ROBERT MUSSO

INNERMEDIUM

  1/  Unknown Passage                            (Musso)                       6.51
  2/  Luminous                                   (Musso)                       5.20
  3/  Stream of Stars                            (Musso)                       6.08
  4/  Realm of Spells                            (Musso)                       6.15
  5/  Drifting Shades                            (Musso)                       5.25
  6/  One Mind                                   (Musso)                       5.44
  7/  Dark Halo                                  (Musso)                       7.10
  8/  From Shadows                               (Musso)                       5.50
  9/  Silent Code                                (Musso)                       6.10

          Recorded and mixed at Orange Music Sound Studios, Orange, New Jersey
          Engineered by Robert Musso
          Assistant Engineers : Zach Prewitt and Lance Carter
          Produced by Robert Musso
          Executive Producer : Kazunori Sugiyama
          Pre-Mastered by Miachael Fossenkemper for Turtle Tone Studios
          Mastered by Allan Tucker at Foothill Digital
Karl Berger : vibes, Rhodes electric piano; Charlie Burnham : violin, harp; Lance Carter : drums; Aiyb Dieng : percussion; Byard Lancaster (3,5) : soprano sax, flutes, bass clarinet; Bill Laswell : bass; David Liebman (2,4) : soprano and tenor sax; Robert Musso : guitar, 6 string bass, ebows, synth; Bernie Worrell (2,4) : Hammond organ, Wurlitzer electric piano.

Main themes on 3, 4 and 5 written by Robert Musso and Karl Berger

          1999  -  DIW (Japan),  DIW 416  (CD)

REVIEWS :

A rather unspectacular but still entertaining fusion exercise, featuring the big bass of Bill Laswell and some solid sidemen including Byard Lancaster, Bernie Worrell, Karl Berger and Aiyb Dieng. The group puts in a yeoman performance, jamming its way through nine funk-lite pieces, liberally interspersed with violin, guitar, vibes and sax solos. Given his excellent ethno-ambient experiments with Laswell (two of the three Transonic CDs) and Professor Shehab (_Ataxia_) during the latter half of the nineties, one had hoped that Musso might invest this recording with more spice, but has instead opted for a more straight-forward approach. If you´re looking for a challenge in your listening, you will probably be disappointed; however, highlights like Lancaster´s fluid sax lines on "Luminous" make this CD a welcome harbinger of the coming summer, filled with fresh breezes and light.

Stephen Fruitman