A Special Concert review of Joey Sommerville & Jeff Lorber!

Here’s a special concert review provided to us by Jazz Man Bob Baldwin!!




Ladies and Gentlemen:

Here is a special edition of where I’ve been lately and what’s hot in Atlanta.

Recently, my good friend Joey Sommerville has been blazing the Atl. trail recently. His 2nd CD “Like You Mean It” has been making noise throuhgout the Southeast and spreading across the country. I had the pleasure of working with him on the disc, as well smooth luminaries like Marion Meadows and Wayman Tisdale.  Cover tracks like the Jacksons “I Want You Back” and the A.W.B. legendary “School Boy Crush” were very slick arrangements.

His engineering prowess proceeds him and is contributing to the great sound that is Joey Sommerville.  He’s engineered and wrote music on my BobBaldwin.com, including the single “Business Call” and “Funkin’ For Jamaica” in the year 2000.

Recently, Joey Sommerville has been blowing up the stage on a weekly basis at Sambuca’s Restaurant in Atlanta, Ga.  For the last several weeks, every Thursday has been a guaranteed jazz party.  The concerts have been sponsored by Wade Ford and supported by 107.5 WJZZ in Atlanta.  To find out more about the lineup in the future, go to his website.

The inaugural show began with Sax Legend Ronnie Laws and was well received.  Other shows in August and September included Chuck Loeb, Eric Marienthal, Chieli Minucci, Marion Meadows. Recently in September, Keyboard/Pianist Wiz Jeff Lorber’s musical antics wowwed the Atlanta jazz crowd.

I’ve been a fan of Lorber since the 70’s when he was on the independent label Inner City Records out of New York City and I was spinning records in Pittsburgh market.  Lorber gets minimal recognition for having Kenny Gorelick (G.) in his original ensemble when KG brought some East Coast heat to the party every night.  His collaboration with Karen White helped her secure her own deal.  Jeff Lorber’s CD’s have identified his own ‘sound’ and solidified him in the Contemporary Jazz vein for the rest of history. His music has been sampled by rappers.  His latest CD on Blue Note “He Hat A Hat” keeps us on the journey that is Lorber….his writing and playing on that record was incredible!!

Lorber’s Phily roots pretty much make him a funky young man!!  One of his personal Philly favorites included the legendary Grover Washington, Jr. His yonger Phily partner on drums, Lil’ John Roberts, was right on top of every twist and turn Lorber threw at him.  In recent years, John has been gracing stages with George Howard, Kirk Whalum, Paul Brown, George Benson and others.

He stalled a Jill Scott rehearsal session out of town to literally jump on a plane to play with Lorber and it was quite the treat.  Sam Sims on Bass and Dr. Derek Scott on Guitar finished off the quartet.

Lorber sent the tunes in advance to the house band, and believe you me, that is not always a successful endeavor when attempted. Guys can make excuses – didn’t get the songs – didn’t get the chart, etc…. Local house bands can make or break your sound, but the Atlanta cats held their own. Jeff taught  them a couple of tunes on the fly at the rehearsal the day of the show and the Atlanta boys rocked the house.  Musical highlights include a Lorber standard “Toad’s Place”, and the musically challenging “Serriptitious”  and “He Had a Hat”, both from his latest offering.

All in all, for the Jeff Lorber Fusion heads in the house, it was quite a treat.  It was officially John’s first gig with Lorber live and it evolved nicely.  I encourage you to check out FUNKY Jeff Lorber’s latest offering “He Had a Hat”…..from one Pianist/Keyboardist to another, KUDOS, JL!

Don’t forget to continue to support live music in Atlanta and Joey Sommerville, who is one of the hottest instrumentalists in Atlanta. To learn more about this fantatic trumpeter, visit his website.

— Bob  Baldwin

For more information, please visit www.bobbaldwin.com