DIDIER LOCKWOOD — Didier Lockwood Group ‎: Phœnix 90 (review)

DIDIER LOCKWOOD — Didier Lockwood Group ‎: Phœnix 90 album cover Album · 1990 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Sean Trane
Second album of this group (despite its Phoenix entendre), but it seems the line-up was fairly stable one. A classic quartet (I’ll include keyboardist Guez as a member, because he’s present on most tracks) backs up Didier’s violin, but we’re definitely in the stinky years (80’s) in terms of music production values and in a cul-de-sac rut for the type of fusion DLG was making (everything having said 10 zillion times before). OK, the musicianship is flawless, the songwriting good (though hardly uninspired or inventive), but something is mildly irritating with P90, though one can survive if played as a soft “fond sonore”. Indeed, the album is rather flawed with the way it was recorded as all the 80’s recording industry vices were used; though for jazz, it might not be as obvious as for the rock and pop realm. In the present case, it’s mostly the synthetic drum sounds that puts me off, but the whole thing sounds too smooth jazz… hardly any fiery soloing or interplay, and if there was any, no doubt it would’ve been eroded by some kind f effect, like a Synclavier.

OK, I said smooth jazz in the above paragraph, but P9O is definitely more than that since there are some funky tracks (Cartoon being the liveliest of the album), and there is an atrocious latino-jazzy number as well, as if they had to show to us they were able to do the genre as well. Songwriting-wise, it’s mostly Didier Lockwood, but guitarist Ecay writes two and helps out on a couple more, plus arranges a few (as does KB-man does as well)

Unless you appreciate fusion albums from this era, you’d better stay away from, because it also bears another flaw of the era: its length. OK, it’s not filled to the brim, but it’s simply too long, especially when it’s a little twee and lame like in the present. It’s not all bad of course, but there are dozens (if not hundreds) of albums that deserves much more attention.
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