DUKE

George Duke makes a step in becoming more laid-back and smoothie cocktail of R&B, smooth jazz and crossover jazz. While no vocal track captured my attention, the rendition of Superwoman is quite well done with playful piano and similar vocals to Wonder. "Hybrids" is a monstrous instrumental track full of crossover jazz jamming, hearing great trumpet solo, keyboard trippy playing. No clear overall structure but several motives glued together. Something that jazz fans were looking for. On the fusion side, there is little energetic or jazz-rock music. Not a bad album but hardly an outstanding one as "Facing the music" was in 2002.