BIG CITY

Big City is Lenny White's second solo album and his first upon leaving Return to Forever. Here he recruited a ton of musicians, more so than on Venusian Summer. Notables include Herbie Hancock, Tpwer of Power horn section, Brian Auger and his Oblivion Express (including Alex Ligertwood, Jack Mills, Clive Chaman, and Lennox Langton), Patrick Gleeson, Marcus Miller, soul singer Linda Tillery, Verdine White (Earth, Wind & FIre member and younger brother of Maurice White, of course), Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, David Earle Johnson, Miroslav Vitous, Bennie Maupin, and too many others. The title track sounds like a horn- driven version of Return to Forever (I know, Musicmagic used horns, but this is much better). Organ appears, from Brian Auger, naturally. I was a bit skeptical of "Sweet Dreamer" given the presence of Linda Tillery, as I was expecting some truly awful soul ballad, in the style of Motown or Philly International at its most sappy. Not at all, it's a rather pleasant song avoiding the worst pitfalls of that style. It's also the only song with vocals on the whole album. Then album gets more funky, more or less picking up where Venusian Summer left off, although the music isn't quite as spacy, and has a more urban feel to it (no surprise, given the album is titled Big City). There are some short orchestral pieces, with some amazing Mahavishnu Orchestra-type stuff going on, with violin from Jerry Goodman, and synth solos from Jan Hammer. "And We Meet Again" is a tribute to Miles (Miles Davis, of course, since Lenny did play on Bitches Brew). It's recorded live, and shows a more raw approach.

I was blown away by Venusian Summer, but Return to Forever's Musicmagic is as bad as most everyone says it is, so I feared Lenny White went that route on Big City. I am so happy that's as far from the truth as you can get. While I find Venusian Summer a better album, this is still very much worth having for fans of fusion and there are no bad songs on it, not even "Sweet Dreamer".