Published on Apr 1, 1999
If you are a diehard follower of The Who, the name Simon
Phillips will sound familiar; he became the band’s third drummer,
filling the stool for the group’s 1989 reunion tour.
If you’re a follower of progressive rock, you know the little
New York-based Magna Carta Records as being one of the leaders in
its genre, supporting groups that you might not otherwise have
heard of.
Put these two together, and you’ve got… jazz?!? Light
jazz?!?
Believe it. On
Another Lifetime, Phillips assembles a wonderful team of
musicians who bring some of this album’s nine cuts to life. And
while a few portions of the disc drag, it will be a surprising
change of pace for the listener – even if we shouldn’t be surprised
that Phillips has chosen to go in such a direction.
On this all-instrumental album, Phillips does the wise thing by
relegating his role in the group to being part of the backbone, not
the in-front leader. For that matter, it would be hard to call any
member of this seven-piece group a leader. Each member – guitarists
Andy Timmons and Ray Russel, bassist Anthony Jackson, keyboardist
Jeff Babko, saxophonist Wendell Brooks and percussionist Peter
Michael Escovedo – gets their own opportunity to shine at different
junctures on
Another Lifetime.
It’s around the halfway point of the album, specifically on the
track “Kumi Na Moja,” that the band snaps into perfect formation,
and the music becomes one big groove. It sometimes feels like I’m
listening to a group like Spyro Gyra or Weather Report as these
songs develop, a feeling that is by no means a negative one. Even
if you entered this disc expecting the thunderous rock drumming or
spacey progressive rock, you’d be hard pressed to not be moved by
these jams.
Yes, it does take a little time for this whole concept to take
root with the listener; tracks like “Jungleyes,” “Freudian Slip”
and “P.O.V.,” by no means bad tracks, are periods of adjustment for
the listener. Don’t be surprised if you feel like you need a quick
breather from the disc by the time “Eyes Blue For You” winds
down.
Another Lifetime is the kind of disc that is going to get
people who wouldn’t otherwise listen to “smooth jazz” interested in
the genre, for Phillips and his crew do an impressive job with this
material. Don’t worry if you don’t feel like you appreciated it
after the first listen; this is the kind of album that has to grow
on you.