TRAVESÍA

Venezuelan jazz-rock fusion from the Quintero family. This is the second album under Frank's name with the "& Los Balzehaguaos" moniker.

1. "Feeling" (4:45) simple jazz-rock lite with some funk and some Latino elements in which wordless vocals double up the lead synth before vocalist Frank Quintero begins singing in Spanish. Closer to New Orleans Yacht Rock than serious jazz-rock Fusion. (8.6667/10)

2. "La semilla" (4:17) opens with 45-seconds of percussion only before the whole band bridges into a Disco novelty type of music with happy-go-lucky music, melodies, and hooks over funky bass and nice Fender Rhodes play. It's quite likable though definitely placing the band firmly in Crusaders-like Smooth Jazz territory. (8.75/10)

3. "El principito" (4:29) sounds like the opening to Michael Martin Murphy's beautiful horse song, "Wildfire." New Age synth is left alone to accompany Frank in a palintive vocal that reminds me of some of LOS JAIVAS' more saccharine moments from Alturas de Machu Picchu. The weird New Age keyboard sound continues to be the lead when the rest of the band arrives in full ballad support mode. Nothing J-R Fusey here. (8.375/10)

4. "14 de Noviembre" (6:47) atmospheric intro leads into a motif that is more Prog Lite than Jazz-Rock, but then at the one-minute mark the band steps up a notch into some more heads-down pseudo-Third Wave J-R F. It's pretty good if sounding a little too much like a television theme song. Plus, the engineering is a little murky (as it has been for the whole album). At 3:27 the music shifts into a Caribbe theme before going chaotic with some space debris. At 4:00 the music returns to atmospheric for about 25 seconds before they shift again into a jazz-funkier two chord theme that could come from a George Benson album. It's nice--with some very nice drum and bass playing. But then we go back to a variation of that Caribbe theme at 5:42 with another bridge of detritus into some more smooth atmosphere before ending the song. The most interesting and engaging song on the album. (13.5/15)

5. "Tiempo" (5:08) another fairly simplistic attempt at some serious jazz-funk is kind of soured by the use of another odd saw-synth sound for the presentation of the lead melody. Several motif shifts take us out of that and move us into some vibraphone (uncredited)-led music. This is true Jazz-Rock Fusion but it feels like a band that is still learning the rudiments of jazz and J-R Fusion and therefore often feels a little A) over-rehearsed or B) under-confident--as if the musicians are pushing and trying harder than they should be at certain phases of the song. (8.875/10)

6. "Travesía" (7:48) impressive free-flowing Spanish acoustic guitar noodling accompanied by percussive sounds, piano and synths. In the second minute the sound palette shifts to spacey synths as the dominant instrument with the acoustic guitar falling into the background. Then the music slowly congeals to support Frank's subdued and romantic vocal with some Michael Franks or Pablo Cruise-like instrumental support. This is nice despite its being classic Yacht Rock. Frank has a pretty nice, smooth voice for this kind of Spanish heart-strings pulling stuff--not unlike AISLES' original lead singer, Germán Vergara. The uncredited vibraphone takes the lead over the interesting South American- flavored instrumental passage in the sixth and seventh minutes before the wordless voices of the full-band choir take over around 6:45. Nice! (13.375/15)

7. "Todo pasará" (3:23) a song that reminds me of that 1970s hit by Sammy Johns called "Chevy Van"--except Frank and The Balzehaguaos add more percussion to support the melody of Frank's Spanish lyrics. The usurpation of such a familiar melody could be purely coincidental--and my disability preventing me from hearing lyrics (though here sung in Spanish) occludes any chance to prove Frank's innocence--but the similarities are quite remarkable. (8.25/10)

8. "Barricada" (4:14) more like a presentation of the band's inner Spanish TOTO (despite the fact that the American band will not appear on the music scene until the next year), okay, then maybe more of a Spanish STEELY DAN, say, Katy Lied / The Royal Scam era. Not bad, not great. (8.875/10)

Total Time 44:57

C+/3.5 stars; an album of enjoyable music which has some definite highs but more mundane patches.