Guitarist and founding member of The Doors, Robby Krieger has released his new project and self titled album.
The album is very much a collaborative effort (musicians) and soul music was a big inspiration for the record: hardly surprising considering several of the band have worked with Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Kahn, Lenny Kravitz: so they know how to cut a groove.
krieger slots right in with his jazzy fret work that often borders on progressive. To be honest many of the tracks wouldn’t be out of place on a Jeff Beck or Larry Carlton album.
The kaleidoscopic record encompasses Indian sitar music on ‘Samosas & Kingfishers’, (played on guitar in a similar way to the aforementioned Mr Beck) ‘Blue Brandino’ slips into a jazz funk, bluesy drawl of a track, that even branches into prog and space rock. And ‘A Day In L.A.’ Is one cool cat of a track that’s part 70s cop show and part film noir with its stylish late night jazz bar descant. ‘Maths Problem’ plays with syncopation and alternative time signatures, but never in a brain blending.
It’s all very accessible verging on mainstream (I don’t mean that to be a pejorative- it’s not), it’s got more in common with Steely Dan’s fusion grooves rather than Pat Metheny- and after all - this is the guy who penned some of The Doors' most famous tracks, so it’s an album that knows how to rock a groove, without making it over complex for the sake of it. The band are clearly having a great jam and enjoying the interplay and as a result the album is an exciting and engaging listen for jazz fusion newbies or genre aficionados.
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