follow-up to 2008’s Heard That. The new CD will be released June 1.

By the late 1970s, Lorber had become a prominent figure in the new movement known as jazz fusion – a marriage of traditional jazz with elements of rock, R&B, funk and other electrified sounds. Lorber and his band, Jeff Lorber Fusion, first honed their craft in the Portland, Ore., club scene and rapidly expanded their reach to a national and international audience.

This new incarnation of the Jeff Lorber Fusion includes bassist Jimmy Haslip (who co-produced with Lorber and Bobby Colomby), saxophonist Eric Marienthal, trumpeter Randy Brecker, guitarist Paul Jackson Jr., and drummers Vinnie Colaiuta and Dave Weckl.

“We all had a vision of what we wanted this record to be,” says Lorber, who points to a recent European tour with many of these same musicians – and the positive response that resulted from it – as the primary catalyst for the album. “We wanted a return to the sound of the Jeff Lorber Fusion, but informed by everything I’ve learned since then. All of a sudden, people seem to be interested in hearing that again. They’re ready to hear musicians who can really play, really stretch the envelope with their technique, with their songwriting, and with harmonic structure.”